Vote on student amenities defeated
Vital student services at universities may be axed after the Senate rejected a Federal Government plan to reintroduce compulsory annual fees, say student and university groups.
Last week, Family First Senator Steve Fielding and Coalition senators voted to scrap Labor’s proposal to allow universities to charge students a levy for sporting, cultural, welfare and advocacy services.
Senator Fielding said that the proposal would add further financial pressure on struggling students, and described the Rudd Government’s plan to charge university students an extra $250 a year as a tax on the poor. “We shouldn’t be putting extra costs on students who are looking to further themselves as many students are already struggling to make ends meet,” he said.
University of Sydney SRC president Noah White said the Howard government’s introduction of Voluntary Student Unionism three years ago had already seen vital student services cut. “The SRC used to offer interest free loans to students and that’s something that we’ve had to cut back – it used to be that you could borrow up to $750 and now you can only borrow up to $50,” he said.
Students will be further hurt by last week’s Senate vote, Mr White added. “The situation now is that there are student unions that are going to close down if this doesn’t go through and there are student organisations that have already closed down,” he said. “There are students all over Australia that are without any type of student services in their campus, that don’t have access to independent advocacy or support, that don’t have access to any kind of community or student life on their campus.”
UTS Students’ Association President Petra McNeilly Rutledge said her organisation had been counting on the increased fee to restore services such as legal advance and subsidised childcare.
In a statement, Australian University Sport CEO Don Knapp expressed his “extreme disappointment and frustration” at the result. “The opposition to the Bill has been based around deliberate distortion by the Opposition of the key elements in the legislation,” he said. “This is a very sad day for university sport as a key contributor to community health and fitness and a breeding ground for national and international athletes.”
by Ehssan Veiszadeh
