Advocate vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au • ISSN 1329-7295

Budget 2014: Road to ruin A degree shouldn’t cost a mortgage

ɓɓThe end of public ɓɓVictoria’s policy & market failure ɓɓGeneral Staff or Professional? ɓɓBudget winners and losers ɓɓUK: Debt & ‘cashpoint colleges’ ɓɓThe house casual organising built ɓɓShocker for Indigenous Australians ɓɓCollege owner’s access to top Libs ɓɓQUTE stands in solidarity ɓɓEffect on students & postgrads ɓɓLocking in fairness at Navitas ɓɓFears for Thai academics ɓɓScholarships trashed ɓɓRacial Discrimination Act changes ɓɓ... and much more.

Advocate ISSN 1321-8476 NTEU National Office, PO Box 1323, Sth VIC 3205 Published by National Union ABN 38 579 396 344 1st floor, 120 Clarendon St, Sth Melbourne VIC Publisher Grahame McCulloch Editor Jeannie Rea phone (03) 9254 1910 fax (03) 9254 1915 Production Paul Clifton Editorial Assistance Anastasia Kotaidis email [email protected] Feedback, advertising and other enquiries: [email protected] Division Offices www.nteu.org.au/divisions Contents All text and images © NTEU 2014 unless otherwise stated. Branch Offices www.nteu.org.au/branches

2 No truth or justice in the American p. 9 p. 16 way Editorial, Jeannie Rea 3 Rough seas ahead Cover image: From the General Secretary NTEU members at the Bust the Budget UPDATE rally in Melbourne in May. Photo by Chris 4 Academic freedom under threat Clarke. from Defence Trade Controls Act Investor-State Dispute Settlement review 5 Coalition to water down workplace gender equality legislation Civil/Courage at USC 6 Bargaining update 7 Bargaining State of Play 8 Bluestocking Week 2014: Crossing FEATURES 29 Will a PhD become a bridge too far? the Line Students will need to think very carefully about 16 Budget 2014: On the road to ruin whether a PhD is really worth it. 9 Locking in fairness at Navitas is reeling from the first Abbott Budget, as our university system takes a body blow. 30 College owner gets amazing access 10 Votes lost, count won: the WA Senate New Matilda reports on the private college 17 The end of public higher education vote re-run owner and Liberal Party donor given access to Australia’s system of public higher education senior Liberal politicians. 11 QUTE stands in solidarity will come to an end if the gets its Budget through the Senate. 31 Science in the House UNICASUAL NEWS Members Sivakumar Alagumalai and Reyna 20 Winners and losers 12 Reaching out to contingent faculty Zipf report from Science meets Parliament. in the US The ‘budget burden’ is clearly unevenly spread. 32 CASA: the house that casualisation 13 Uni work becoming more precarious 21 Slicing and dicing too thin built This Budget serves to slice, dice and spread far Stories of US adjunct organising inspired the Survey of casual teaching online too thin Australia’s economic and social future. formation of CASA (Casual, Adjunct, Sessional staff and Allies in Australian Higher Education). INDIGENOUS NEWS 22 A degree shouldn’t cost a mortgage Join our campaign against the Budget. 34 General and/or professional – but 14 Aloha from WIPC:E 2014 24 Case study in policy & market failure definitely not ‘non-academic’ 15 18C and the ‘right to be bigots’ The deregulation of has What’s in a name? been an unmitigated failure in . COLUMNS 36 Hope within horror 26 Commonwealth scholarships Most Australians cannot comprehend the perse- 42 Net snares Budget bombs trashed cution that impels refugees to flee their homes. News from the Net, by Pat Wright The Budget trashes the Liberals’ legacy, and 37 Thai academics suffer in latest coup 43 McDonaldisation of higher education makes things worse for low-income students. Concern at academics and students detained Lowering the Boom, by Ian Lowe 27 Budget a shocker for Indigenous by the military junta. 44 Academic assholes and other jerks Australia 38 Student debt and cashpoint colleges Thesis Whisperer, Inger Mewburn Budget is even worse than imagined for Abo- The UK experience with higher education de- Environment riginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. ISO 14001 45 Kiwi tertiary staff working in fear regulation is a forewarning of Australia’s future. In accordance with Letter from NZ, Lesley Francey, TEU 28 Students question if uni is worth it 40 Recent human rights actions NTEU policy to NUS says students are fearful of lifetime debt. reduce our impact YOUR UNION on the natural envi- ronment, Advocate 46 Organising our Organisers p. 22 p. 38 is printed using vegetable based inks 47 Temporary incapacity and your with alcohol free superannuation printing initiatives on FSC certified pa- 48 Travel to Work insurance per under ISO 14001 Environmental 49 Carolyn Allport and Joan Hardy Certification. scholarships Advocate is available UniHealth insurance for members online as a PDF at nteu.org.au/advocate Vale Jim McAllister and an e-book at www.issuu.com/nteu 50 New NTEU staff NTEU members may opt for ‘soft delivery’ 51 New NTEU Shop (email notification NTEU Tax Guide 2014 of online copy rather than mailed printed Your annual tax statement version). Details at nteu.org.au/ Updating your NTEU membership softfdelivery details

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 1 Editorial Jeannie Rea, National President No truth or justice in the American way

If any one aspect of control because university planning is too The Abbott Government’s 20% funding important to be left solely to market forces.) cut forcing universities to increase fees at Minister for Education least 30% to cover the cuts plus a market Kemp and Norton still recommended interest rate on HELP debts will just price government handouts to private providers Pyne’s plans for Australian ordinary people out of university. The only arguing that there was some evidence options will be cut price and of dubious higher education sends that some students in preparatory courses quality that may or may not provide suffi- at private providers were doing quite well shivers down the collective cient education to get a job. when they went onto degree studies. They spines of university probably are, but what about the students Up until now, the policy trend in Austral- who enrolled, paid their money and did ia has been towards increasing access staff, students and Vice- not go on? The NTEU supports the exten- with equity. Pyne and his colleagues real Chancellors, it is his sion of Commonwealth Supported Places agenda is to close down equity in access (CSPs) to sub degrees in higher education to good higher education. They do want proclamation that the courses in public providers, which have a return to elite universities, which will the expertise and infrastructure to provide bestow a few scholarships to the bright United States higher students with a quality and well support- working class kids. ed education. education system is his US system failures inspiration. The gross education division by wealth in The gross education division the US system, along with sloppy regula- Not surprisingly, the prospect of the Amer- by wealth in the US system, tion and out of control student debt, does icanisation of our universities also horrifies along with sloppy regulation not make it a system to emulate. Indeed, the general public, as confirmed in the and out of control student the US is desperately trying to reign in the NTEU’s latest polling (see p. 22). People debt, does not make it a billions of dollars in loans and grants by know about the American system from system to emulate. proposing an audit of universities and col- popular culture. Just think about the many leges examining student fees, progression plot lines that draw upon the millstone rates and graduation outcomes, as it is of student loans hanging over young very clear that there are numerous private, (and not so young) professionals, tales The NTEU does not support the exten- including for-profit colleges just ripping of glorious but also terrible colleges, of sion of CSPs to private providers of degree off students and families. the scramble to get into a decent college, or sub-degree courses. The track record abuse of scholarship systems, of university According to Time (28/4/14), ‘far too much of private, including for-profit, providers of the money ends up going to sub-par collusion with big pharma and the military is at best niche and patchy, and at worse industrial complex, of persecution of dis- institutions with abysmal graduation wrecks students’ dreams. Australia has an rates that leave most of their students sident academics, rip off for-profit outfits, internationally envied, comprehensive, bankrupt colleges and so on. marooned with no degree or a worthless regulated higher education system, which degree, few job prospects and a load of Blinded by his idolatry of the market, has always been public, largely govern- student debt.’ Pyne blithely argues that we need greater ment funded, secular and co-educational. competition to improve the higher edu- Dismantling this system through blind In the US, the expansion of higher edu- cation system, so not only does he intend faith in market forces will leave students cation has not led to better wages and to deregulate the fees universities can and employers the losers. The contestabil- conditions for university staff. Rather, charge, but also hand over public money ity experiment in VET in Victoria has done three quarters of staff are now employed to subsidise private providers to give them enormous damage to people and their precariously (p. 32) and in the two year a boost to compete with public institu- livelihoods and should not be repeated community colleges and private for-profit tions. He reckons that this is how we will elsewhere (p. 24). colleges over 90% of academic staff are on create an Australian ‘Harvard’. insecure contracts (p. 12). Degrees for the wealthy The great US universities, public and pri- In some States there is no legal right to The US has a much longer history of mass vate, are great because of decades – even organise and intellectual freedom is a higher education than Australia, but has centuries – of government, philanthropic farce. The right to free speech may be in always been a very inequitable system. and corporate investment and student the constitution, but it is not in the univer- Put simply, your family wealth determines fees, not cut throat competition. sities. Dissenting staff are kept in line by what sort of university or college you can their precarious employment status, and Interestingly, even Pyne’s reviewers of the aspire to attend. The expansion of public even tenured staff may be sacked if they demand driven model, David Kemp and higher over the past offend the benefactors or government and Andrew Norton, found that the Australian few decades has created a sea change in commercial partners – in public or private system is actually of robust quality and has Australian attitudes as ordinary families universities. not suffered with the introduction of the have presumed that their children could new model. (The NTEU is more cautious, go to the same university as the children Jeannie Rea, National President consistently advising some enrolment of wealthy families. [email protected]

page 2 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate From the General Secretary Grahame McCulloch, General Secretary Rough seas ahead

Along with Jeannie Rea (National President) competed for scarce dollars and even and more resources for membership and Matthew McGowan (National Assistant scarcer political favours from Government. grievances. Secretary), I have been re-elected unopposed As the only united national voice in the as your General Secretary. A leading international role sector NTEU must defend the cultural and As part of NTEU Election Rules, candidates social role of tertiary education, as a public University teaching and research is global are required to submit a statement. Where good funded by progressive taxation. with world-wide mobility of staff and an election is contested, the Australian students. OECD, World Bank and WTO And we need to make common cause with Electoral Commission provides candidate policies shape the evolution of national others affected by the Abbott agenda – In- statements to Union voters as part of the university systems. As the only univer- digenous organisations, the scientific and balloting process. I thought members might sity member of the Executive Board of research community (including defence of be interested in the text of my campaign Education International, I lead a growing climate science), the ABC and liberal press, statement. network of more than seventy national human rights organisations (including university unions focused on academic The Abbott challenge asylum-seeker support) and other unions. freedom, trade union rights and social justice across the world. The quality of university teaching, research Leadership in difficult times and services has been eroded by two Along with others, I have helped steer the Priorities for a new term decades of funding cuts and commercial- Union in difficult waters, notably in defeat- isation. Jeannie Rea, Matthew McGowan and I are ing John Howard’s Higher Education Work- committed to: Increased class sizes, less academic place Relations Requirements (HEWRRs) research time, more unpaid overtime and and WorkChoices in the university sector. • Defend the quality, independence and rising workloads have occurred under This collective leadership capacity is also public role of universities with aggres- both Labor and Coalition governments. reflected in a record which includes: sive public campaigning in Parliaments, the media and other agencies which We have seen creeping managerialism, • Strong salary growth over the last dec- shape the tertiary education landscape. reduced university autonomy, increased ade with university salaries outstripping competition and the displacement of comparable labour markets (CSIRO, • Build national alliances to promote teaching and research objectives by com- school teachers, public servants), infla- social justice and protect public goods. mercial imperatives. Intellectual freedom tion and the labour price index. Salaries • Enforce Collective Agreement standards and the right of all university staff to are at their highest national and interna- including workload caps, managing participate in decision-making are directly tional point for more than thirty years. change protections and fighting to limit threatened by these processes. • High quality Collective Agreements with rising managerialism across the sector. The Abbott Government plan to deregu- Indigenous employment targets, a 17% • Increase support for NTEU’s growing late fees, subsidise private providers and super contribution, peer review and due membership in the Research Institute cut funding by more than 20% will mean process protections, parental leave of and VET sectors with new Collective a more unequal market system with deep 26-36 weeks, conversion and severance Agreements and more Branch resourc- divisions within and between universities. pay for short-term contract staff, codi- es. Social equity, regional/outer metropol- fied general staff classification standards itan universities and less “marketable” and more than 1000 new permanent Grahame McCulloch, General Secretary discipline areas are at risk. And students jobs for casual academic staff. [email protected] will pay much more, with debt of at least • Membership growth of 3400 (15%) in Read all National Officer statements $100,000 with interest. the last four years. www.nteu.org.au/elections Vice-Chancellors have abrogated their • Improved membership services includ- leadership responsibilities by not uniting ing new universal journey insurance to defend the sector – instead they have

NATIONAL EXECUTIVE NATIONAL OFFICE STAFF Executive Manager Peter Summers National President Jeannie Rea Industrial Unit Coordinator Linda Gale ICT Network Engineer Tam Vuong Vice-Presidents Kelvin Michael (Academic) National Industrial Officers Wayne Cupido, Database Programmer/Data Analyst Ray Hoo Lynda Davies (General) Susan Kenna, Elizabeth McGrath Payroll Officer Jo Riley General Secretary Grahame McCulloch Policy & Research Coordinator Paul Kniest Executive Officer (Gen Sec & President) Anastasia Kotaidis National Asst Secretary Matthew McGowan Policy & Research Officers Jen Tsen Kwok, Executive Officer (Administration) Tracey Coster National Executive: Terri MacDonald Admin Officer (Membership & Campaigns) Julie Ann Veal Andrew Bonnell, Stuart Bunt, Linda Cecere, Indigenous Coordinator Adam Frogley Administrative Officer (Resources) Renee Veal Stephen Darwin, Gabe Gooding, Ryan Hsu, Indigenous Organiser Celeste Liddle Receptionist & Administrative Support Leanne Foote Genevieve Kelly, John Kenny, Margaret Lee, Finance Manager Glenn Osmand Colin Long, Virginia Mansel Lees, Kevin Rouse, National Organiser Michael Evans Senior Finance Officer Gracia Ho John Sinclair, Jan Sinclair-Jones, Melissa Slee, National Publications Coordinator Paul Clifton Finance Officers Alex Ghvaladze, Tamara Labadze, Michael Thomson, Lolita Wikander Media & Communications Officer Courtney Sloane National Membership Officer Melinda Valsorda Lee Powell, Daphne Zhang Indigenous Member (IPC Chair) Terry Mason Education & Training Officers Ken McAlpine, National Growth Organisers Gaurav Nanda, Helena Spyrou Rifai Abdul, Priya Nathan

