The Australian Greens are calling on the Government to waive the debts unknowingly incurred by young Australians hoodwinked by private VET providers.

“The rampant rorting of the VET system is one of the most extraordinary and damning examples of failed privatisation that Australia has ever seen,” Greens education spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

“Young people and students should not be punished with existing debts for education and training they never received from dodgy institutions. 

The Australian Greens will continue to fight the Liberal Government’s harsh university cuts by opposing the Higher Education Support Legislation Amendment (Student Loan Sustainability Bill 2018) being debated in the House today.

“This bill seeks to lower the HECS/HELP repayment threshold, forcing students to pay more on lower salaries when they graduate, making it harder for them to get ahead in the early stages of their careers,” Greens higher education spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

The Australian Greens have slammed the Catholic Education Commission’s continued bastardisation of Gonski, following new Fairfax reports it is keeping poor schools poor. 

“The Catholic sector argues it doesn’t get enough money, but happily continues to overfund rich schools at the expense of poorer ones,” Greens education spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said. 

The Greens stand with students around the country protesting against the Government’s cruel $2.2 billion worth of university cuts, as the Government prepares to push through $65 billion of tax cuts to big business through the Senate today.

“The Government’s $65 billion worth of tax cuts to big businesses are being brought to the Senate today, while the Government takes an axe to university funding,” Greens higher education spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said. 

The Australian Greens will move to legislate raising the guaranteed minimum hours of subsidised early childhood education in an effort to help more parents get back into the workforce, and give children the best start they can get.

Greens education spokespeople Senator Sarah Hanson-Young and Tammy Franks MLC are calling out both the state and federal Labor parties for trying to hide from scrutiny surrounding the crisis hitting TAFE in South Australia.

“Labor tried to block Friday’s Senate inquiry from taking place and have used political tricks to get it out of Adelaide. They’re naïve to think that moving this inquiry interstate means what is revealed is not going to make it back to SA,” Senator Hanson-Young said.

The Government must guarantee that all students offered a place at university will have their study funded, following billions of dollars in cuts that puts at risk 10,000 places this year alone, according to Universities Australia.

Public schooling in Australia must be the gold standard so parents do not feel they have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for their children to get a good education, as shown in today’s ASG Planning for Education Index research.

The Australian Greens are calling for an end to the State and Federal Government blame game on NAPLAN results and restore value to the education sector to improve results. 

“Another NAPLAN report has come and shows what we’ve been shown over and over again; standardised testing does not improve educational outcomes,” Greens education spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said. 

“While it is important to monitor student progress, it seems counter-intuitive not to actually address the issue that our education system is stagnating.

Lee Rhiannon calls on the University of Wollongong to restore student democracy

Greens NSW Senator Lee Rhiannon has condemned the decision of senior management at the University of Wollongong to replace a democratically elected student president and is calling on Vice-Chancellor Paul Wellings to restore student democracy after the overturning of results of the recent Wollongong Undergraduate Students’ Association (WUSA) election.