Australian Greens Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has said that the government is hopelessly divided on the Job-ready Graduates Package, with the Minister for Regional Education today publishing a statement referring to a “glaring and potentially detrimental design flaw” of the package. Senator Faruqi has also criticised the six day time period allowed for public consultation.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Andrew Gee is right. These enormous fee hikes will harm regional students and don’t serve the interests of regional communities.
“You know your legislation is a dud when you have ministers partly responsible for it resorting to media statements to beg for amendments. The whole thing should be binned.
“With less than a week allowed for public consultation, the government knows that its package doesn’t stack up and has every intention of rushing it through parliament as quickly as possible.
“The package is an enormous threat to our higher education system and it must be defeated,” she said.
