The Government has two sitting weeks before the pre-Budget break to get ATEC through the Senate.
The Greens have already announced their price for passing the Australian Tertiary Education Commission into law. Education spokesperson Mehreen Faruqi has over 30 amendments to the Bill; many increasing ATEC’s independence and stopping Ministers bossing the agency about.
Other amendments would increase its ability to stick its bib into research and especially undergraduate student fees. As passed by the Reps, the Bill empowers ATEC to look at the Commonwealth’s contribution to the cost of UG fees – but Senator Faruqi proposes expanding that to include what students pay.
To make that happen, she wants to oblige ATEC to review the Job Ready Graduates (JRG) fee structure and report on JRG’s impact on student choice, equity and study debts. Plus, ATEC would be empowered to recommend ways to equalise student contributions across different degrees.
The Government may wear many of the Greens amendments insulating ATEC from interfering officials. But whatever it intends for JRG, it is unlikely that Mr Clare would willingly give the Greens the glory of a win. The $1.9bn cost of abolishing JRG is probably not something Treasurer Jim Chalmers would want discussed weeks before the Budget.
It’s a problem the Opposition can make go away. The LNP, which created JRG, may not want attention on its most unpopular education legislation and could sit quietly before joining the Government to vote down the Greens’ JRG investigation.
But even if the conservatives do, the Greens will get another go. A Bill to abolish the scheme is now with a Senate committee. This will be where the rhetorical action is.
As to the ATEC Bill as a whole, the LNP does not engage with policy but proposes re-writing the National Tertiary Objective which is the Government’s vision for HE as an engine of social change.
To which Shadow Minister Julian Leeser responds, “the point of our tertiary education sector is not social development and environmental sustainability. It’s education.” And so his WA senate colleague Matt O’Sullivan’s only ATEC amendment calls for more and better teaching and research, plus support for “Australian values, including equality of opportunity, the rule of law, and Western liberal democratic traditions.” Perhaps he hopes the Government and Greens voting against that would appeal to his base.
Which means that unless all the independents vote with the Government, ATEC passing pre-Budget depends on the Greens.