University students to be taxed by Labor’s broken promise
4th November, 2008
University students will be slugged with a compulsory fee for ‘student amenities’ under Labor’s plan to reintroduce charges for services that students may never use, Federal Member for Wide Bay, Warren Truss said today.“Labor’s Youth Minister Kate Ellis has betrayed the people she represents by supporting a new compulsory $250 fee for university students. This is compulsory unionism all over again,” Mr Truss said.
““This is a new tax on students poorly disguised as a compulsory fee for services that many students do not want or will not use. If students don’t have the funds to pay the fee up front the Government will allow them to charge the tax to their HECS debt.
“Ms Ellis and Education Minister, Julia Gillard must tell us what the student services fees are to be used for and who will decide how the fees are spent?
“This move is more about restoring power and resources to unrepresentative student unions than building better services on university campuses.”
Under the plan, no Australian student will be able to obtain a degree without paying fees for non-educational services.
“It was only a year ago that the Labor Opposition ruled out a compulsory fee, and ruled out a HECS-style system to fund it,” Mr Truss said.
At the time former Labor Education Spokesperson Stephen Smith said: ‘I’m not considering a compulsory HECS style arrangement and the whole basis of the approach is one of a voluntary approach. So I am not contemplating a compulsory amenities fee.’
Mr Truss said, “Labor’s education revolution has been exposed as a total sham. From reneging on promises to provide every student with a computer to reintroducing compulsory student services fees, this is just more evidence that what Peter Garrett warned during the election campaign is true, ‘once we get in we’ll just change it all’.”