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 3 Update

They introduced criminal offences for the The NTEU acknowledges that during the Academic intangible transfer or ‘supply’ as well as the last twelve months, the Steering Group mere publication of goods and technol- has made significant progress. The Steer- ogies, which would potentially impact ing Group is now flagging the likelihood freedom anyone involved in research listed on the of significant legislative reform to limit Defence and Strategic Goods List (DSGL). the scope of impact and to better protect The difference with other legislation con- the interests of Australian scientists and under threat cerned with trade in defence technologies researchers, a change that has been was that this Act intentionally extended informed by the NTEU’s persistent concern to ‘dual use’ technologies that included for the professional interests of NTEU from Defence research not traditionally associated with members and the principle of defending the Defence Department. academic freedom. Trade At the time, the NTEU was highly con- In the latter part of 2014, the Department cerned about the implications for academ- of Industry and the Department of De- ic freedom and wrote to parliament and fence will conduct seminars and work- Controls? the relevant Ministers drawing attention shops with staff at universities to explore to a number of concerns. We believed that the legislation, explore the trial universi- Succumbing to US pressure, the stability and probity of any regime ty-based permit regimes and the potential the former Labor Government that sought to manage these new criminal for legislative reform. We are anticipating offences could detrimentally impact upon conducting joint workshops with the passed legislation that set new promising or even well-established aca- Departments in Brisbane and Perth. challenges in the way university demic careers, or could spell the difference NTEU has developed an FAQ as a use- academic and corporate in making important large-scale research ful starting point to address members’ projects unviable. The legislative compro- scientific researchers undertake potential concerns about Defence Trade mise in 2012 was that the Chief Scien- applied and experimental Controls. tist would lead a Strengthened Export research. By May 2015, we will Controls Steering Group to review and know if this legislation remains Jen Tsen Kwok, Policy & Research improve the legislation and to establish Officer a threat to academic freedom. a permit regime for university academics www.nteu.org.au/defencetradecontrols through a window of 24 months.

legitimate claims of recovery for ‘indirect expropriation’ Investor-State Dispute would appear uncontroversial under either of our domestic laws. Australia is also hoping to sign off on a massive multilat- Settlement review eral Asia-Pacific trade pact called the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement before the end of 2014, which will include a multi- In 2011, Phillip Morris decided to sue the lateral ISDS provision. Australian Government for introducing In this context, Tasmanian Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson legislation on the plain packaging of tobacco, introduced a Bill in March that sought to prevent the Common- and continues to pursue this even after wealth from entering into trade agreements with any foreign country that included ISDS provisions. The NTEU’s submission decisively losing a constitutional challenge was one of 141 to the Senate Committee reviewing the legisla- in the High Court in 2012. Their decision to tion. Over 11,000 emails from individuals were also received. sue is based upon a little known Hong Kong The NTEU submission argued that there were ‘compelling, Free Trade Agreement, and according to a set interlocking reasons to conclude that Australia should withhold of clauses that are commonly understood from further negotiation of ISDS provisions in International as Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) Investment Agreements and highlighted a range of concerns provisions. The Phillip Morris challenge is the about the implications of ISDS provisions for the delivery of first ISDS case of its kind in Australia. higher education, and as a fallback argued for the guarantee of higher education exemptions in relation to intellectual prop- Commonly in trade agreements, ISDS provisions provide for- erty, cross-border services, and human rights including labour eign companies the right to sue and seek compensation from and Indigenous rights. Hearings are anticipated for July. national governments if they think an element of that govern- Learn more about the Review: ment’s policy is harming their financial interests. These disputes www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/ are not settled in domestic courts but in opaque international Senate/Foreign_Affairs_Defence_and_Trade/Trade_and_ tribunals. Foreign_Investment_Protecting_the_Public_Interest_ ISDS is happening more and more often in Australia. Even Bill_2014 though previous Coalition and Labor Governments, and even the Productivity Commission in 2010, have made explicit state- ments and decisions to prevent being bound by ISDS provi- sions, the current Australian government is less discerning. Australia signed a free trade agreement with Korea in March 2014 which included ISDS provisions, in spite of the fact that both countries have robust first-world legal systems, and

page 4 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Update

• Advance equal remuneration between inequity in the workplace, and in doing so, Coalition to male and female employees. ignores the continued gender pay equity gap, which in 2013 was 17.5%, equating • Implement flexible work arrangements to women earning $266.20 less in average for employees with caring responsibil- weekly earnings than men. water down ities, or The Prime Minister’s hollow claims of his • Prevent sex-based harassment and supposedly feminist ideology contradict discrimination. workplace the actions of this Government, which has The employer does not need to provide done nothing to advance the equal partic- gender evidence or proof that it has met the ipation, promotion and pay of women in standard (e.g. the actual policy), just state the workplace. that it meets the requirement. equality Terri MacDonald, Policy & Research Clearly, this Government is intent on Officer legislation watering down the reporting of gender www.nteu.org.au/women The Workplace Gender Equality Civil/Courage Act (WGEA) was introduced by Labor in 2012 following the at USC review of the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace At the University of the legislation. It contained Sunshine Coast (USC) in reporting requirements for late 2013, we launched the businesses with more than Civil/Courage campaign to 100 employees, required that restore civility, collegiality a new minimum standard be and the courage of the prescribed by the Minister collective in the workplace. in 2014, and that additional The campaign was designed to respond to members’ sense of reporting commence from 1 intimidation, harassment and bullying in the workplace. April 2014. A wristband, in the Union colours of purple and teal, signifies to others ‘a Union col- However, the Abbott Government has league is here in solidarity’ and members are encouraged to wear them or put them made it clear that it believes the WGEA in a prominent place in the office. reporting to be needless ‘red tape’ and has set both the Act and the Agency in The campaign emerged following an accumulation of incidents, across several uni- its sights. Despite being involved in the versities over a long period of time. It emerged as a result of there being just one too process to establish the Act and reporting many instances of work colleagues empathising with another’s predicament, offer- provisions, business lobbyists are now ing to give support, only to revert to self-preservation and step back ‘because I don’t pressuring the Government to water want to jeopardise my situation’. Quite understandable. But why was that necessary? down, or even overturn, the WGEA. I identified a common thread in many instances – a misunderstood conversation; The Government has responded by a simple comment which spiralled out of control in a stream of emails; a deliberate delaying the introduction of the additional shunning of another by various means; right through to identifiable physical and gender reporting provisions from 1 April verbal acts of harassment and intimidation. to 1 October 2015, with the Minister, It emerged because our Union membership should be a badge of honour, a sign of Senator , announcing there will solidarity; not a symbol of shame and secret societies. In our ideal world, universi- be a new period of consultation on the ties would be exemplars of modern workplace practice. They should be setting the additional reporting matters (already set example of what a harassment-free, discrimination-free workplace could look like. In out in the Act). too many cases, I have seen good people break down, become ill, forced to leave a Abetz also announced that the new mini- working environment they would otherwise embrace for their working lives. mum standard will only apply to business In inviting members to adopt the Civil/Courage campaign, I encourage our members with more than 500 employees. While to remember that civility in the workplace starts with us. We can make the workplace originally it was rumoured he wanted the the best it can be and we won’t be intimidated by those who would use intimidation standards to apply to businesses with to diminish our sense of being at work. It is an initial response to the hyper-manage- 1000 or more employees, it is thought that rialism of our time. pressure from women’s groups saw this reduced to 500. Hannah Arendt pointed to the idea of civil courage in her work. I have on my office door the words of Gloria Steinem ‘Whenever one person stands up and says ‘wait a That said, the new standard is minimal, minute, this is wrong’, it helps other people to do the same’; others say similar things requiring employers to put in place only in their own ways. We have within us, in our Union, to stand together and make one of the following strategies in order to changes. It begins with Civil/Courage. comply: Donna Weeks, outgoing President, USC Branch • Support and improve gender equality in the workplace.

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 5 Update Bargaining update

There has been intense activity at several Branches over the last few months, with industrial action reported in the last edition of Advocate at the University of Western Australia and the University of (UQ) resulting in finalised Agreements. More recently, staff have taken action at University of Technology, Work bans at Newcastle Sydney, and Navitas (La Trobe) in At University of Newcastle bargaining has gathered pace since professional and pursuit of fair Agreements. teaching staff put bans on working past 35 hours per week and have included Agreements completed and statements about their action on emails close and voicemail. Staff at and UQ were Industrial action at Macquarie set to be balloted at the time of writing, with the Agreements delivering annual Academics at Macquarie University took pay rises of 3% and 3.1% respectively. industrial action on 11 March 2014 (nego- tiations for a professional staff Agreement Other Agreements that have been are yet to commence). The action followed approved, or are before Fair Work Com- months of inertia at the bargaining table mission for approval, include the Univer- and real attempts by management to strip sity of New England, , back some key conditions. It was a re- University of South Australia, University of markable effort to get the strike action up Western Sydney, and as many in the academic community had QUT. The Macquarie University Academic tired of the protracted industrial action Staff Agreement has also been finalised. which characterised the previous round of La Trobe Navitas bargaining. See the Bargaining State of Play table, After two years of negotiation, staff at opposite, for an overview of pay and The strike action successfully enabled Navitas at La Trobe University in Mel- conditions achieved in all completed NTEU negotiators to obtain a settlement bourne were forced to take action follow- Agreements. which will see no diminution of condi- ing a break-down in negotiations. Staff tions and important gains achieved in a Improved pay and conditions are fighting for an end to casual and fixed number of areas, including but not limited term employment becoming the default Pay rises reach 3.2% per annum at the top to: workloads, Indigenous employment, position even at a time when student en- end and we continue to have success with domestic violence, casual employment, rolments are increasing (see report, p. 9). key conditions around general staff ca- improvements in leave and outside studies reers, job security, targets for Indigenous arrangements, and commitments to em- Susan Kenna, Industrial Officer employment and domestic violence leave. ploy a minimum of 24 Scholarly Teaching www.universitybargaining.org.au We have also made progress for academic Fellows during the life of the Agreement. Photos: Strike action at UTS in May. staff on enforceable workload models and limits on teaching and related duties. NTEU estimates that we can achieve 1,000 secure teaching positions to replace work previously performed by casuals as a result of our Scholarly Teaching Fellow claim; we have achieved over 700 so far. Of the eight Agreements which are shortly to be or have just been approved, general staff have achieved a staff mobility scheme in four, a staff development fund in five of the universities and there are enforce- able classifications in each of the eight Agreements.

page 6 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Update

Round 6 Bargaining – State of Play June 2014 Casual Academic General Staff Claims Indigenous Employment Super- academics workloads annuation University Expiry Date Annual wage More secure Hours-based Enforceable Development Employment Monitoring SGC increases growth (expi- positions cap on classifications or mobility strategy / Committee ry to expiry) teaching targets Curtin 30/06/16 4.25% ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ CQU 30/06/16 4.30% n/a ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ECU 30/06/16 4.25% ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Sydney 1/03/17 3.20% ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Deakin 30/06/16 3.50% ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ JCU 30/06/16 3.15% ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ CSU 31/12/16 2.75% ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✘ ✘ ✔ ANU 30/06/16 3.15% n/a ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ UCAN 30/06/15 3.30% ✔ ✔ ✔ ✘ ✘ ✔ ✔ Griffith (Aca) 30/09/16 3.15% ✔ ✔ n/a n/a ✔ ✔ ✔ Griffith (Gen) 30/09/16 3.15% n/a n/a ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ VU 31/12/17 3.20% ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ CDU 30/12/16 3.15% n/a ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ UTAS 30/06/16 3.15% n/a ✔ ✔ ✘ ✔ ✔ ✔ Melbourne 30/06/17 3.20% ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ RMIT 30/06/16 3.15% ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ACU 30/06/17 3.15% ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Murdoch 30/06/16 3.15% ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ UniSA 30/06/18 3.40% ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ La Trobe 31/01/17 3.15% ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ QUT (Aca) 1/03/17 3.00% ✘ ✘ n/a n/a ✘ ✔ ✔ QUT (Gen) 1/03/17 3.00% n/a n/a ✔ ✘ ✘ ✔ ✔ UWS (Aca) 31/01/17 3.20% ✔ ✔ n/a n/a ✔ ✔ ✔ UWS (Gen) 31/01/17 3.20% n/a n/a ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ UNE (Gen) 1/10/17 3.25% n/a n/a ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ UWA (Aca) 30/09/16 3.15% n/a ✔ n/a n/a ✘ ✘ ✔ UWA (Gen) 30/09/16 3.15% n/a n/a ✔ ✔ ✘ ✘ ✔ UQ 30/04/17 3.30% ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Flinders 30/06/17 3.15% ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✘ ✔ ✔ MQ (Aca) 30/06/17 3.15% ✔ ✔ n/a n/a ✔ ✔ ✔

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 7 Update Bluestocking Week 2014 Crossing the Line

This year’s Bluestocking Week theme is ‘Crossing the Line’. How could it be otherwise? The line has been crossed already, not by us but by the Abbott Coalition Government and their advocates and supporters, who are seeking to wind back the clock as they actively attack pro- women and feminist policies and perspectives. We cannot stand on the sideline, but have to cross the line ourselves.

Last year, we focused on what the future may hold as it looked like the outcome of the federal election would be a neo-con- servative Coalition Government. The National Union of Students (NUS) announced early last year that ‘Our blue- stockings are on the line.’ NTEU responded in August arguing that we must ‘hold the line’, defending equity and accessibility in universities, highlighting the value of education in a progressive society, and underlining the need to maintain a quality higher education sector through appropri- ate levels of public funding. www.nteu.org.au/bluestockingweek When the NTEU with NUS reintroduced Bluestocking Week in 2012, we focussed upon celebrating women’s achievements ticularly impact upon women who leave become very diverse. Let’s break down the in higher education and using the oppor- the workforce or work part-time while stereotypes. This would certainly also put tunity to raise current issues. caring for children. Major areas of women’s focus upon the budget cuts and deregula- professional work, including teaching and tion and privatisation agenda, which will We recognised that women had been nursing require university degrees and clearly close down many women’s access pioneering firsts in higher education for many women may now have this opportu- to university to study or work. over a century since the first white women nity closed to them. graduates to the first Australian Indige- Bluestocking Week is an initiative of the nous woman graduate in 1959. Pushing We are the women of the NTEU Women’s Action Committee. With into male dominated disciplines and uni- university; past, present and events organised in every Division and versity hierarchies had been and continues Branch, it is growing bigger and bolder to be an ongoing struggle. Women may future every year. Contact your local Branch for have the numbers these days in universi- This year, it’s time for action on campuses. more details, or visit the website. ties, but we still do not have the power. Bluestocking Week should highlight the importance of women speaking out and Jeannie Rea, NTEU National President Last year we recognised that the gender www.nteu.org.au/bluestockingweek pay gap, despite all our efforts, still persists sharing their stories and views. We want in universities. Women graduates still earn to create a human tapestry that describes less on average than their male counter- the experience of women who work and parts upon graduation and this widens study in our universities. over a lifetime until women retire poorer. One plan is to encourage women to take Now we are facing the dismantling of a picture of themselves or with others mass higher education as graduates face and provide a short caption about them long term crippling debts, which will par- and their connection to the university. The women of our universities have page 8 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Update Locking in fairness at Navitas

Staff members at La Trobe Melbourne have been taking industrial action since the breakdown, after two years, of Enterprise Agreement negotiations with Navitas. Staff are fighting for fair working conditions and job security, which Navitas has threatened through abandoning all previously negotiated terms and conditions. Currently, the Further action majority of staff at La Trobe Melbourne are employed on Staff will soon implement a ban on marking roll at- fixed term or casual contracts tendance and in complet- despite steadily increasing ing placement day duties. student enrolments. A postcard campaign is currently being organised Locker raffle for students to show their Staff began industrial action with a 1 hour support for staff through stop work and BBQ held on Wednesday sending postcards to 21 May, with over 300 staff and students Navitas. enjoyed a free lunch. Genevieve Auld, Lockers were raffled off to casual ELICOS Industrial Officer, members to draw attention to the fact Victorian Division that, since moving to a new building in www.nteu.org.au/ March, casual ELICOS teachers have been navitas ‘hot desking’ with no access to their own Above: Navitas members with the workspace, pigeonholes or lockers. lockers raffled off on 21 May. Within 48 hours of the NTEU installing the Right: Student supporters of the lockers, Navitas management had organ- #sportstrike. ised for the provision of pigeonholes and Below: NTEU strike meeting. secure workspaces for all casual workers. Photos by Toby Cotton. #sportstrike On Wednesday 28 May, over 40 staff took industrial action by stopping work for the day. As a result of the high union membership amongst ELICOS teachers, all classes were cancelled for the day mean- ing that 27 classes did not run. Curiously, La Trobe Melbourne manage- ment decided to organise its inaugural ‘Sports Day’ to replace these cancelled classes, so the Union called the day SportStrike. Staff attended the carnival to support their students and many students subsequently supported their teachers through joining them on a march to La Trobe Melbourne. The NTEU has also organised for students to claim reimbursement for management’s cancellation of classes.

