Australia’s government stands accused of rushing out flawed higher education legislation, after making over a dozen changes to its university funding bill ahead of a looming Senate inquisition.
The House of Representatives has passed the Opening the Doors of Opportunity bill, as expected, but with unexpected amendments.
Education minister Jason Clare had predicted that the legislation would need to be changed, but only after a Senate committee completed its inquiry into the bill. The committee is not expected to report until early September, following a public hearing on 24 August.
Clare told parliament that the government had introduced 17 amendments to “clarify the effect” of certain provisions and “fix minor drafting errors” that his department had identified since the bill’s introduction in June.
Shadow education minister Julian Leeser said the amendments were “an admission that the government got it wrong. There are errors and unintended consequences…and it seems that the government only became aware of these after I pointed them out. The only conclusion to be drawn here is that the bill doesn’t do what the minister says it does.”
