Fairfax Media | 1 December 2014
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The Commonwealth government is going all out to secure the key part of its higher education reform package. Education minister Christopher Pyne has indicated the government is prepared to make major concessions on its proposed higher education reforms in a bid to strike a Senate deal to deregulate university fees before the Senate rises on 4 December.
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Prime minister Tony Abbott told his “mea culpa” media conference on 1 December 2014:
We are continuing to talk with all members of the crossbench. I don’t presume to know what the final outcome will be, but we are determined to deal with this matter one way or another in this final sitting week of the year.
As has been long expected, the government has abandoned plans to apply a real rate of interest to student debts. Debts would remain pegged at inflation rather than the government bond rate as had been proposed in the May budget. This concession will cost the budget around $580 million a year according to Grattan Institute higher education program director Andrew Norton.
The government has also agreed to independent Victorian senator John Madigan’s call for a five-year interest rate freeze for parents who have graduated from university. This will cost around $270 million over four years.
Pyne also said the government would consider other proposals including:
• a structural adjustment fund to help universities move to a deregulated system;
• fee price monitoring by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission; and
• targeting the proposed scholarship scheme to rural and regional students.
The government’s priority is passing fee deregulation, which would allow universities to set their own fees by 2016.
The concessions will cost the budget approximately $3 billion over four years, substantially reducing the government’s proposed savings from the higher education portfolio.
With Labor and the Greens opposed to fee deregulation, the government will need the support of six of the eight Senate crossbenchers to pass reform.
Family First senator Bob Day and Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm are expected to support the package, as is Senator Madigan following the interest rate freeze for primary care givers.
South Australian senator Nick Xenophon wants any vote to be delayed until next year and former Palmer United Party senator – now independent – Jacqui Lambie has said she will not vote for the reforms.
If senators Madigan and Xenophon support the package, the government will still need to convince two senators from the PUP/Motoring Enthusiasts Party to vote in favour of it to pass the Senate.
Speaking a short time later at the National Press Club, Palmer United leader Clive Palmer, whose party controls at least two Senate votes, said he was still opposed to the government’s changes to the sector. However, the situation has now been complicated with the absence of senator Glenn Lazarus on sick leave. Palmer said:
There are no circumstances that I could foresee [voting for them].