The government will need ten votes in the Senate to create ATEC; and there are that many Greens senators.
In November, Greens Education Spokeswomen Mehreen Faruqi introduced a Bill in the Senate to cancel the top Job Ready Graduates fee scale. It went nowhere over the Summer and was referred to committee last week, to report on June 25. This gives the Government a chance to get the ATEC establishing legislation through the Upper House. The committee inquiry into it is scheduled to report in February 26, leaving six sitting week for the Senate to deal with it before Senator Faruqi’s Bill is out of committee.
Unless of course, the Greens tie passing ATEC to the government committing to cutting fees. This is certainly what the HE community wants. Just about every submission on creating the Commission called for it to have the additional authority to assess student contributions to course costs; not unreasonably, given Education Minister Jason Clare previously argued that JRG would be a matter for it.
Senator Faruqi proposes saving everybody the bother. Her Bill would abolish the top JRG band returning student fees to what they were prior to its introduction, plus indexation. And while her second-reading speech exclusively focused on helping HASS students it also covers law and bized, the other courses JRG catches.
As to paying for it – that is not her problem, but it would be Mr Clare’s. Abolishing the top band altogether and reducing overall student contributions from around 50% of total teaching to just over 40% would cost the government around $650m. The alternative, to increase charges in lower bands to fund lowering the top rate, would cost the Government even more – notably, the undying ire of teaching and nurses students whacked with higher HECs.
Whether any of these would be worth the pain, depends on what the Greens will want to pass ATEC and how much the Governments wants it adopted. But whatever that is, it will be much easier negotiated by the Government than asking all ten minor party and independent Senators what they want.
Unless, of course, the Accord could be implemented by the Department without an independent ATEC at all.