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 9 Update Votes lost, count won

It’s history now, but at the time the debacle that was the WA Senate count lost-votes saga following the 2013 Federal Election was of great concern and interest to the WA Division. For the first time, the Union had advocated for a particular vote in a Federal Election and members in WA had responded enthusiastically with a turn-out on polling booths to promote huge exposure the Pyne Plan has been Above: Greens leader Christine Milne with NTEU the Vote Smart message that given by the media, but at the first run of Organiser Amy Talbot at Mosman Park on polling day. was beyond our expectations. the election, just getting people to engage Below: Gabe Gooding’s daughters re-create the ‘Class with the issues around the need for high sizes have doubled over a generation’ image at the East quality higher education was a win. After all that work, to have the outcome Victoria Park polling station. Photo by Gabe Gooding. hinge on 11 votes and then 1300 missing Did we do that? Well, given the number of ones, and be drawn out over several people who recognised our materials at months was excruciating for us as very the second run of the election and greeted interested by-standers. One can only us with ‘You’re the Vote Smart people’, it imagine what it was like for the actual clearly did. candidates who found their lives on hold for another five months. The literally thousands of leaflets that we handed-out at student open days and put The decision to re-run the election was into letterboxes must also have had some welcomed by the NTEU WA Division and effect. Without the stimulus of the election NTEU members who saw this as another campaign we would not have done that. opportunity to promote higher education as an election issue. The second is that there are a lot more members out there willing to be active in Once again we were at polling booths the Union when we take a strong stand with our Vote Smart materials (recycled on political matters. We went into this not from the first-run, of course), this time knowing how it would be received, and advocating for a vote for either The Greens at the end, we now know that members or the ALP. Not being entirely enamoured will respect a well reasoned argument and with the ALP’s choice for the number 1 support it with political action. spot on the ballot paper, we made the decision to feature and advocate for a vote Thirdly, there are a host of alliances that for Louise Pratt. In hindsight one of our we can make and nurture to promote pro- better decisions! gressive policies. We made contact with some of them during both the first and While Louise Pratt ultimately lost, the huge second campaigns and we will work now increase in the votes for Green Senator to maintain those new relationships. Scott Ludlum was a great result for NTEU given his strong advocacy for higher Finally, we learnt that we do have the education. capacity to mount a concerted effort involving a large range of actions and ac- Lessons from the campaign tivities in a very short space of time. That is We could fill this article with data – how comforting for us as we face the challeng- many people on booths, how many leaf- es now confronting our sector. lets produced and distributed, how many Who knows how the new Senate will powerpoints used in lectures to encourage behave? The State of WA has contributed students to firstly enrol and then vote – Scott Ludlam, Joe Bullock and Dio Wang the figures are impressive, but at the end it from the re-run campaign (in addition is what we learned that matters. to the Government Senators), which will We learned a great deal in the WA Division guarantee that, from the WA perspective from our participation in these campaigns. at least, the new Senate will be the con- The first is that we can make higher tinuation of the roller-coaster ride that the education a key election issue. That seems twice run campaigns have been. a little strange to be saying now given the Gabe Gooding, WA Division Secretary page 10 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Update

QUTE stands in Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill Being openly gay in Uganda is dangerous. In 2010, GLBTI activist David Kato was solidarity murdered in his home after his photo appeared on the front page of a Ugandan tabloid newspaper alongside the headline ‘Hang Them’. Attitudes towards issues that Since the Anti-Homosexuality Bill was signed into Ugandan law in February 2014, affect gay, lesbian, bisexual, homophobic attacks and harassment have grown across the country. The rising tide of homophobia means that GLBTI people (known as kuchus in Uganda) face transgender, intersex and increasing harassment, persecution and denigration, with activists reporting attacks, queer people have changed arbitrary arrests, evictions and blackmail. positively in many parts of the Despite the increasing levels of discrimination and abuse against LGBTI people world, but a new campaign by across Africa, many courageous individuals are fighting back. International solidarity Queer Unionists in Tertiary for their continuing efforts provides motivation for many activists during a time of Education (QUTE), called Stand increasing isolation for LGBTI rights activism. in Solidarity, reminds us that Send a message of support at www.amnesty.org.au/action/action/34574/ there is still a lot of work to be done, and that this work is best Belarus activist attacked achieved collaboratively with Belarus gay activist, Ihar Tsikhanyuk (right) our allies. was assaulted for attempting to register a GLBTI organisation. Ihar was dragged In partnership with Amnesty Internation- from his hospital bed, where he was re- al, the campaign aims to highlight issues ceiving treatment for a stomach ulcer, and that affect people of diverse sexualities taken to a police station. While in custody and genders throughout the world. Told he was repeatedly punched in the head on social media, these narratives provide and chest, verbally abused for being gay activists links to action that can make a and threatened with more violence. real difference in the lives of the people Ihar bravely reported his attack but no featured in the campaign. one has yet been held to account. Sign Actions include a message of support to the campaign online petition here: the organisers of Belgrade Pride; a peti- www.amnesty.org.au/action/action/33542/ tion to the General Prosecutor in Belarus protesting the mistreatment of people of Belgrade Pride diverse sexualities and genders; and in- In 2001, gay and lesbian activists attempted to hold Serbia’s first Pride March in spiring and supporting isolated activists Belgrade. A huge crowd of opponents gathered and attacked the event. The police in Uganda with messages of support. were not equipped to suppress riots or protect the Pride marchers. In 2009, activists organised a second Pride March but due to the public threats of violence made by These narratives will be featured in a extreme right-wing organisations, authorities moved the location of the march on short film also being produced by QUTE the morning of the event. In 2010, 1000 people participated in Belgrade Pride. Police in collaboration with Amnesty Interna- clashed with 6000 anti-gay protesters, with 147 police and 20 civilians wounded. tional. Both the social media stories and film will be projected on to a Melbourne Ever since, every attempt to organise the parade has been banned citing ‘security building in a campaign launch at the end threats’. This ban was ruled unconstitutional in 2011, but the same excuse was given of June. The film and campaign stories in subsequent years, and Amnesty International feared the excuse would be given will be available on social media and the for the 2014 Pride March. However, the Pride organisers postponed the event due QUTE website to stimulate discussion to the devastating Serbian floods. Messages of support were sent to the organisers, and action. including one from NTEU National Executive declaring Prajd. Normalno! (Pride, of course!). Photo by Toby Cotton. Dave Willis, Victorian Division Organiser www.nteu.org.au/qute Cfacebook.com/qutenteu

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 11 Casuals News

Justice for Adjuncts janitors had access to scholarships for Reaching out their children at their employing univer- The most interesting and promising devel- sity, a benefit not available to contingent opment in relation to organising efforts for academic staff. contingent academics in the US appeared to contingent to be those by the Service Employees In- Lessons for Australia ternational Union (SEIU), most well known faculty in the for its long-running ‘Justice for Janitors’ During my PhD research I interviewed campaign. many casual academic staff in order to understand their experiences of work as a Through their public sector division, the casual academic. I recall one interviewee, US SEIU has recently made a push to sign up at a Go8 university, who, after recently contingent faculty members in private concluding an intense semester of course I was very fortunate to be sector universities. The SEIU took a strate- coordination on a casual basis comment- invited to attend and to present gic decision to pursue these staff in private ing that he had calculated his hourly rate my research on academic universities as no other union was active to be less than that earned by the person casualisation in Australia at in the area due to the intense organising who cleaned his office. effort required. the 41st Annual Conference on Collective Bargaining in Higher Education, hosted by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions (NCSCBHEP) at City University New York in April.

The NCSCBHEP is a joint labour and man- agement centre focussed on the study and promotion of collective bargaining as a means for advancing the working conditions of staff in higher education in the US. The enormous diversity of higher education means that particularly for union representatives the opportunity The SEIU has approx 20,000 contingent ac- to exchange ideas about developments In Australia, with rates of casualisation ademic members, although larger higher in collective arrangements is extremely amongst academic staff at around 50%, education unions such as the American valuable. we are already worrying close to the crisis Federation of Teachers and the National point that many union activists have point- Conference themes Education Association (and its many state ed to in the US where secure academic affiliates) have a bigger contingent faculty employment is now available only to an The conference was opened by Professors membership, typically as a result of the ever shrinking minority and the returns for Schuster, Finkelstein and Conley who pre- extension of bargaining units. Union cov- PhD study are poor pay and job insecurity. sented data from their forthcoming book erage of staff in higher education in the US The faculty factor, due out in 2015. They is diverse – even the United Auto Workers Whilst the system of higher education noted that higher education in the US has membership in the sector – and in in the US, due to its scale and diversity, had reached a crisis point with the rapid some cases there is competition between is very different to Australia and thus scale of change in the use of technology, unions for membership. making direct comparisons problematic, market forces, global dimensions, role the outcomes for academic staff, when the specialisation, the diminishing influence of The SEIU is growing its contingent aca- ‘market’ is left to rule, offer a salient lesson. academic staff and the growth in account- demic staff membership due to an active One thing that we can be certain of is that ability regimes. ‘metro strategy’ with a strategic focus on Democrat states, and geographic old-style casualisation and other forms of insecure In particular, they pointed to the explosion organising with an emphasis on one-on- employment will become a persistent and of ‘contingent faculty’ as central to the one conversations and building networks. even more prominent feature. Job security crisis, and this was a consistent theme for academic staff will become a relic of during the conference. They highlighted The Union currently has campaigns the past. some depressing statistics from their underway in a number of major cities such research including that across the whole as , Seattle, LA and Minneapolis-St Robyn May higher education sector around 75% of Paul, and the results are impressive. The Robyn May’s PhD research on the academic staff were employed on a con- SEIU has found that the ‘Justice for Janitors’ casualisation of academic work in Aus- tingent (insecure) basis. The situation at campaign has resonance with contingent tralia was part of a larger ARC Linkage two-year community colleges and private academic staff who are concerned about project; Gender and employment equity for-profit colleges was worse with over the same issues – job security, a living in Australian Universities, based at Grif- 90% of academic teaching staff employed wage and dignity at work. fith University, led by Professor Glenda Strachan. on insecure contracts. Contingent academic staff also recognise NTEU was an industry partner on the Overall, the sector had faced a 40% decline that the janitors on their campuses enjoy, project and Robyn is grateful to the in state funding since 1980. in many cases, better working conditions NTEU for support to attend the confer- than they do, including the fact that many ence in New York.

page 12 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Casuals News

academics are also precariously employed. Uni work Whilst less than 10% are casual, almost 80% are on limited term contracts. Survey of There are researchers who have been casual teaching becoming on limited term contracts for decades, but alongside more securely employed colleagues. There has been an expansion online more in ‘research only’ positions over the past decade – but almost exclusively in limited NTEU will soon run a survey precarious term positions. The consequences for to discover more about the career and research development are dire. conditions of work and NTEU’s National Conference on And almost 40% of general/professional views of casual and fixed Insecure Work is scheduled to FTE positions are contract or casual. Too term contract academics be held in Hobart in November many staff are on continual slightly chang- teaching undergraduate ing casual contracts and others on limited or postgraduate subjects 2014. There will be opportunities term contracts paid against ‘soft money’ to connect remotely to the projects. delivered partly or fully conference sessions. The focus online. The survey will be This analysis by the NTEU is based upon posted on our UniCasuals is upon academic casuals, the data from the Commonwealth Depart- research contractors and soft ment of Education. It reveals that the level site (www.unicasual.org.au). money contracts, and needlessly of precarious work in universities is higher casualised positions. than the Australian workforce average. More university teaching is moving online as the ‘blended learning’ model And it confirms why the NTEU’s Nation- is adopted. And more often casual Since 2005, only one in four (24%) new al Conference on Insecure Work is so and limited term contract staff are jobs at Australian universities has been an important. Watch the NTEU and Unicasual hired to teach in these courses. ongoing or continuing job. Three out of websites for details. four have been contract or casual. Conse- The pedagogical value of ‘blended quently, now only one in two staff (on a Jeannie Rea, National President learning’ is still a debate, but there is full time equivalent (FTE) basis) employed www.unicasual.org.au consensus that an online component at Australian universities have secure Composition of Total Australian University Staff is useful for the reinforcement of employment (see Fig. 1). Full Time Equivalent (FTE) by Work Contract 2005 to 2012 classroom learning, to reach distant students or those unable to come The level of Actual Casual Limited Term Other Continuing to class, to conduct assessment that precarious 2005 14.4% 26.0% 59.4% can be checked for plagiarism, to work is further fulfil student expectations of online revealed by the 2006 14.6% 27.6% 57.6% engagement, and so on. However, the type of work 2007 14.7% 29.4% 55.7% sneaking suspicion is that these valid (see Fig. 2). Over advantages are a smokescreen for the 90% of those 2008 15.3% 30.9% 53.5% cheapness of delivery. Similarly, fully employed in 2009 15.8% 31.3% 52.7% online courses are in the end touted ‘teaching only’ for being cheap to run. positions are 2010 16.2% 32.1% 51.4% casual (80.3%) In a privatised and deregulated higher 2011 16.5% 31.6% 51.6% or limited education sector, more courses will term contract 2012 15.9% 31.7% 52.1% be substantially – if not complete-

(10.2%). Over Source: Data supplied by Department of Education ly – online, as there is a rush to take the past few Fig. 1: Composition of total Australian university staff, advantage of government subsidies years, the plight of to private providers and there is casually employed full time equivalent by work contract, 2005 to 2012 money to be made. It is at this end of Composition of Australian University Staff teaching academ- Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Type of Work by Work Contract 2012 the sector that cheaper courses will

ics has been ex- Actual Casual Limited Term Other Continuing be available, but also poorer quality posed along with courses for poorer students. In the US Teaching the consequences 80.3% 10.2% 9.3% (the much favoured model of Minister only for the mainte- Pyne), the Coalition on Contingent

nance of quality Research Academic Labor (COCAL) and the 8.2% 79.8% 11.9% education and loss only Online Teaching Working Group of the of opportunities United Association of Labor Education Teaching for innovation, 25.0% 73.9% (UALE) recently undertook a survey let alone the & Research of contingent academics teaching squandering of the online. The NTEU is replicating this General next generation of Sta 11.7% 26.8% 61.3% survey, adding some questions to academics’ careers. draw upon the Australian experience, Total but also to enable international However, what is 15.9% 31.7% 52.1% FTE comparisons. not so well known Source: Data supplied by Department of Education is that almost 90% Please distribute the survey widely so of ‘research only’ Fig. 2: Composition of Australian university staff, full time equivalent we can get a range of experiences. type of work by work contract, 2012

