Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Perth asks about what I think will be the impact on universities of the government's deregulatory approach in the budget. The member for Perth has to understand that this is an entire package of reform. There are elements of it in which the taxpayers will be making savings. So the Commonwealth Grants Scheme will be reduced by 20 per cent. That is definitely true. There have to be trade-offs in the budget for expenses to the taxpayer versus savings to the taxpayer. So while we are, as I said before, increasing spending on things like NCRIS and Future Fellowships and the demand-driven system being expanded to the sub-bachelor courses and of course the Commonwealth Grant Scheme being expanded to the non-university higher education providers, there will be a cut of 20 per cent of grand scheme across the board. I refer the member to the fact that I have established two working groups. One of the working groups will be giving advice to me in the coming weeks about the technical aspects of the clustering arrangements that she talked about. I am looking forward to getting its response.

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