Australia’s Labor government will need to resort to horse-trading to manoeuvre its university funding overhaul through parliament, after a Senate committee review of the legislation produced a mixed report card.
The Labor-dominated committee recommended that the Senate pass the bill, highlighting strong stakeholder support for the key funding changes. “The concerns raised by some participants” have largely been addressed through the government’s last-minute amendments to fix a “drafting error”, the report says.
An additional “purpose clause” could further alleviate worries about ministerial control, while grant guidelines could be amended to address reservations about how students from disadvantaged backgrounds are identified, the report says.
Opposition and cross-bench senators offered starkly different views, in “additional comments” occupying as many pages as the main body of the report. Committee members from the opposition Liberal-National coalition raised objections to some aspects of the bill, while expressing strong support for others.
The Australian Greens said the bill should be amended to address the “significant concerns” aired during the inquiry, while independent senator David Pocock recommended 20 amendments to the legislation and six related changes to Australian Tertiary Education Commission (Atec) operations.