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 13 Indigenous News

Challenging (TPP) poses to Indige- Aloha from opinions nous peoples – an issue Terry Mason has actively WIPC:E 2014 On a personal note, I highlighted in a previous found that attending issue of Advocate. WIPC:E recharged my In May, the National Indigenous batteries and gave me a Among many poignant Unit’s Adam Frogley and Celeste lot to go on. It is affirm- points made during this Liddle, with the chair of the ing, yet distressing, to session, Sykes argued Indigenous Policy Committee see that the issues that that the TPP was yet our Indigenous staff face another front for colo- (IPC), Terry Mason, attended nisation via promise of the triennial World Indigenous in the sector are similar, if not the same, to the ‘economic development’ People’s Conference in issues that Indigenous and of particular concern Education (WIPC:E). staff face globally. It should be our intellectu- reinforces the need to al and cultural property, This year, WIPC:E was held in Honolulu, engage more fully with land rights, resources Hawai’i, in the grounds of the Kapi’olani global audiences in order and development. Community College with approximately to break down struc- I came away from this 3000 delegates from across the globe in tures that exclude Indigenous peoples, session not only aware of the Mana Party attendance. It was an amazing program of Indigenous knowledges and Indigenous response to the TPP, but also, following cultural exchange, knowledge transfer and experiences from educational institu- further discussions with fellow Aboriginal educational activism. Interspersed amongst tions. It was heartening to hear that some delegates, that the situation for us is ever a number of papers by leading Indigenous institutions were starting to engage better more dire when it comes to fighting these education workers across the globe were with Indigenous knowledges. threats because, unlike the Maori, our opportunities to explore Native Hawaiian On the whole though, from a global per- sovereignty is not recognised nationally culture, as well as engage with groups from via a treaty. other Indigenous communities. spective, what we bring to the academy is still seen as ‘niche’ and ‘alternative’ instead Frontier wars NTEU sessions of inherently valuable. The nods of assent in our session when we relayed that Indig- Likewise, on attending a session on the In an extremely well-attended session, enous-specific university subjects were Sand Creek massacre and hearing just how the NTEU delivered a paper based on our seen as ‘Mickey Mouse courses’ by other long and hard the Cheyenne and Arapaho members’ survey on racism, discrimina- university staff, or that Indigenous staff had to fight to get recognition of the site tion, cultural respect and lateral violence are thought to gain degrees and qualifica- where this horrific crime took place, it was in the academy. In this session, we talked tions on a concessional basis rather than further highlighted to me the extent colo- about strategies for inclusivity in the through hard work were striking. nising powers will go to not acknowledge academy as well as how unionism has their own history. In Australia, we will con- Many related to the idea that our cultural definitely assisted not only a growth in tinue to have a long and hard fight to gain business of importance is seen as an the industry of Indigenous staff, but also a recognition for the frontier wars. The only inconvenience in the workplace rather shifting of university practices. way this will eventually happen will be if than an integral part of engaging with In- more of us enter the education system and We also touched on the current threats digenous workers and facilitating cultural have a hand in shaping the opinions of to achieving a more level playing field exchange. Simply put, the more time we future generations so that more aware cit- firstly, in universities which greatly remain spend engaging with Indigenous peoples izens, skilled to enact change start coming bastions for white western patriarchal from across the world, the more similar- up through the ranks. privilege and secondly, in an environment ities we can identify with regards to the of cuts and mainstreaming being overseen struggles we face in our homelands. I would like to thank the NTEU for allowing by a conservative government. me to attend WIPC:E 2014. The perspective Much discussion followed the session and Threat of the TPP gained from opportunities to exchange on educational activists from all corners of As well as the educational, WIPC:E also a global level allows us to put the fights the globe requested more information of provided many opportunities to engage we face here in some sort of perspective. the work we’ve done in this field. We have with activists within the social movements We gained an opportunity to critically been able to build many positive working across the globe. Whilst there, I went analyse the Australian situation through a relationships from this experience and to a particularly inspiring talk by Mana broader field of vision and saw how things look forward to greater engagement in the Party candidate Annette Sykes about the can be done better. Additionally, it also future. threats that the Trans-Pacific Partnership provided the opportunity for solidarity, particularly when we are fighting battles on a regional and global scale. The feelings of isolation that many Indige- nous people experience when struggling to make lives better is lessened through knowing that others are fighting the same battles across the world. Through collabo- ration, we may even beat them.

Celeste Liddle, National Indigenous Organiser Left: Elders ceremony. Top: Cree dancer.

page 14 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Indigenous News

than simply including the word vilification. basis in a failing of the law. The proposal is 18C and the Rather than strengthening the argument political and derived from the perception for legislative change, his comments that in some way the Eatock v Bolt case exemplify the need for why change should and the finding made by Justice Bromberg ‘right to be not occur, and that this ‘strengthening’ of was nothing more than an attempt to the Act has purely political motivations. silence Andrew Bolt, using Section 18.C as the weapon of choice. Justice Bromberg To unravel the true motives behind this found that Bolt had indeed contravened bigots’ proposal, the difference between the Section 18.C of the Act, although this current wording and that proposed is par- was not a deliberate attempt to silence On 25 March 2014 – a watershed amount. So what do vilification and vilify Bolt. Rather, Justice Bromberg gave great actually mean? day in the debate of freedom weight to the need to balance freedom of of speech versus the right for The Oxford Dictionary defines vilification as speech versus the right to be protected all Australian citizens to be ‘abusively disparaging speech or writing’ from acts of discrimination. protected from acts of racial and vilify as ‘speak or write about in an The finding against Bolt showed that he abusively disparaging manner.’ While the discrimination – Attorney- was not simply expressing a political opin- Government may attempt to argue that General ion. It was found he wrote an article that removing offend, insult and humiliate and announced the Government contained factual errors and distortions incorporating the word vilification actually of the truth, and used inflammatory and intended to repeal Sections strengthens the Act, what has not been provocative language to back his ‘political 18.B, C, D and E from the clearly outlined or discussed is Section (4) opinion’. On this basis, Justice Bromberg of the exposure draft: Racial Discrimination Act found it to have not been in the ‘public (1975), replacing them with a This section does not apply to words, interest’ that the case against Mr Bolt be ‘strengthened’ version. sounds, images or writing spoken, exempted under the counterbalancing broadcast, published or otherwise com- Section 18.D. This finding only serves to This brought passionate pleas from many municated in the course of participating strengthen the need to maintain the cur- community organisations and individuals in the public discussion of any political, rent Sections 18.C and 18.D of the Act. to immediately withdraw the proposal. social, cultural, religious, artistic, aca- In response to the ruling, the Attor- demic or scientific matter. While it would appear that the Govern- ney-General determined: ment is forging ahead with this move on When the definition of vilification is ex- I will very soon be bringing forward an the basis that they see fault with these plored in the context of applying Section amendment to the Racial Discrimination sections of the Act, the explanations from (4), it can be seen it will in effect become Act which will ensure that that can never the Attorney-General on why his new pro- redundant and un-enforceable. In the real happen in Australia again – that is, that posed wording would be beneficial fall far world, the changes to the Act will do no never again in Australia will we have short of the existing protections in the Act. more than render the ability to prosecute a situation in which a person may be individuals and/or groups, on the basis of taken to court for expressing a political Offend, insult, humiliate, vilify vilification, null and void. opinion. George Brandis (24 March 2014) There are many issues of concern in the So why is the Government advocating It becomes increasingly transparent that, ‘exposure draft’ released by Brandis, but these changes when the current Act does even though the finding against An- of greatest concern was the suggestion to more to protect instances of racial discrim- drew Bolt has its foundations in law, the remove the words offend, insult and humil- ination? iate and replace those terms with the word statements made by the Attorney-General vilification. To wider Australian society, The Eatock v Bolt case show either a lack of understanding of the removal of those definitions and the the case and its findings, or, at worse, an inclusion of the word vilification may seem It is clear that the proposal to amend the attempt to reduce the impact of the Racial to be a positive step, but the question Racial Discrimination Act has its founda- Discrimination Act. must be asked: why is the Government tions in the High Court Eatock v Bolt case advocating this change? from 2011. This can be seen from state- Rights and responsibilities ments made by the Attorney-General: Freedom of speech is vital, but the While the changes are, at best, worrying, responsibilities associated with the ability the Attorney-General went further. In The problem with section 18C of the to speak freely are equally important. To attempting to support his stance and that Racial Discrimination Act, as it is currently amend a law based on what some may of the Government, he clearly outlined worded, is that it goes about the prob- see as an unfavourable finding against an his feelings when he said, in response to a lem of dealing with racial vilification in individual creates a dangerous precedent, question by Senator Nova Peris (NT): the wrong way. What it seeks to do is to deal with the problem of racial vilifica- one that no side of politics should explore, People do have a right to be bigots, you tion by political censorship. There should let alone implement. know. In a free country, people do have never be political censorship in this With the Federal Government and the rights to say things that other people country... People like Mr Bolt should be Attorney-General now fielding a myriad of find offensive, insulting or bigoted. free to express any opinion on a social or public opposition to this proposal, it will Nevertheless,... may I point out to Sena- a cultural or a political question that they be interesting to see if they are a govern- tor Peris that section 18C, in its current wish to express, just as Mr Bolt would re- ment for the people or just a government form, does not prohibit racial vilification. spect your right to express your opinions for a select few. George Brandis (24 March 2014) about social or political or cultural issues. George Brandis (24 March 2014) In seeking to raise public support for the Adam Frogley, National Indigenous amendment, Brandis has shown that there It would thus appear that the need to Officer is more to this move to amend the Act repeal Section 18.C has no fundamental www.nteu.org.au/indigenous

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 15 Budget 2014 On the road to ruin

With the Federal Budget making a 20% impact of the changes, and has not been denied by the Govern- ment. It is embarrassing them, but their only rebuttal is to keep cut to undergraduate funding and a arguing that students should pay. Everyone else, including from amongst their own ranks, is arguing that the fee increases and the 10% cut to postgraduate funding, giving market interest rate are too much. handouts to private providers to compete In this Advocate Budget edition, National Assistant Secretary Matt with public higher education, and then McGowan outlines the NTEU campaign (p. 22), while Paul Kniest explains the proposed funding and policy changes to higher handballing it to the universities to education (p. 17). Terri MacDonald identifies the Budget’s winners and losers (p. 20), and Celeste Liddle focuses upon the impacts set tuition fees at whatever they can on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (p. 27). Mary Kelly get away with, the Australian public does not find any equity in the new ‘Commonwealth scholarships’ (p. 26). Paul Kniest, in describing the tragedy of deregulation and university system is reeling. privatisation of the Victoria VET system, sends a clear warning about the consequences of shifting government funding from The Abbott Government promised no education and health public to private enterprise (p. 24). Chris Graham and Wendy funding cuts during the election campaign. They lied, and no one Bacon expose the close connections between private education should be surprised as the Liberal Party has never denied looking enterprises and the Liberal Party (p. 30). to the UK Conservative Cameron Government and Canadian Deanna Taylor (p. 28) provides the NUS perspective as students or- Harper Government for inspiration. These offspring of Thatcher – ganise on campus and in the streets, while Emmaline Bexley ques- but possibly even more hard hearted – have slashed and burned tions if our brightest students will bother with the cost of getting the aspirations of not just the poor and disadvantaged, but also of a PhD (p. 29). The students of today will cop the interest fee rise on middle income people (see p. 38). Going to university was starting HELP debts, but it should be remembered that these students are to be something that Australian parents could expect for their mobilising in support of the opportunity to go to university for their children, but no longer if these fee rises go ahead. younger brothers and sisters – and parents who need to re-qualify Opposition to the first Abbott- Hockey-Pyne Budget is wide- as their working lives stretch out longer. spread, and hopefully this will influence the politicians as the My editorial (p. 2) focuses upon the Americanisation of the Australi- Budget makes its way through parliament. The higher education an university system, which no one seems to want, except Minister policy changes will also require legislative amendment, and what- Pyne. Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe condemns government dis- ever is eventually passed still has to be implemented, which puts honesty and the marketisation of higher education (p. 43), and Pat the pressure upon the universities. Wright thanks the internet for helping us maintain our rage against NTEU National Policy and Research Coordinator Paul Kniest’s mod- the Budget (p. 42). elling of the cost of a degree under Minister of Education Pyne’s Jeannie Rea, National President regime has been picked up and used by others in assessing the Used with permission. Used simonkneebone.com. Simon Kneebone. by Illustration page 16 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Australia’s system of public higher education will come to The end of end if and are successful in getting their proposed public higher changes to higher education regulation and funding through both houses of education in Parliament. No longer will entry into a public university be Australia determined on the basis of a student’s academic ability but on their ability to pay. In the new privatised higher education sector merit will no longer matter, money will. Paul Kniest Policy & Research Coordinator continued overpage... Used with permission. Used www.flickr.com/photos/louisa_catlover. Billeter, Louisa by 2014. Photo 21 May in Melbourne, protesting Students

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 17 cont. The endChanges of to Government public Discipline Fundinghigher Rates (2014 Values) education in Australia

Maths/Stats $2,458 number available in previous years, it was Humanities a welcome extension of this program. Clinical Psyc/ Foreign Languages/ There was also a $150 million grant Allied Health in 2015–16 for National Collaborative { $602 $255 Research Infrastructure Scheme (NCRIS). -$146 Funding beyond 2015–16 is yet to be Law/Acc/Bus -$554 -$941 18 determined. Education -$1,1 } Nursing Cuts to science and research Architecture/ Behavourial Sci/ -$2,120 agencies IT/Other Health -$2,757 The Budget also included significant cuts Visual & Performing Arts -$3,206 Agriculture/Dentistry/ -$3,567 to a number of major science and research Medicine/Vet Sci agencies. Totalling about $880 million over Social Studies four years, they include: -$4,717 Engineering/ • $111.4 million cut from CSIRO. Science/Surveying • $120 million cut from the Defence Sci- Fig. 1: Changes to Government Discipline Funding Rates (2014 Values) ence & Technology Organisation (DSTO). • $27.6 million cut from the Australian Cuts to funding for CSPs Other higher education cuts Nuclear Science and Technology Organi- sation (ANSTO). In a series of policies euphemistically Other cuts to higher education announced referred to in the Budget papers under the in the Budget include: • $7.8 million cut from the Australian broad heading of ‘expanding opportunity’, Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). • 10% reduction in government funding the Government will: to Research Training Scheme places Money raised by the Medicare and other • Cut funding for Commonwealth sup- (saving $171 million over four years) health co-payments is supposed to be ported places (CSPs) on average by 20%. and the consequent introduction of invested into the Medical Research Future tuition fees (capped at $3,900 per year) Fund (MRFF) until it reaches $20 billion • Open up CSPs to non-university higher for higher degree research students to in about 2020. Dividends from the MRFF education providers, including for-profit make up the gap. (expected to be $1 billion by 2023) will be providers, and used to support medical research, although • $51 million of savings over four years • Expand CSP funding to sub-bachelor there is already scepticism about this. by cutting participation grants under higher education qualifications. Higher Education Participation and Changes to student In aggregate, these measures are forecast Partnership Program (HEPPP), and scholarships to increase total CSP enrolments by 80,000 • $121 million of savings over four years full time equivalent students, and save Two of the largest cuts in the Budget were by ceasing reward funding. the Commonwealth in the order of $1.1 to student scholarships. The Government billion. • $87 million of savings over four years will save over $800 million by abolishing by abolishing HELP benefits scheme existing student start-up scholarships As Figure 1 shows (overpage), the cuts which provided a discount on HECS and cutting out relocation scholarships to Government funding vary consider- repayments for graduates who take up for students moving between or within ably from discipline to discipline. While related occupations or work in specified capital cities. Despite these dramatic cuts the average cut of 20% represents an locations. the Minister for Education has continually average cut of $2,120 per CSP, funding for referred to a massive increase in scholar- engineering, surveying and science will be The Commonwealth forecasts savings of ships for disadvantaged students. cut by $4,717 per student (-28.1%). social more than $200 million over 4 years by studies by $,567 per student (-37.2%). On indexing all higher education grants to What the Minister is referring to are his the other hand funding per mathematics the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from 2016, new ‘Commonwealth’ scholarships which and/or statistics student will increase by which in the vast majority of cases will be will be funded from $1 out of every $5 $2,458 (+25.6%). far less generous than the current Higher of increased student fees. As Mary Kelly Education Grants Index (HEFGI). points out (see p. 26) these scholarships The critical point about these changes are highly inequitable on a number of to funding is that with the exception of While this measure might only save different levels mathematics and statistics universities relatively small amounts of money in the have little or no capacity to reduce fees as- short term, over the longer term it will be Changes to student fees suming they will need at least the current a significant loss of funding to the sector. In an attempt to allow the market to work level of resourcing to provide a quality For example, the Government’s forward its magic in relation to higher education education. Indeed in the vast majority of estimates show while it will save only $24 the Government has decided to complete- cases universities will be forced to increase million in 2015–16 that will have risen to ly deregulate university fees and open up fees, and in the case of engineering, sur- $109 million by 2017–18 and will grow public funding to non-university providers veying, science and social studies by over exponentially from there. including for-profit private providers. As 50% simply to maintain the same level of While the Australian Research Council had the article on the similar policy framework resourcing as they currently receive. a 3.25% efficiency dividend imposed upon for VET in Victoria shows (see p. 24) the Therefore, it is highly disingenuous for the it (saving $75 million over four years), the market is more likely to weave mayhem Minister to say that it is entirely up to uni- Government found an additional $140 than it is magic. As the evidence shows versities to set their fees and it has nothing million over four years for 100 mid-career the contestable market model in Victoria is to do with the Government. Future Fellows. While this is only half the an example of policy and market failure.

