The Liberal-National federal government spends about $43 million a day on the military — more than twice what it spends on higher education and research. It spends more on handouts to private schools than on universities, which it justifies by saying there are more children in private schools than in higher education. Yet, it spends half as much, on twice the number of children, on public schools.
The priorities of the PM John Howard-led government are clear: governments are about "defence", security and law 'n order — for just about everything else citizens should provide for themselves. Any government service which can be provided by the private sector should be privatised. Only a minimal safety net of services for the desperately needy should be provided by government.
Howard's latest target for privatisation is higher education. There is no significant private sector in Australian higher education, but the Nelson higher-education legislation is designed to fix that. Education minister Brendan Nelson has gone on the public record as supporting the establishment of more private universities in Australia.
Already there is competition within universities between courses which are funded primarily by fee payment and courses which are government-funded (HECS-based). In the future, universities will be forced to vie with each other for government funding as well as competing with private providers that will be able to demand a share of government funded places.
The running down of the state-funded TAFE sector will also accelerate the trend to privatisation of tertiary education. The privatisation strategy, about to wreak havoc in higher education, is central to Howard's economics. It is closely tied to his hostility to unions and to his embrace of the US-Australia alliance.
Howard has long been a subscriber to the neo-conservative agenda of deregulation, reduced government services, and corporate globalisation. However, the new US-Australia "free trade" agreement is less important for trade than for bolstering the US alliance, which Howard claims is a guarantee of Australian security and dominance in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Nelson package is supposed to enable Australian universities to expand into the US higher education market, and generate profits for privatising the higher education industry. But it will have a disastrous impact on education.
The obvious first effect for education is far higher fees for students (and their families). Down the track, further consequences will be felt by students and university workers, as courses are abolished or become dependent on fees. The casualisation of the work force will increase and the pressures of the market and demands of big business on course content will grow.
In such a climate, universities, driven by market demand, will push for more technical and professional courses at the cost of the humanities and social sciences.
Now that the Nelson legislation has been passed, it will be a tough struggle to stop its implementation. Already universities are planning next year's courses and the intake of students into them whilst trying to cover the funding gaps. This year, some universities have decided not to take second and third round offers for fear of the government's imposition of financial penalties for "over-enrolment".
The promise made by the ALP to fully fund all fee-based domestic places holds out some hope to university administrations, but only if Labor both wins the federal election and makes good on its promises.
We would be foolish to rely on such a strategy. The unions must campaign politically against privatisation and they must make their voices heard through public meetings, rallies and industrial action. Unions in the frontline of the attacks on education should actively participate in the anti-war movement and demand that public money be spent on public education, rather than on war.
The vast majority of Australians do not share Howard's view of government, let alone his desire to develop a private university sector. We also know a majority of Australians did not want to go to war against Iraq. As socialists we point out that the consequences of Howard's massively increased military spending will result in cuts to the social services we need, including education.
Howard can be weakened by the strength of the anti-war movement. Large rallies across the country on March 20 — the global protest against the illegal occupation of Iraq — will challenge his authority and credibility. When Socialist Alliance members join other activists in these demonstrations we will be calling out: "Money for education, not for war!"
Anne Picot
[Anne Picot is an activist in the National Tertiary Education Union and a member of the Socialist Alliance.]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, March 10, 2004.
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