Peter Garrett MP      
Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Reconciliation & the Arts
Federal Member for Kingsford Smith
Jenny Macklin MP
Deputy Federal Labor Leader
Shadow Minister for Education, Training, Science & Research  
Federal Member for Jagajaga

Education Minister Brendan Nelson’s refusal to properly fund universities has forced the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) to announce a 25 per cent HECS hike that may cause serious damage to Australian arts and culture.

The HECS hike is terrible news for VCA students, many of whom will graduate with a HECS debt they may be not be able to re-pay.

VCA is a world-class institution that has trained generations of Australian artists with a proud tradition of merit-based entry.

The HECS hikes at VCA mean that many of Australia’s future artists may be put off studying their field.

This is a terrible blow for the Australian arts community which has been enriched over the years by VCA.

These young Victorian artists will now join the ranks of the more than 400,000 Australian students who will be hit by the Howard Government’s massive HECS fee hikes by 2008.

Most Australian artists spend periods struggling financially and this latest HECS slug from the Howard Government will lead to a blow-out in the already sky-rocketing level of doubtful HECS debts.

In 2003-04 the Australia-wide doubtful HECS debt rate was already 22.2 per cent, amounting to $2.5 billion worth of HECS debt projected never to be repaid.

The Howard Government’s own figures predict that will nearly double to $4.5 billion in just 4 years.

This is yet more evidence that the Howard Government’s policy of making students and their families pay the price for $5 billion cuts to universities is culturally and economically irresponsible..

More info:
Macklin - Nick Talbot
Garrett - Andrew Palfreyman