The Australian | 22 May 2013
Tony Abbott’s refusal to support the Gonski school reforms while leaving in place the $2.3 billion in cuts to universities designed to fund them will take the Coalition to the September election committed to dumbing down Australia, according to Simon Marginson professor of higher education at the University of Melbourne.
The Opposition Leader said in his budget response that a Coalition government “reserves the option to implement all” funding cuts announced by Labor while saying he would not proceed with “a so-called national education system”.
The Coalition’s decision will hit schools and higher education at once. If we want to meet the challenge of the Asian Century the last thing we should do is undermine the local knowledge economy.
It was a “shocking signal to send out” to the country and to the world.
Vicki Thomson, executive director of the Australian Technology Network, which includes universities such as Curtin and RMIT, said Mr Abbott’s stance on higher education is irrational. She noted that, while his budget reply started with highlighting the role of universities and researchers in the national knowledge economy, he then failed to sustain that position.