page 18 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Estimated Income, HELP Repayments and Outstanding HELP Debt Student completing a 3-year Accounting Degree who takes career break

$100,000 Current HELP Outstanding HELP Debt Income ($p/a)

$90,000

$80,000 Current HELP (2014 values) Tuition fee $30,255 $82,433 $81,739 $81,049

$80,338 Time to repay 20 years

$70,000 $79,459 $77,901 $77,040 $76,749 $76,500 $76,442 $76,374 Total repayments $30,255 $75,397 $74,876 $74,174 $73,408 $73,036 $72,471 $71,969 Real interest paid $0 $70,558 $70,240 $68,789

$60,000 $69,174 $67,818 $64,428 New HELP (2014 values) $50,000 $59,952 Tuition fee $75,000 $55,357 Time to repay 36 years $50,641 $40,000 Total repayments $120,000 $45,801 Real interest paid $45,000 $30,000 $40,836 $35,742

$20,000 $30,516 $25,157

$10,000 $19,660 $14,023 $2,318 $8,244 $0 $46 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 AGE Fig. 2: Estimated income, HELP repayments & outstanding HELP debt for a student completing a 3-yr Accounting degree, who takes a career break

From 2016 universities and other providers indexing them to the 10 year government that if a student undertaking a three year can charge Commonwealth supported bond rate, not CPI as is currently the case. $75,000 accounting degree takes a six year students whatever they think the market To offset these, administrative fees of 20% career break, they would end up taking 36 will bear. While it is impossible to know and 25%, which currently apply to some years to repay a total of $120,000 which the full impact of unregulated prices and HELP loans, will be abolished at a cost of includes $45,000 in interest payments, in competition, educated estimates can be $23 million over the forward estimates. 2014 dollars. It also shows how com- made based on factors like: pounding interest impacts with the level These changes will not only dramatically of outstanding debt being higher when • The relative popularity of different increase the cost of servicing student debt they return from their career break. degrees – the more popular, the higher ($2.1 billion over 4 years), but are highly in- the price. equitable. Students whose families are in a Conclusion position to pay their fees up-front will avoid • The levels of income students expect to having to pay real interest on HELP loans. There is little doubt that the changes to earn from different types of qualifica- higher education funding and regulation tions – the higher expected income, the In order to understand the impacts of announced as the first Abbott Budget will higher the price. fee increases and the changes to HELP; have profound and radical implications the NTEU has undertaken a comparative • The likely level of competition from for our universities, their students and the analysis which demonstrates the impact of non-university providers (based on the communities they serve. The removal of the proposed changes using the example costs of delivering a degree and the the upper limit on university fees together of a student undertaking a three year ac- need to obtain professional accredita- with cuts to government funding will re- counting degree under conditions which tion) – the greater the level of competi- sult in higher fees for students. No longer applied before Budget night, and anyone tion, the lower the increase in price. will access to a public university place be undertaking a similar degree under the solely determined by your academic abili- There will be substantial increases in fees new arrangements. ty but also on how much you can afford or and in the majority of cases this is likely to The analysis (which is undertaken in are willing to pay. be in the range of 30 to 100%. There will current 2014 values and assumes a real however be examples of massive increases For the first time higher degree research interest rate above the inflation rate of in fees in some disciplines. According to students will be asked to pay tuition fees 2%) shows that if the student was enrolled Professor Ross Milbourne, Vice-Chancellor of up to $3,900 per year. It is yet to be before the Budget they would have a HELP of the University of Technology, Sydney, determined what impact this will have debt of $30,255 which would take about the deregulation of university fees will see on the number of students prepared to 10 years to repay. If however, that student the cost of some degrees rise to as much undertake a PhD (see p.29). enrolled after Budget night that student as $100,000 or $200,000. Modelling by might graduate with a debt of $75,000 (as Higher fees together with the imposition , following that by the a result of fee deregulation), take 23 years on real interest rates on student debts will NTEU, comes to similar conclusions. This is to repay it and end up paying a total of also increase the cost of servicing student not denied by the Minister. $99,000 including $24,000 in interest. debt. As the analysis shows this is highly inequitable especially for students taking Changes to HELP While these changes are worrying in a career break who are predominantly The Budget changes to HELP will mean that themselves, when the analysis is under- women. taken for someone taking a career break the costs students face in servicing their For more detail, analysis and updates: HELP debts will increase considerably. The to care for family members for example, www.nteu.org.au/degreemortgage HELP repayment thresholds will be lowered it shows they will suffer from cumulative and students will be charged market outstanding debt and interest payments interest rates on outstanding HELP loans by mounting up over time. Figure 2 shows

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 19 Budget 2014 Winners & losers

The fine print of the Infrastructure & mining ceutical benefits scheme (PBS) increases, and be expected to support adult children Federal Government’s $11.6 billion in funding for new projects. for longer with changes to Newstart. $100 million over 4 years for minerals 2014 Budget has now Seniors exploration, as well as the abolition of been reviewed and it is Minerals Rent Tax and exemption from In addition to pushing the retirement age petrol fuel excise. to 70 and cuts to state based concessions, clear that the ‘Budget seniors will be hit by the fuel excise, hospi- A lucky escape – where the burden’ is quite unevenly tal emergency fees, PBS increases and the Budget will have neutral impact GP tax (which will be waived after 10 visits for concession card holders). However, the spread, with clear winners High income earners biggest immediate impact is the cutting of and losers emerging. While people earning over $180,000 will the Seniors supplement, which currently However, while we are be impacted by a 2% Debt levy, this will sits at $876.20 per year for singles and only apply for 3 years. Safeguarding of $1,320.80 for couples. told that the ‘Budget pain’ major tax minimisation schemes, such as negative gearing and superannuation Health is necessary in order to concessions, offsets any real cuts. In addition to the GP tax and changes to the PBS, the former Labor Government’s both repair and safeguard Private sector hospitals funding agreements will be the economy, does it Overall, the private sector escapes most wound back, cutting $50 billion from state of the Budget pain - the 1.5% cut in the health budgets. Medicare changes includ- really do that? Or is the company tax rate offsets the yet to be in- ing rebate cuts and freezing Medicare Government’s economic troduced 1.5% Paid Parental Leave levy for benefits schedule (saving $1.7 billion) and big business. Support for the automotive changes to the Medicare levy surcharge approach fundamentally industry is cut, but a new Entrepreneurs and the private health insurance rebate. Infrastructure Program ( $484.2 million) is Labor’s multi-million-dollar dental pro- flawed, paying heed more introduced. gram is to be put on hold. to the big end of town Bitten by the Budget – those Research than Australia’s long term who lose out Cuts to major science and research agen- economic future? Unemployed people (under 30) cies of about $880m, including $420m to five science agencies including: Leaving aside the higher education First, it is important to see who wins and changes, school leavers will be expected • $74.9 million cut from the Australian who loses in the Budget. to ‘earn or learn’, with the age of eligibility Research Council (ARC). Winners are grinners – who for Newstart to be raised from 22 to 25 • $111.4 million cut from the CSIRO. benefits from the Budget? years. Young people under 30 years will be • $120 million cut from the Defence ineligible for any kind of welfare benefits Science and Technology Organisation Defence for 6 months and will only be able to claim (DSTO). it for six months before the benefit is cut • $27.6 million cut from the Australian $1.5 billion in spending has been brought for another six months. They will also have Nuclear Science and Technology Organ- forward and, unlike other areas of govern- to work 25 hours per week on work for the isation (ANSTO). ment, the 2% departmental efficiency sav- dole programs while receiving benefits. ings will be reinvested back into defence. • $7.8 million cut from the Australian Foreign Aid Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). Medical research Australia’s foreign aid commitment bears Schools The money raised by the GP and other the brunt of the cuts with $7.6 billion Gonski model school funding to be axed, health co-payments will be invested into slashed – effectively a third of the Budget’s saving around $30 billion. the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) savings. until it reaches $20 billion(in about 2020). Public Service Dividends from the MRFF (expected to be Families $1 billion by 2023) will be used to support As well as imposing an extra 0.25% on Family Tax Benefit B is reduced to $100,000 medical research. existing cuts to departments, 16,500 from $150,000 and will cease when the Commonwealth public servants are to lose youngest child turns 6yrs. Other family However, there is some scepticism in the their jobs, 70 federal agencies have been payments are frozen until 2016-17. Addi- medical research fraternity as to where dumped with others on notice, numerous tionally, families will be hit by fuel excise, this money will be channelled and what government departments will be merged, projects will receive funding. GP tax, hospital emergency fees, pharma-

page 20 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Budget 2014

7645 Foreign Aid 1267 Health Increase co-payments & safety net threshold for PBS Slicing and 1675 Health Pause indexation Medicare bene ts & private insurance rebates dicing too thin 1744 Health Cuts to Commonwealth hospital funding 3467 Health Co-payments for GP, pathology, x-rays This Budget must be 3145 Family Limit Family Tax Bene t B opposed, not only because it is inherently unfair, but 3808 Family Freeze FTB Bene ts for 2 yr, tighten eligibility, end supplement because it serves to slice, dice 1247 Unemployed Cut Newstart for under 30s and spread far too thinly Cuts to funding 1477 Welfare Freeze eligibility thresholds for 3 years Australia’s economic and 4 year totals social future. ($ million) 653 Seniors Stop aged care payroll supplement 2341 Seniors Cut concessions, end supplement Despite the rhetoric of the Treasurer, it is clear the Budget will not encourage 915 Apprentices Stop tools allowance growth (indeed, consumer confidence 534 Indigenous Rationalise programs has already started to fall on the back on the Budget announcements). In 925 Local Govt Pause indexation for 3 years what can be seen as a 1980s ‘trickle 569 Government Increase eciency dividend by 0.25% down’ approach to economic man- agement, the Budget contradicts both 4282 Higher Education Changes to HELP & expand demand driven broad economic research and advice from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has raised concerns over and Defence Housing Australia and the Fund. Other cuts include $3.5 million cut the impact of austerity budgets in National Mint will be sold. to the Torres Strait Regional Authority and a post-GFC world contributing not the National Congress of Australia’s First only to inequality but also acting as a People with a disability Peoples will not get its earmarked $15 major brake on sustainable econom- Criteria for receiving the disability pension million. Funding for Indigenous language ic growth. The view of the IMF has to be tightened along with a regime of support announced in the last Budget will been picked up elsewhere, with the rolling eligibility checks. Recipients under also be cut by $9.5 million over five years. Financial Times’ super-dry economic 35 will also face tougher criteria to remain commentator, Martin Wolf, writing Environment on the pension, with the focus on ‘integra- that ‘not only does inequality damage tion’ into the workforce. Australian Renewable Energy Agency growth but efforts to remedy it are, abolished ($1.3 billion). Government’s $2.55 on the whole, not harmful’. The World Low income earners billion Emissions Reduction Fund (direct ac- Economic Forum’s 2014 Global Risk In addition to other changes noted al- tion policy) to be spread out over 10 years, Report goes further, stating that ‘the ready, low income earners will be impact- not the four years previously promised. chronic gap between the incomes ed by the decision to freeze thresholds of Labor’s Carbon Capture and Storage pro- of the richest and poorest citizens is eligibility for welfare payments as well as gram to lose $460 million over 3 years and seen as the risk that is most likely to the payments themselves. Previously the $525 million to fund the Green Army offset cause serious damage globally in the thresholds were indexed to CPI and so the by $438 million loss to Landcare, whose coming decade’. community groups currently do a similar eligibility would increase as inflation in- It would appear that this Budget is job to what the Green Army will do. creased. Similarly, payments will decrease specifically designed to increase ineq- in real terms as they no longer account for Public broadcasters uity, giving handouts to the big end increases in inflation. of town, while adversely impacting ABC and SBS will lose 1% of annual fund- The axing of the Low Income Superannu- the lives of everyday Australians. The ing (over 4 years), Australia Network to be ation Contributions Scheme, when the Government is aware that the pain dumped (saving $196 billion). mining tax is repealed, will see low income is unevenly spread, and that their earners lose their annual $500 govern- Sparing the big end of town proposed measures target those ment co-contribution. This will impact on who can least afford it. It knows that women in particular, as 50% of women re- It is clear that, far from sharing the ‘Budget these decisions will be detrimental ceive this benefit, contributing an $20,000 pain’, this Budget has been crafted to to many thousands of Australians (it extra to their final superannuation. appease the big end of town, with mining was revealed in Senate Estimates the and corporations not only spared from the Government is allocating millions in Indigenous programs Budget cuts, but actually profiting from it. emergency food and shelter funding It also not so subtly inserts the Coalition’s $534 million to be cut from Indigenous for people under 30 prevented from neo-conservative, market driven agenda, funding, more than 150 programs, accessing Newstart allowance for 6 which seeks to reduce both the role of grants and activities to be replaced with months – money ironically taken from government and the social welfare safety five broad-based programs under the the ‘savings’ made in preventing their net. Put simply, this Budget is a neo-liberal Government’s new Indigenous Advance- access). It cannot be argued that the Trojan horse, seeking to move public poli- ment Strategy. More than $160 million Government is doing this blindly; cy even further to the extreme right. of the cuts will come out of Indigenous they are strategically redesigning our social fabric. health programs, with health savings to be Terri MacDonald, Policy & Research redirected to the Medical Research Future Officer

