Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I think the announcements from UWA, from La Trobe, from COPHE as well—their members and others—show that the scare campaign that those opposite have been trying to run about extortionately high-cost degrees is a complete myth. It has been blown out of the water by the facts that the universities are now presenting.

It was, as always when serious analysis is done, a scare campaign based on false assumptions. But serious commentators who gave serious consideration to the issues were much more measured. It would be an absolute travesty for students in this country if higher education reforms which, quite frankly, are essential for the future of the tertiary industry in this country, are adversely affected by false claims—by alarmist claims, frankly—that end up being completely false.

This morning, in a very considered piece in the Australian Financial Review, Belinda Robinson wrote, as the CEO of Universities Australia, 'There is a consensus of Australian universities calling on the Senate to support the government's higher education—' (Time expired)