We know that in tomorrow night’s budget $2.3 billion will be taken from universities and students – Higher Education Minister Craig Emerson confirmed it to me personally when I took your petition to him.
Even though every public dollar invested in tertiary education grows the economy by $26, Labor is determined to make these cuts.
I took 3,500 of your signatures to the Minister from our rapid campaign – a phenomenal response. Thank you.
Can you share our petition with three friends so we can take their support for universities to Canberra this week?
People have written to me about what these cuts will mean. They’ve told me of shy students unable to speak up in crowded tutorials who have missed vital opportunities. Final year Civil Engineering students who are missing pre-exam lectures because lecture theatres are full, even before these cuts take effect. One major regional university with many new and disadvantaged students will need to find $10.3 million to make up the cuts in the next two years – and it will probably come from the very programs that support their students in most need.
Enough. The National Tertiary Education Union has organised rallies to stop the cuts at university campuses across the country tomorrow, from Perth to Townsville and Armidale to Sydney.
I’m speaking tomorrow at the rally here in Canberra, before tomorrow night’s Budget.
Can you share our petition with three of your friends so I can take their support to the rally tomorrow?
We need to invest in our whole education system, from early childhood education through public schools to TAFEs and universities. We know where we could get the funding from, too: ending fossil fuel subsidies for big mining, fixing the mining tax, and a tiny levy of 0.2% on bank assets over $100 billion would raise more than $50 billion in the next four years.
Making those huge companies pay their fair share in tomorrow’s Budget could mean an end to these senseless education cuts, and so much more. Imagine what a difference that would make!
Share our petition to build the campaign to stop university cuts.
Yours,
Lee
P.S. If you can, please come to the national rallies at university campuses across Australia tomorrow. I’ll be speaking at the rally at ANU here in Canberra, and Greens state MPs and candidates will be addressing rallies in Sydney, Brisbane and more.