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 21 Budget 2014 A degree shouldn’t cost a mortgage

The Federal Budget is opposed by as many people as support port. Other universities have been more it. Overall, 70% of voters have indicated critical, but in order to maintain a sem- has seen a very strong opposition to these measures. A summary blance of cohesion Universities Australia of the key outcomes of the research is seems destined once again to seek small reaction from across the available at www.nteu.org.au/degreemort- concessions from the Government rather Australian community gage/news. than advocate a principled position. on many fronts, but The NTEU has been at the centre of the Once again, it is left up to the NTEU to opposition to the changes. Our analysis advocate for a properly funded higher particularly on the of the cost of a degree and the inequities education sector that values equity, access in the higher education measures in the and a quality student experience. Most Medicare co-payment, the Budget have been used and repeated in public contributions by Go8 universities age of access to pensions, the media and by politicians. Universities seem more about market positioning Australia and professional associations rather than statements on the values the and higher education. have also picked upon our analyses. sector should be standing for. Almost as extraordinary NTEU Branches have been organising Join the campaign meetings on campuses calling upon as the proposed changes Vice-Chancellors and student unions The NTEU campaign from here will main- to speak on a platform with the Union. tain two foci. We will continue to fight to to university funding has National President, Jeannie Rea has been block the enabling legislation in the Senate. been the public outcry providing a national perspective and the Participation in public demonstrations, forums have examined the local impacts. public meetings, and related activities all about the changes. It has The focus is upon resistance and not just contribute to maintaining pressure on the waiting for the axe to fall. political process. Branches and individual often been presumed by members are encouraged to visit their local most commentators that, With the overwhelming outcry about the politicians to pass on the message. We harshness of the Budget, the Union has need to agitate for dissent in the Coalition while people care about been heavily involved in organising strong party rooms! Materials to help with that NTEU participation at all relevant events, effort are on our campaign website. Our universities in a general with a strong presence at ‘Bust the Budget’ polling, media and related activities are also and Medicare protests, NUS rallies and designed to support this effort. sense, funding issues in other related activities. Regardless of the actions of the Senate, the sector would never be Campaign material is currently being the NTEU will be campaigning on issues of a vote changer. Bt all that prepared and distributed around the higher education funding for the next two country. And our social media and general years right up to the next federal election. has changed. media exposure has been very high with To effectively do this we need members to Labor and the Greens appropriating and be involved right up to election day and NTEU polling results adapting our materials and analysis for beyond. their own campaigns. Recent polling by the NTEU (and con- Once upon a time it was held that univer- firmed in other polls) shows that the VCs fall short sities and their funding would never be a vote changing issue. Once upon a time… changes to higher education in the In contrast, the Vice-Chancellors seem That was then. This is now. Join the Budget are as unpopular as any Budget incapable of providing a single coherent campaign. measure. voice. At first, the Go8 enthusiastically Even amongst Coalition voters, the pros- embraced the changes that they originally Matthew McGowan, National Assistant pect of significantly higher fees and debt advocated for, before qualifying their sup- Secretary For detailed analysis and up-to-date information www.nteu.org.au/degreemortgage page 22 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Budget 2014

Key things to do to help $100,000 the campaign Visit your local Federal MP Our website features fact sheets and resources useful for meet- DEGREES? ing with your local MP. Visit our website and sign up as a supporter We will send you updates on the campaign, including informa- I DIDN’T tin on actions happening near you. Share materials on social media Follow us on Facebook, or visit our campaign website for a VOTE FOR gallery of our memes and infographics.

Attend public rallies and Union meetings THIS. Put posters up in your workplace The posters on this page, and more, are available as A4 PDF downloads on our campaign website. Feel free to paste them around your workplace!

Get your friends and family involved This is an issue the affects all Australians, not just NTEU mem- bers. Encourage your friends and family to get involved in our campaign. www.nteu.org.au/1stdegree2ndmortgage

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 23 Deregulation of Victorian vocational education A case study in policy and market failure

As we all wait with anticipation for the market to ‘waive’ Impact on students and skills its magic in the deregulated higher education market, According to the latest data from the National Centre for Vocational Education we might ask why such an approach has been such an Research (NCVER), the total number of students enrolled in VET in Victoria in- unmitigated failure in relation to Vocational Education creased by 31.8% between 2008 and 2012 and Training (VET) in Victoria. The Brumby Labor compared to 7.3% for the rest of Australia over the same period. Virtually all of Government’s 2008 Securing Jobs for Your Future policy this expansion was a result of increased enrolments in non-TAFE providers whose introduced a student-demand driven system in which market share increased from 10% to public funding was fully contestable between public almost 40% over the same period. For the rest of Australia the non-TAFE share rose TAFE institutes and private providers for the delivery from 16% to 23%. of VET, not dissimilar to the approach Christopher Pyne The 2014 Productivity Commission Report on Government Services shows wants to impose on higher education. The primary that between 2008 and 2012 recurrent objective of the Victorian policy was to increase the government VET expenditure in Victoria grew by 79.6% which was more than three number of people undertaking training in areas and at times higher than for the rest of Australia (26%). The vast bulk of this additional levels where skills are needed for the Victorian economy. expenditure in Victoria went to non-TAFE The only problem is that this did not happen. providers, who accounted for almost 80% of the $863 million increase in expenditure between 2008 and 2012. This resulted in an unexpected budget blow-out on tertiary education of some $400 million in 2011-12. The fundamental problem with the Victori- an experiment was that record student en- rolments and levels of expenditure on VET did not reduce the skills shortage gap. The Above: Caïn by Henri Vidal (1896), Tuileries Garden, Paris. Wikipedia Commons. Vocational and Education Training Market Opposite: NTEU members protesting against the Victorian Government’s TAFE funding cuts in 2012. 2013 report produced by the Department Photo by Justin Westgate. page 24 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate of Education and Early Childhood Devel- nue, namely teaching funds. The result has providers) are responding buy offering opment perhaps summarises the failures been massive cuts to library and student courses with high levels of student de- of this strategy best when it says: support services. In some regional insti- mand which can be offered at reasonably tutes, more than half the library staff have low costs. Non-TAFE providers are cherry The significant growth in government been made redundant and many closed. picking the market and leaving it up TAFEs subsidised training activity up to 2012 to continue to offer less popular high cost was not always in areas of industry and Reducing library and student support staff or unprofitable courses. economic need. numbers directly impacts student reten- tion and completion rates. Library staff Research undertaken by the Australian Or as a Per Capita report entitled Training play a significant role in student retention Skills Quality Agency in 2013 (Marketing Day summarises, the extent of market through provision of information literacy and advertising practices of Australia’s failure in relation to VET policies in Victoria training and general support. Information registered training organisations(RTOs)) says it all: literacy skills including critical thinking are also questions the marketing practices of ... while market design in the VET sector essential for a positive student outcome. private VET providers. They conclude that has met one of its primary policy objec- Although many students are at ease with up to half of the RTOs it examined are po- tives – increased training completions – technology, this doesn’t mean they are tentially misleading consumers, including it is now getting poor value for its public capable of finding, analysing and using numerous examples of: investment as funds are directed to information. In other words, the quality of • Students being guaranteed a qualifica- private providers in areas of skills surplus. the educational experience being deliv- tion without any need for assessment. ered is under severe threat. The failure of the Victorian Government’s • Claims that qualifications could be policy does not stop at budget blowouts Impact on communities achieved in unrealistically short time associated with public funding going to frames and in contraction to the Aus- non-TAFE providers that are delivering In addressing a public meeting of the Sun- tralian Qualifications Framework on qualifications that are not needed. raysia Education Forum held on the 22nd of August 2012, Professor Tony Vinson was volume of study. Two recent reports from the Victorian highly critical of the TAFE cuts and that: • Students being guaranteed a job on Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) show that completion where the RTO was not in a the VET participation gap between met- ... throughout Victoria the effects of the position to do so. ropolitan and rural Victorian students has cuts go beyond the career ambitions widened since 2008 (Access to Education and training pathways of individuals, • Websites advertising superseded qual- for Rural Students) and there are currently important though those things are. ifications. no more people undertaking apprentice- They have major implications for the • Online upfront payment of fees in con- ships and traineeships than there were 10 wellbeing of communities. travention of national standards. years ago (Apprenticeship and Traineeship Market dynamics Completions). Conclusion A Victorian Essential Services Commis- Impact on TAFEs sion report published in 2012 (VET Fee It would be a brave person to suggest that the experience of deregulating VET The budget blow-out associated with this and Funding Review; Volume II Technical education in Victoria has been anything rapid increase in non-TAFE enrolments Analysis) neatly captures the dynamics of a short of absolute policy and market failure. promoted a policy response from the fully contestable demand driven model as Victoria’s failed experiment has resulted in Baillieu Government which in 2012 with it has evolved in Victoria in observing that: budget blow-outs, massive increase in stu- a $300 million per annum funding cut to ... it is the student who ultimately dent fees, cuts to funding for TAFEs which TAFE. The immediate impact of these cuts decides what (if any) training they will has undermined their viability without included: undertake. If students’ training choices making a contribution to closing Victoria’s • Significant increases in student fees. do not align with the skills needed by skills gap. If similar results are replicated in the economy, there will be an under- or higher education no one can be surprised, • The loss of at least 2,500 TAFE jobs. over-supply of skills in particular sectors. least of all the Federal Government. (p. 49) • The closure of many campuses and cessation of many courses. In other words, as you would expect, Paul Kniest, Policy & Research training (predominantly from non-TAFE Coordinator According to the front page of The Age of Tuesday 8 April (TAFE Funding in crisis), a leaked Victorian Auditor General’s report showed that half of Victoria’s 14 TAFE institutes made an operating loss in 2013 and that at least were considered to be in doubt ‘as a going concern’. In other words, the policy has not only delivered substantial resources to private providers to deliver courses that student want rather than courses the economy needs, but it has also resulted in funding cuts that are undermining the financial viability of many of Victoria’s TAFEs. The funding cuts have had a dispropor- tionate impact on TAFE support and technical staff and on regional commu- nities. The removal of the full service (which included community services for TAFE institutes) funding means that TAFE institutes have to fully fund library and student support services from other reve-

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 25 Budget 2014 Commonwealth scholarships trashed

The Federal Budget Not only does it lock in higher debt for our poorest students, it sets an alarm- claims to create a ing precedent about what Government should, or shouldn’t, be paying for. If the new ‘Commonwealth Start-up can become a loan, then why not Scholarship’ scheme but, in the Relocation scholarship? And, if these Centrelink-administered scholarships can reality it cuts $800 million be loans, then why not Youth Allowance itself? from the existing scheme, And the scheme to meet existing needs, trashes the Liberal legacy 1-in-5 formula for living/educational costs, is being demolished. of Menzies and Nelson, The Budget’s new idea – that one dollar in every five of higher student fees must Their proposal creates a problem without and makes things worse be used for scholarships or other supports a solution, while eliminating a solution to – cannot be used as a defence for this an existing problem. for low-income students. demolition. And, actually creates the need for a new type of scholarship, for fee Cost shifting by levy exemptions or discounts, not currently Before Whitlam abolished fees, Menzies And, calling their new scheme ‘Common- provided by the Government. had in place a widespread system of wealth scholarships’ just adds salt to the Commonwealth Scholarships (CS) which The 1-in-5 formula would have to generate wound. Without a single Commonwealth paid for tuition fees and provided a living enough money to cover two types of dollar being used, and with the money allowance. scholarship: those for education/living raised able to be used for purposes other In 2004, Brendan Nelson re-introduced far costs, plus those for fee exemptions/dis- than scholarships, this is the biggest mis- more modest Commonwealth Learning counts. Initial modelling suggests this is nomer since ‘friendly fire’. unlikely, as 20% of any higher fees charged Scholarships (CLS) for education/living Even if the numbers stacked up, the 1-in-5 is only enough to provide exemptions costs, which universities themselves formulation amounts to a compulsory from that fee for 1 in 6 (16%) of that stu- allocated to low-income students under 25% levy on students to fund something dent cohort. Government guidelines. that governments have paid for since the By 2010, re-named Start-up and Reloca- It is unclear what amounts the 1-in-5 for- days of Menzies. It is cost-shifting by levy. mula will apply to, suggesting that higher tion scholarships, they were moved to Much of our current outreach work with prices will kick in straight away, but the Centrelink and became an automatic top- low-income people is designed to counter compensatory ‘scholarships’ could remain up for those on the means-tested Youth myths like ‘uni is too expensive’. We tell elusive and unpredictable for many years. Allowance, Austudy or Abstudy. Currently low-income prospective students that it these scholarships are an integral part of The grinding weight of debt is quite possible to get by at university by how thousands of low-income students doing three things – accessing income make ends meet. Budget decisions on student debt just support such as Youth Allowance (with compound the situation. Applying a Poor students to pay more its attached CS); working part-time, and commercial interest rate means those who accessing institutional equity scholarships The Budget cuts $800 million from these can’t pay back quickly (poor people and (if family support is not available). We also existing Commonwealth Scholarships over women) will have growing debt, regard- tell them not to worry about HECS debts five years by restricting who can get the less of their income at the time, or even as they will be able to pay them off slowly. Relocation scholarship, and converting the if they are in the paid workforce. More Start-up scholarship to a loan. This loan reason to have the sort of fee exemption/ That sound you can hear is not just equity means that Australia’s poorest students discount scholarships that help low-in- practitioners muttering about what the (who are the only ones who get the Start- come people avoid accruing debt in the hell we are going to tell them now, it’s up) will leave university with more debt first place. the sound of Robert Menzies turning in than their high-income counterparts in his grave as his own party dismantles his The absurdity of the Government’s policy the same courses. legacy. position is that putting up fees and debt It is one of the worst public policy ideas actually generates the need for the new Mary Kelly, Equity Director, QUT ever, and deserves to be strongly rejected type of scholarship, a need that cannot Photo: Robert Menzies in 1960, National Archives of by the Parliament. be met by their proposed formulation. Australia page 26 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Budget 2014 Budget a shocker for Indigenous people

