NTEU to spend $1 million on election campaign to defend higher education
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18 June 2013 | A special meeting of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) National Council has voted to spend $1 million during the election campaign to defend higher education in the September federal election.
In announcing the move, NTEU president Jeannie Rea said:
This is a watershed decision for our union. We are deeply concerned about the impact of an Coalition government on higher education, and the latest $2.3bn cuts by the Gillard Government to universities and student support left us no alternative. We feel compelled to act in defence of universities and Australia’s future as a smart country.
The NTEU will run its own campaign in support of maintaining the Greens’ balance of power in the Senate and the election of selected lower house candidates who commit to the union’s election priorities.
Rea emphasised that the NTEU will be campaigning on issues important to higher education and it will not be making any donations to the Greens, or any individual candidate.
We don’t want to see the Labor Government voted out and a Coalition Government voted in but the ALP needs to hear loud and clear that the $4bn cuts to higher education since 2011 are plain dumb and undermining this country’s capacity to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.
Rea said the key aims of the campaign are:
- reverse the latest $2.3bn cuts;
- a 10% increase in real funding per student;
- no further university cuts; and,
- no industrial relations measures aimed at undermining trade union and collective bargaining rights.
