Deafening silence on education and training from the Liberals

Interestingly, the Liberals have been silent on education during the eight week election campaign — instead they have been cutting policy, not announcing it.

Shadow higher education minster Senator Kim Car said today it is election eve and the Liberals have failed to engage in any election policy debate on their education and training policies.

“Simon Birmingham this week admitted the Liberals’ plan for higher education is to introduce fee deregulation and $100,000 degrees after the election, despite not actually talking about it during the campaign,” Senator Carr said.

“‘Missing minister’ for vocational education and skills has not released one single policy on TAFE or apprentices.”

“His level of interest in the portfolio is clearly zero.”

“Senator Birmingham has done his very best to hide the Liberals’ true intentions to cut university funding by 20 per cent, slug students with $100,000 degrees, and Americanise higher education at taxpayers’ expense.

“Meanwhile the ‘missing minister’ for vocational education and skills, Senator Scott Ryan, has not released one single policy on TAFE or apprentices.

He has not even bothered to visit TAFEs and apprentices during the campaign.

“His level of interest in the portfolio is clearly zero,” he said.

“Only Labor has a plan to properly fund universities and TAFEs.”

Shadow vocational education minster Sharon Bird said the missing minister’s failure to do his job should surely put him on the “endangered species list” after the election — unless he gets an absentee note from Senator Birmingham, who hasn’t done much better in his portfolio area.

“Only Labor has a plan to properly fund universities and TAFEs over the coming decade and avoid the unfair and unnecessary imposition on students of soaring fees and debt,” she said.

The choice on education and training this election is clear, Bird added.

This article originally appeared in the Labor Herald.