The Federal Budget cutting key legal support programs will Indigenous students will accumulate after have dire consequences. graduation, so an increase in fees is merely contained a number going to serve as another deterrent to Likewise, the cutting of funding to the entering studies. This will therefore impact National Congress of Australia’s First Peo- of nasty surprises for the Indigenous staffing numbers both ples is a move to negate decision-making immediately, and in the future as students Aboriginal and Torres and democratically elected representa- will be less likely to take on RHDs then tion within our communities. It follows a Strait Islander people. Cuts move into the sector as academic staff. sinister trend of Coalition governments. were expected, and pre- The abolishment of ATSIC by the prior Coa- Health impacts lition Government also removed countless empted to a certain degree, community-run services and democrati- Health is another key area where Indige- cally elected leadership. nous people will be adversely affected by but when the news came the Budget. The Medicare co-payment of through that a total of Captain’s choices $7 will be prohibitive to many Indigenous people, particularly those on low incomes When examining education, it’s telling that $500 million had been cut with young families. two of the main educational programs from essential Indigenous the Federal Government feels are worth In addition, whilst the life expectancy gap funding are School Attendance Officers has yet to be closed, the increase in age services, the shock in the in remote communities and the Clontarf to be eligible for the pension does not community was apparent. Sports Academy programs. appear to have taken this into consid- eration. As the current life expectancy School attendance is, of course, incredibly for Aboriginal men is 69.1 years, it is fair In particular, equity measures within Indig- important should we wish for the next to assume that over half of our men will enous education, health and legal services generation to have more employment and never become eligible for benefits that have been the hardest hit and there seems educational opportunities. The problem is, apply to all other Australian citizens. When little opportunity for response. In short, though, in so many of the areas where At- it comes to government commitment to we have a huge fight ahead in a hostile tendance Officers have been installed, the Indigenous health measures, things just environment. infrastructure is severely lacking. School seem to be going backwards. buildings are in disrepair, under-staffing Of particular concern is how the remain- is common, and turnover rates are high. ing funds have been funnelled. Through Most hated man in Australia Should students wish to continue beyond its decision to only focus on remote area the mid-years of high school, many are There is, however, a silver lining. With the allocations, the Abbott Government not required to leave community to attend chair of Tony Abbott’s Indigenous Advisory only sends a message that Indigenous boarding schools in regional centres. Council (IAC), Warren Mundine, stating not peoples anywhere else in the country are only that he is prepared to be ‘the most not in need of assistance, but that the Additionally, while it’s fantastic that hated person in Australia’ over his support remote areas are in need only of programs a program such as Clontarf has been of these disastrous cuts to Indigenous based around punitive measures, rather guaranteed some stability, it should be programs (and then claiming that there than core infrastructure investment and noted that this is a program mainly geared are possibly a further $600 million worth promotion of autonomous decision-mak- around nurturing Indigenous Australian of cuts) a split in the IAC has occurred with ing bodies. In short, the remote areas are Rules footballers and therefore we should the deputy chair, Ngiare Brown, making being underfunded, under-resourced and be asking what the Government plans to her dissension clear. There is a possibility infantilised and all other areas are being support when it comes to less sporty kids, that this will lead to a more robust IAC. barely funded at all. or young Indigenous women. Community action on these measures Reducing democracy Fee increases is inevitable because people are tired of the attacks and it is clear that the ‘Prime The writing was on the wall when it was The flagged increase in student fees is not Minister for Aboriginal Affairs’ is not taking announced, prior to the Budget, that going to serve Indigenous students well, his self-appointed role seriously. funding was being cut to National Abo- due to the increased likelihood of low-SES riginal Legal Services. In a country where status. Celeste Liddle, National Indigenous Aboriginal people are still being jailed at The cutting of the start-up scholarships Organiser a rate higher than that of black people in has already increased the amount of debt the final years of apartheid South Africa,

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 27 Budget 2014 Students question if university is worth it

The decision to attend (NUS) has been contacted by many seen in Australia. The modelling available students wanting to participate in the to us from a variety of sources indicates university is a big thing for campaign against the higher education students will be burdened with debts of changes. We’ve had no shortage of reports hundreds of thousands of dollars. Much young Australians. Even from students that if they had been mak- like the rest of the Budget, it will hit in a context where young ing decisions about their post-high school low-income earners hardest: their interest study under the new system, they would repayments will be so high they will never job-seekers feel employers have made very different decisions. Some repay their debt. would have only studied a Bachelor of Contrary to the Government’s sugges- are increasingly expecting Arts degree, instead of an Arts/Law double tions, there is a tipping point at which degree. Some would have studied at La they hold a tertiary young people will have major hesitations Trobe University, instead of the University about attending university. Fee dereg- qualification, . Some, especially low-SES ulation, massive interest rate hikes and students, rural and regional students and the lowering of the repayment threshold, is justifiably seen as a big Indigenous students, would not have in conjunction with the reprehensible studied at all. undertaking. changes to Newstart and an increasingly Despite the Government’s insistence that difficult job market are that tipping point. With the changes to higher education and the changes will not affect people’s will- For many, university will be ruled out as Newstart arrangements, what is now seen ingness to attend university, their rhetoric an option. as a big undertaking will soon be seen as a about the benefits of increased competi- Australia currently has the sixth low- big risk. Young people will be forced to ask tion acknowledges that debt aversion is a est government investment in higher themselves a number of questions: very real issue. education in the OECD, and has a long • How much will this degree cost me? Fallacy of deregulation way to go in increasing the accessibility of higher education for our most disadvan- • What interest rate will be applied to my If the Government believes a deregulated loan? taged Australians. In this context, and in a market means universities will have to time when investing in a smart economy • What will my final debt ultimately keep fees low to compete for and attract should be seen as a national priority, it is amount to? students, it follows that they recognise a major indictment on this Government that fees factor into the decision-making that they are pursuing an agenda that • How long will it take me to pay that of prospective students. Their suggestions will see university increasingly privatised, debt back? Will I ever pay it back? otherwise are dishonest, and mislead the undervalued and out of reach for all but • Will this debt jeopardise my capacity to broader public into believing that young the most privileged. buy a home? people are without qualms and willing to incur astronomical levels of debt. Deanna Taylor, President National • Am I likely to find employment in my Union of Students We are facing the very real prospect of field of study? Will it pay a liveable wage M@NUS_President astronomical student debt, never-before from which I can afford my repayments? www.unistudent.com.au • If I find myself unemployed, will I be able to survive without Newstart for 6 VIDEO months? And finally, based on the answers to all Student debt: of those questions, young people will ask themselves: is it worth it? It is worth being a horror story saddled with debt for potentially the rest of my life, in hope that I will be able to find Watch NTEU’s latest video work in an increasingly competitive job highlighting the lifetime market? debt facing the next generation of Australian Many young people, particularly those university graduates. from disadvantaged backgrounds, will decide in the negative. Over the last few vimeo.com/nteutv/help-debt weeks, the National Union of Students

page 28 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Budget 2014 Will a PhD become a bridge too far?

The announcement in the research already faced strong competition Budget that fees will apply from the workforce due to the wages forgone to postgraduate research while postgraduates for the first time has so studied. far flown under the radar. Researchers won’t be able to afford But the effects will be the research significant. Coupled with From 2016, postgradu- the effect of compound ate research places will uate fees – a four-year PhD would cost be subject to HECS fees of between $1,700 an additional $10,000 in interest on the interest on undergraduate and $3,900 per year. As with the dereg- undergraduate debt alone. And that’s at ulation of undergraduate fees, this is an today’s 10-year bond rate – the rate to fees while a postgraduate about-face in the way the public benefit of which interest on HECS is pegged. If the is studying, a PhD could higher education – in this case the highest bond rate rose to or above 6%, at which form of education – is valued and funded. the new interest rate on HECS is capped, cost upwards of $30,000. accumulated interest would be more than Last week’s Budget also introduced real in- $15,000 over four years. terest on HECS debts from 2016 – for both Under the Budget, changes to higher new HECS debts and for current graduates Add to this the $7,000 to $16,000 that education fees have been extended to who still carry a HECS debt. getting a PhD will cost in fees, and our research Masters and PhDs. Until now, the brightest students will need to think very vast majority of these researchers did not Many questions have arisen about the in- carefully about whether a PhD is really pay fees, in recognition of the central role troduction of real interest on HECS: is it fair worth it. they play in growing Australia’s capacity to apply it to graduates who entered into in research and innovation across the HECS arrangements with no knowledge People with higher degree qualifications disciplines. that interest would be introduced after the go into a variety of areas of employment, fact? Is it reasonable that the new lowest but the PhD is no guarantee of high Postgraduate study is integral repayment rate (2%) is below the interest income. Indeed, if the graduate pursues to research rate, so that even graduates making a career in academia they will be likely to repayments through the tax system will Postgraduate researchers undertake much undertake further, postdoctoral research be falling behind as cumulative interest of the day-to-day research conducted in work, at a pay rate that is unlikely to be far grows their debt? our universities. Because the PhD often above the median wage. provides the opportunity to pursue self-di- A question vital to the future of Australian Further, research undertaken by the rected research, research at this level is an research and innovation has been missed. Centre for the Study of Higher Education important source of new and unexpected How will the changes to undergraduate in 2011 showed very high levels of job discovery. And, of course, when these stu- higher education fees affect participation insecurity among early career academics, dents graduate they become the research in postgraduate research education? particularly in research-only roles. workforce on which Australia depends for further discoveries, innovations and The majority of postgraduate researchers Our brightest students will need to ask applications of ideas. will have an undergraduate HECS debt. themselves if an extra $30,000 for a PhD is Taking four years out of the workforce a bridge too far. It is important that potential PhDs and to do a PhD will mean that debt will Masters by research students are not quietly accumulate compound interest as Emmaline Bexley, Lecturer in Higher dissuaded from undertaking study at research candidates study (it is presently Education at University of Melbourne this level by the regressive nature of the adjusted each year for CPI only). M@EmmalineBexley proposed changes to higher education This article first appeared in the Conver- On an undergraduate debt of, say, $60,000 fee arrangements. The 2008 House of sation. Reprinted with permission. Representatives Standing Committee – which may be modest as the majority of postgraduate researchers are at Group of theconversation.com/raising-the-cost- inquiry, Building Australia’s Research Ca- of-a-phd-26912 pacity, raised concerns that postgraduate Eight institutions, and these institutions are likely to have the highest undergrad-

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 29 Private providers College owner gets amazing Lib access

The owner of a private Paul Fletcher, Alex Hawke, Zed Seselja and icant federal government assistance, with . more than 60% of tuition costs paid by the ‘for profit’ college who’s government (with the remaining portion You can watch Mr Manly’s presentation to paid back by students through the HECS senior Liberals on the YouTube link at the donated almost $100,000 loan scheme). bottom of this page. He used the occasion to the Liberal Party and to lobby the Opposition for major changes But Mr Manly’s comments grossly mislead stands to make millions to the tertiary education sector, and the parliamentarians because they suggest freeing up of public monies into private that half the cost of the degrees provided from Abbott Government institutions. at GCA would otherwise be subsidised by government if he were a public university. changes to the tertiary Fast forward two years, and last month’s Federal Budget delivered exactly that – an The claim is wildly inaccurate. Business de- education sector was given end to the regulation on course fees in grees at public universities – which are the the tertiary sector, and an estimated $820 sorts of degrees provided by GCA – current- amazing access to senior million boost to private college funding ly see the federal government contribute members of the federal from public coffers. around 15% of the tuition fees, with the student left to pay the remaining 85%. Liberal Opposition, New Mr Manly told attendees that the current system of higher education funding Mr Manly remains unavailable for com- Matilda inquiries have ‘discriminates’ against smaller private- ment, and has ignored repeated requests ly-owned colleges. for an interview, in addition to questions revealed. forwarded by New Matilda. He complained that students accessing And while he was there, he mislead par- public universities only had to pay half the Recently, Group Colleges Australia was liamentarians about Gillard Government cost of course fees (a claim which is wildly referred to the Independent Commission higher education policies, and how they inaccurate – see below), with the rest Against Corruption (ICAC) by Greens Sen- impact on the private tertiary sector. stumped up by government. ator Lee Rhiannon over its links to former Liberal Party fundraiser Paul Nicolaou, At the same time, argued Manly, students Alan Manly, owner of Group Colleges himself under investigation by ICAC for at private ‘for profit’ universities had to Australia was invited to present to a forum alleged illegal fundraising on behalf of the pay 100% of the course fees, plus 25% of more than two dozen senior federal NSW Liberals. Mr Nicolaou is currently list- additional charges for accessing a govern- Liberal parliamentarians, organised by the ed as a non-executive director of GCA. Liberal-Party linked Menzies Research Cen- ment-supplied student loan scheme. tre at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Sydney ‘My suggestion is all students should have Chris Graham and Wendy Bacon on 13 and 14 April 2011. freedom of choice and be treated equally,’ M@chrisgatlarge M@Wendy_Bacon Present at the forum was the ‘who’s who’ Mr Manly told attendees. Additional reporting by Max Chalmers. of senior Liberals in Australia, according ‘Further, students should not be discrim- This article first printed in New Matilda, to (then) Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, inated against based on their chosen 10 June 2014. It is the latest in New Matil- da’s ongoing investigation of private ‘for who opened proceedings. education institution. profit’ colleges, and federal government ‘As well as my very distinguished senior ‘To end this discrimination, the funding changes to the tertiary education sector. colleagues , George Brandis should be the same for all students; not to Reprinted with permission. and Eric Abetz, I should also mention mention the obvious productivity gains to newmatilda.com/2014/06/10/private- frontbenchers who are either here in be made within the education sector by college-owner-and-donor-gets- this room or who will shortly be here,’ Mr allowing the private education sector to amazing-lib-access Abbott said. build facilities and have students choose Watch Alan Manly’s presentation to He then reeled off the names of senior them of the own free will.’ senior Liberals: politicians at the event – , Kevin In reality, the federal government does www.youtube.com/ watch?v=CzOgvISXcj4 Andrews, , Connie Fierra- not pay ‘half the tuition fees’ of students vanti-Wells, , Mathias at publicly funded universities. Specific Cormann, , Brett Mason, courses, such as nursing and teaching, , Scott Ryan, , which provide a public benefit and are Tony Smith, Sue Boyce, John Alexander, identified areas of need, do attract signif- , Steve Ciobo, Mark Coulton, page 30 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Science meets Parliament Science in the House

The 14th Science meets Parliament (SmP) event (17–18 March 2014) provided the platform and opportunities for scientists, government, parliamentarians, industry and community representatives to engage constant evolution set against temporal, Thus, SmP holds promise for a holistic geographical and cultural parameters. Five approach to enabling and empowering and interact with the sole questions are to be considered in guiding science, and through not just mak- the ‘logic of decision’: ing ‘every Australian count’ but in the aim to advance the role provision of scientific literacy for all. As 1. What is the problem? and impact of science and highlighted in a number of presentations, 2. Why does it matter and how much does science and science education needs to technology in Australia. it matter? have a strategic position through ‘science 3. What are the options? being a national political priority and thus The central theme at SmP2014 was Aus- 4. Which one is the best? essential for prosperity’. tralia’s success in the 21st century and the 5. Can we afford it? On reflection, a pertinent starting point engagement of scientists (and students is to support our students better through keen in science) to enable the nation Participants were cautioned that objec- teachers who are passionate about the to flourish socially and economically. tives, data and contexts may shift and discipline and ‘ready and available’ to Research, innovation and communication change, and this may confound both engage in the above exciting develop- were enabling concepts for this theme. ‘logic’ and ‘decision’. The need for concise ments (contents and processes) in science. and vivid reporting was emphasised as The two-day program covered various Science Curriculum & Methodology and opposed to ideology-based polemics. aspects of science communication, includ- Professional Learning courses offered ing science, research and social change, Speakers highlighted that science in teacher education programs need to engaging with parliamentarians, how communication has to transcend these include modules on science communica- journalists work, policy and policy makers, subjective nuances and seek to advance tion, as teachers are pivotal to the uptake priming communication, preparing a beyond short-term imperatives. Govern- of science in the formative years. presentation, addresses by senior politi- ments want solutions that help deliver We recommend strongly for the organ- cians, researchers and directors of various growth, supported by empirical evidence. isers of SmP2015 and beyond to include government and NGOs, and meeting As advanced by one speaker, initiatives science educators and practitioners in this parliamentarians and stakeholders. proposed need to have ‘game changing enabling event to leverage and advance elements’ with explicit ‘breakthroughs’. SmP2014 was unique in having two sci- the role and impact of science and tech- For these proposals to be even consid- ence teacher-educators participate in the nology in Australia. Science education ered, advocacy through a single-voice is forum. The teacher-educators added an and passion starts in the classroom and needed. important facet through highlighting that teachers transform students to valued teachers are fundamental in generating The interactions with SmP2014 par- scientists. interests in science and science education, ticipants reinforced the importance of and pertinently in laying the foundation science education in formal schooling Sivakumar Alagumalai, School of Education, for future scientists. In interacting with levels. If students in these levels do not scientists and parliamentarians, the notion appreciate or are motivated to study the Reyna Zipf, School of Education and that teaching is the first profession a child sciences, there will be dire consequences Arts, Central Queensland University engages with, and the centrality of a for Australia’s science in the 21st century. We thank NTEU for providing support teacher’s role in promoting and facilitat- Importantly, the SmP2014 highlighted the and sponsorship to SmP2014, and are ing scientific literacy and thinking was urgent need for including science educa- grateful to Paul Kniest, Policy & Re- emphasised. tion as an important facet in rethinking search Coordinator and Kelvin Michael, and reshaping Australia’s science policy. NTEU Vice-President (Academic) for A number of presentations and readings Hence, science communication is funda- sharing their knowledge and wisdom. provided the base for reflection and mental to SmP and in promoting science Above: Reyna Zipf, Kelvin Michael and Sivakumar discourse. Presenters emphasised the to all Australians. Alagumalai at SmP 2014. Photo by Paul Kniest. dynamic nature of ‘logic of decision’ and its

