Winding back access to university Education : Melbourne Indymedia

JOB WELL DONE!!

Mr. Brendan Nelson the Federal Higher Education Minister should be congratulated. He has successfully made access to education in Australia a privilege. The Howard government has been able to turn the wheel full circle back to the good old days when people with assets could buy the best education money could buy, while the rest of the community made do without.

Over the past three decades Australians have benefited from access to a public education system where entry was based on talent not the ability to pay.

The Hawke Labor government rolled back the achievements of the Whitlam Labor government by introducing the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (study now, pay later). The Howard Liberal / National Party government has turned the idea of access to public education on its head by bankrolling the private education sector, starving public education of funds and artificially lowering the price of private education.

Nelson, Howard and his cronies now spend more taxpayer's money on secondary private education than they spend on higher education in Australia. No wonder fees need to be re-introduced into the university sector. The H.E.C.S. has become more difficult to pay off and more and more students are dropping out of university because they are finding it impossible to work and study at the same time.

Brendan Nelson, with the support of the independent senators and his colleagues in the Liberal / National Party, has successfully introduced legislation in parliament that will allow students who don't have the required entry points to buy their access to a course. Universal access to free education was a reality in this country in the 1970's. Successive governments have slowly turned the clock back to the days when access to education was a prerogative of the rich and powerful. Education has become just another commodity that is bought and sold on the open market. Those people who don't have access to the necessary funds are being asked to mortgage away their future through the H.E.C.S. scheme. Those parents of children who are not in a position to save for their children's education are quickly finding out, that access to education in this country is a privilege, not a right.

HOWARD, FEEL THE HEAT

John Howard the self appointed spokesman for the God, Queen and Country brigade is up to his old tricks again. Faced with a revolt by middle Australia about his government's exclusive and elitist education policies, he has attempted to deflect people's concerns about the thousands of Year 12 students who will miss out on university placements this year by publicly making a few pathetic remarks about the public school sector.

John Howard, the Prime Minister who has burdened the Australian taxpayer with the bill for running both Kirribilli House in Sydney and the Lodge in Canberra, because a move to Canberra would have interfered with his children's private education, expects other people's children to shoulder the burden of their own education. Suggesting that Australians are sending their children to private schools because State schools offer a value free education, flies in the face of reality.

Parents are sending their children to private schools for one simple reason because private schools fees are kept artificially low through the diversion of billions of dollars from the State school sector into the private sector.

While State schools struggle to make do with what is left, private schools seem to have direct access to the treasury coffers courtesy of the Howard government's elitist and exclusive education policies. The difference this time is that Australians are no longer willing to accept that the Prime Minister's politically correct assertions will benefit them, their children or the communities they live in. Howard's attempts to distract debate from the main game by making what are obviously incorrect and ludicrous statements will fail to impress those Australians who have felt and are feeling the cold winds of the God, Queen and Country agenda promulgated by a 19th century government that has ceased to have any relevance in the 21st century.