Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Do you want me to repeat that, Member for Werriwa? He said:

I’m afraid that it’s a temporary victory for the redneck Philistines …

He went on:

It will be seriously damaging to Australia’s international reputation. The fact that no compromise was reached on providing an amenities fee and the emphasis was placed on the idea that the only valid thing that you learn in a university is inside the classroom.

It was very short sighted and very cold hearted. I would have expected more from educated people, but obviously that was not the case. The Liberal Party ignored Barnaby Joyce and ignored Sydney university’s vice-chancellor, Professor Gavin Brown. They thought they knew better than university leaders and staff about how to run their institutions.

We saw it today in the comments of the member for Tangney, and I have heard it in parliament: all of those slights from their younger days, those grudges that they bear from when they were juveniles—all of those things were carried on into the cabinet room. All of those slights from campuses from their youth were carried into the cabinet room in the Howard-Costello government. You see it when you see the member for Higgins, Peter Costello, and Mrs Mirabella—so many things are all about slights from when they were upset at university. I say: let it go; move on.

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