Transcript 17 Dec 2008 - ABC2 - Bradley Review

Virginia Trioli:

Christopher Pyne, good morning.

Hon Christopher Pyne MP:

Good morning Virginia.

Virginia Trioli:

What to you is the most significant or important recommendation out of this report?

Christopher Pyne:

That the funding from Government should follow students rather than the institution, that’s a principal that the Coalition supports and was moving in that direction in terms of our policy developments. So the Bradley review suggests that the student centred model of funding rather than an institution centred model of funding. We’re also of the view that the bureaucracy that surrounds higher education has been a noose around the neck of higher education, so we welcome the deregulation of Universities to the extent that they will be able to offer the kinds of courses that students demand, so it will be demand driven rather than institutional bureaucracy driven.

Virginia Trioli:

The point of vouchers as they’ve been called in the US, and this phrase is used in this report as well, that allows students to take the funding with them wherever they go. That’s been a contentious topic in the United States, and also here in Australia we’ve never really philosophically embraced the idea of a voucher system. Where would the Opposition stand on that now?

Christopher Pyne:

Well I’ve never been able to understand why there has been opposition to a student centred funding model. In New Zealand there has been a student centred funding model for some time. There are lots of different ways of providing vouchers. There’s a pure model of vouchers, which is not one the Opposition would necessarily embrace, which simply allows a voucher to be paid to a student, a student goes to any course they wish to go to and the Universities offer those courses and that can lead to a glut of a certain kind of graduate and not investment in areas that would not otherwise be attractive to students. Properly administered, and carefully managed, a student centred model of funding means that it’s demand driven, so Universities have to keep on their toes and provide the kind of courses students want. It’s industry driven because courses are driven by the employment that is available in the market place, and also Governments have ways of ensuring that the kinds of degrees that we need to occur in Universities, like physics and mathematics and other degrees that are more pure degrees, they will continue to be offered with different kinds of modelling.

Virginia Trioli:

Christopher Pyne the executive summary of the report that I have read is clear when it talks about just how Australia has lost ground and in the OECD we’re now 9^th out 30 in our proportion of our population aged in that young group without qualifications needed to go on to work well in the workforce. Implicit in all of this is a criticism of more than a decade of the Howard Government neglect of the tertiary sector. How much responsibility should the former Howard Government take for the state of Universities now?

Christopher Pyne:

Well Virginia I don’t see any great point in looking backwards. I know that Julia Gillard, Minister for Education, peppers every on of her statements with blaming the former Government for the current situation in many different areas.

Virginia Trioli:

But there is responsibility to be taken if we find ourselves so far down the pecking order, when we consider ourselves one of the great nations, surely there’s some point in pausing just for a moment and taking some responsibility?

Christopher Pyne:

Look Virginia, quite frankly I can point to dozens and dozens of example of where the Howard Government was leading the world in terms of financial regulation, financial management…

Virginia Trioli:

But just not this…

Christopher Pyne:

Looking back and playing the blame game, which Kevin Rudd of course promised he wouldn’t do, looking back and playing the blame game is not taking responsibility and looking forward. We’re 9^th out of 30 according to these figures. That’s still actually in the top third of countries in the OECD in terms of populations that have undergraduate degrees, and looking back and blaming the Howard Government for things, really is a pointless exercise. We need to be looking forward. The Bradley Review I think has really useful, interesting recommendations that the Coalition wishes to examine closely, some of which we will heartily embrace, others of which we will probably need to seriously consider their impacts on regional universities. I think it will be very interesting to see how much the Government can do with the Bradley Review…

Virginia Trioli:

Yes…

Christopher Pyne:

Because there isn’t any money in the cupboard. The cupboard is bare, the surplus has been spent. The Government is going into deficit. Denise Bradley suggested $6.5 billion over four years. I think that’s probably a conservative estimate from what she proposes in this review. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was a great deal more than that, and where is the money going to come from, since Labor has spent it on things like sweeteners for local government?

Virginia Trioli:

And other things as well, Christopher Pyne thankyou for your time.