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 31 -

US adjunct staff organising inspires Australian academic casual activists

CASA: the house that casualisation built

Early in 2014, Kate Bowles and Karina Luzia formed In its annual report on the staffing of American higher education, Here’s the CASA (Casual, Adjunct, Sessional staff and Allies in News: Annual Report on the Economic Sta- tus of the Profession 2012-2013, the Amer- Australian Higher Education). They share here with ican Association of University Professors Advocate how and why they’re building CASA. (AAUP) reported that only 24% of faculty were employed in continuing positions, either tenured or on the tenure track. This We’re hearing quite a bit at the moment about US higher leaves three-quarters of America’s faculty in different kinds of insecure employment: education as a model for deregulation in Australia. part-time and full-time untenured, or We look at their leafy college towns and ivy-covered working as graduate student employees or teaching assistants. campuses, their deep philanthropic pockets, their Silicon While full-time tenure and tenure track Valley entrepreneurialism, their MOOCs and, above all, employment have increased 23% since 1975, the expansion of the American their higher education rankings, and ask: why can’t we higher education system over the last forty years has been carried on the shoulders of have what they’re having? There are a couple of reasons the rest: part-time faculty have increased why Australia should think twice about following by 286%, full-time faculty without tenure by 259%, and graduate student em- America’s lead. One is the $1.3 trillion owed by Americans ployees by 123% (AAUP, Losing Focus: Annual Report on the Economic Status in student loans, second only to home mortgages. The of the Profession 2013-2014). It’s hard to other is the state of the academic profession. avoid the impression that the creation of this large adjunct workforce is the studied consequence of the overproduction of PhDs across the disciplines, especially in the Humanities. Karina Luzia Kate Bowles This is the background to the adjunct ac- Macquarie University tivism that is now such a visible part of ac- ademic social media. Adjunct bloggers are M@acahacker M@KateMfd backed up by higher education outlets like Inside Higher Ed and the Chronicle of Higher

page 32 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate -

Education, who have recruited adjunct We’ve both been circling this issue for a despite the best efforts of local NTEU columnists, and given prominent coverage while. Kate had been writing online about branches. This makes it hard to counter ar- to adjunct issues. Now American adjuncts casualisation and other academic work guments about casualisation as necessary, are working nationally to share data on issues in her Music for Deckchairs blog. unexceptional and fair. their wages, conditions, and on unionisa- Karina was fresh from involvement in an tion campaigns at specific campuses (see Office for Learning and Teaching project Casual generalisations The Adjunct Project, hosted by The Chronicle on sessional staff, and prior to that, had As it happens, the full-time equivalent of Higher Education, and Robyn May’s article worked for eight years as a casual-ses- (FTE) formula for calculating ‘actual casuals’ on the SEIU, p. 14). sional academic in teaching and research, teaching is an exercise in frustration that across universities, faculties and centres. Margaret Mary’s tragic story only serves to disguise both the actual Both of us are interested in understanding numbers of individuals working casually This has triggered sympathetic main- the affective dimension to casual work: the across many roles, and the actual propor- stream media attention to the realities of practices of belonging, protest, resilience tion of undergraduate teaching covered college staffing, particularly in high profile and place-making by those pushed to the by sessional staff. This is what’s made it cases where adjunct working conditions margins of their workplaces. So we decid- possible for peak bodies in our sector to and human interest collide. In August ed to go beyond online snarking about an dismiss casual academic work as an incon- 2013, an 83-year-old adjunct French pro- executive conference, to create instead a sequential or subsidiary career phase, rath- fessor at Duquesne University, Margaret new space for a more difficult conversa- er than an essential part of the structure of Mary Votjko, died in apparent poverty tion about change coming from below. university staffing or the substance of an shortly after being told she would not be individual’s academic career. offered any further work; in May 2014, Mia casa é sua casa So we’ve heard a lot about portfolio homeless adjunct Mary-Faith Cerasoli CASA became an opportunity to invite ac- professionals: people dedicated to careers began a hunger strike to draw attention ademic workers without job security into a elsewhere and either looking to make to college professors working without safe and neutral platform, to speak candid- some pocket money, or to dabble in healthcare, depending on food stamps, ly about the realities of their working lives university teaching as some kind of hobby. and not just holding office hours in their and put forward ideas for change, without We’ve also heard that casuals focused on cars, but living in them too. feeling that they were being asked yet an academic career are simply engaging Adjuncts took to Twitter and Facebook again to fix up the problems of a broken in a teaching apprenticeship as part of a with protest campaigns: #IamMaryMarga- system in their own, uncompensated time. well-rounded PhD, to improve their chanc- ret and #IamMaryFaith. Testy exchanges es of full-time work later. And we’ve heard Five months later, we have been joined (#notyouradjunctsidekick) between ad- that casuals don’t (or shouldn’t) care about by a small community of writers and sub- juncts and tenured faculty online exposed money because they teach for satisfaction scribers, and we’ve received warm support the gulf of privilege between those with and for the valuable experience—other- and encouragement at many levels. Group careers, offices and research support, and wise, why would they show up? blogging is something Australians do well. the ‘freeway flyers’ making up hours of It’s been a bit like barn-raising, as we’ve These generalisations aren’t evi- work across institutions, hoping not to worked together to put up the frame for dence-based. They’re used to gloss over the get sick, and trying to stay competitive in an online open house for casuals, adjuncts, reality that people end up taking on casual research on their own time. sessionals and their allies. university work for all sorts of reasons, and experience it in many different ways. Salon des Refusés? Our first aim was to offer a platform to Earlier this year, we were both watching anyone who wanted to write about their At CASA, we don’t assume anything except this painful dispute from the sidelines of experience of working casually, so that that casualisation is a serious factor in global academic Twitter, wondering why these stories would be valued at the level the operation of Australian universities, Australian casual and sessional academics of the individual, and not absorbed into and we don’t know enough about it. had a less visibly organised presence. data. Secondly, we wanted to make it Casual and sessional staff are the face of At the same moment, we both noticed harder for senior decision-makers in the university teaching; casual and fixed- that yet another major sector conference future to airbrush casualisation from their term researchers have made significant was canvassing the future of our system agendas, or to treat it only as a marginal contributions to Australian research and without admitting to its dependency on reporting issue – and in so doing, to fail development. University administration university teachers hired by the semester completely to support the wellbeing of and service divisions are propped up by and paid by the hour. their casual staff. casuals. And they’re all doing it backwards in heels, while being ignored or marginal- We also wanted to learn more about how ‘Wouldn’t it be great to mobilise a shadow ised or denied resources to do their jobs to what’s happening in Australia connects to Twitter conference for/by casuals, follow- the best of their ability. ing the UA schedule? Salon des Refusés.’ the experience of adjuncts in the US and Canada, and fractional or hourly-paid staff Join us! ‘I’m in. Those session names alone are in the UK. We’ve been working with the crying out for some kind of (gentle ‘non-vi- organisers of the weekly US #AdjunctChat We think it’s time to ask how this situation olent’) takedown.’ on Twitter to expand this into a more can change. If you’d like to join us, come on over to CASA and subscribe, or email So that’s how we were irritated into international discussion, and we’ve been us at [email protected] if you’d like CASA, by fantasising about an Australian joined by the Canadian Association of to suggest topics we should cover, and version of the first ever Modern Language Contingent Academic Workers and the especially if you’d like to write about your Association (MLA) SubConference that UCU Anti-Casualisation committee from experience. Everyone is welcome! elbowed its way to the side of the mighty the UK. MLA conference this year, bringing adjuncts And finally, we wanted to invite a more CASA together to share experiences and infor- inclusive conversation about casualisation actualcasuals.wordpress.com mation on the academic career realities the data, taking a critical look at the evidence MLA SubConference MLA chooses to overlook. To us it seemed the sector itself uses. We know that casual mlasubconference.org that our own sector leaders similarly staff in universities don’t see internal data, wanted to hear from students, IT vendors, and don’t attend the meetings where this Adjunct Project adjunct.chronicle.com MOOC spruikers and librarians, before they data is discussed. Many also don’t know AAUP www.aaup.org would invite input from their sessional staff where to begin looking for information on colleagues. their work entitlements and conditions,

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 33 What’s in a name? General and/or professional – but definitely not ‘non-academic’

How often do you hear NTEU representatives mumble It was not so long ago that ‘General – oh and/or Professional staff’? For our first many in the sector referred to General or Professional two decades, the NTEU had two major sections of Staff as ‘non-academic’ staff, membership – academic and general. Academics are defining our work by what it easily identified as members of that profession and is not, rather than what it is. classified as such. Two unions covering academic staff in universities and colleges were part of the original merger to form the NTEU. There were also three General Staff unions covering university and associated staff, and Victorian TAFE staff who were called PACCT staff. Over

time, allied sections of other unions in universities joined Matthew McGowan, us along with research and other allied institutions’ National Assistant Secretary staff. Language matters. The way we and others talk about our work contributes to the value and recognition that we expect. This Describing staff who cover many occupations with many can be seen most starkly in the Union’s persistent struggle with media who feel qualifications has become more complex. Universities it necessary to describe the NTEU as the are favouring the term ‘Professional’, but not everyone ‘academics’ union’ despite our repeated declarations of representing all staff in has a professional position. There is a ‘third space’ but tertiary education. this is of concern to academics particularly as there is It was not so long ago that many in the sector referred to General or Professional more talk of ‘unbundling’ the academic role. We asked Staff as ‘non-academic’ staff, defining our three leading General Staff members to comment. work by what it is not, rather than what it is. So what is it we do? We are technical staff, telephonists, librarians, instructional designers, cleaners, security staff, policy analysts, designers, receptionists, archi- tects, engineers, computer technicians and many more. While on one level the title we give ourselves may seem trivial, it relates to page 34 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate What’s in a name?

self-identity and can therefore generate following an occupation as a means There are staff who passionately want significant debate. of livelihood or for gain; any vocation, to be called Professional and those who occupation; [or interestingly] the body equally want to be called General Staff. On an international level, Education of persons engaged in an occupation, or There are those who recognise that some International (EI) has an even more com- calling. roles within the General and Professional plicated set of equations. Its affiliates are staff cohort naturally fit the definition of dominated by unions covering schools professional. Don’t forget, though, that staff who, depending on the country and there is also a confounding discussion level of education, see themselves in a ...a total of 68% of the occurring when people confuse the term very different way than we do in Austral- sector’s current Enterprise professional as a function with the way in ia. Schools also employ a smaller range Agreements that use the term which a job is done. So as a group, what of skills directly as many of the work we Professional in their title and identity should we adopt as we move contend with would be done through a forward? central government bureaucracy. Add to defined coverage. this, the complication of finding a term Personally, I am comfortable with the term that translates across languages and General Staff, but can see a valid argu- retains the same meaning. As a comparator, I looked at what one of ment for Professional and on the weight of the State Government Public sectors calls existing Agreements, I suspect there will In overseas universities, terms also vary its staff. In Queensland, there are ‘streams’ be some pressure for those 39% of us who widely. Support staff, non-teaching staff, for jobs/roles/tasks: administrative; techni- are still called General Staff to change. administrative ataff are all used. cal; operational; and professional – which As for EI, what did they settle on? Educa- is used only for those jobs that require a tion Support Personnel. degree as part of their selection criteria. In our sector, there is evidence to show the intensified professionalisation of General Staff roles and of the staff as a group. According to research conducted about general and professional staff in the Michael Thomson, UK, USA and Australia our HRM, finance, student support, marketing, planning and Branch President Lynda Davies, statistics staff are highly qualified with General Staff describes the many and var- National Vice-President 80% of them holding masters degrees (or ied tasks and jobs we do. General Staff higher) and 60% holding doctorates. (General Staff) is an inclusive term. General Staff are Asking me to declare whether I prefer If we adopt the Queensland public sector admin officers, admin assistants, plumb- the term Professional or General Staff approach and look at which HEW level ers, security guards, librarians, computer to identify the group of employees in jobs require degree qualifications (and programmers, glassware cleaners, universities who do not hold an academic hence intimate which jobs should be technicians, drivers, cleaners, managers, position is not a clear cut ‘question-to-an- classified professional), then data from payroll officers, human resource clerks, swer’ journey. To help inform that journey 2010 shows that 54% of the general and child care workers, personal assistants, I have consulted dictionary definitions; professional staff sit within the HEW 4– IT advisors, records officers, accountants, research on the make-up and proportion HEW 6 bands; a further 31% sit within the technical officers, research officers and a of the General and Professional staff who Hew 7–HEW 9 bands and about 7% are whole lot more. are required to hold qualifications; types higher than HEW 9. Given the fact that of experience and expertise required of Level 4 requires an associate diploma and us to successfully undertake our jobs; and Level 5 and above require either a bache- Professional Staff is an finally what term is used in our Enterprise lors or postgraduate degree (or equivalent exclusive term and doesn’t Agreements to identify us. experience and expertise), then clearly our describe the different work staffing profile indicates that classifica- My long-standing curiosity over why we we do, it’s a snob’s term tions and employer requirements suggest have been called General Staff has been the majority of roles should be thought of partially resolved through looking at the as professional in nature. definitions of general and professional/ Professional Staff is an exclusive profession. There is a strong argument, however, that term and doesn’t describe the different the term General Staff still, in its pure form, work we do, it’s a snob’s term. University According to the Macquarie Dictionary, the most accurately describes us as a group. managements like the term because it term general pertains to, affects, includes, The term General Staff refers to us a com- pretends they treat as ‘special’. Instead or is participated in by all members of a munity and collective, whereas the term of paying us properly, ensuring our work class or group; it is not partial or particular. professional excludes as well as includes. flow is manageable, providing appropri- General is common to many, or most, of a ate staff development opportunities and community. Neither is it restricted to one Nevertheless a scan of the sector’s proper healthy work spaces they believe a class or field; it is miscellaneous. Agreements now shows that 50% refer fancy term will keep us in line. to Professional staff only; a further 10.5% Professional on the other hand is de- use a combination of ‘professional and The term Professional Staff excludes driv- fined as pertaining, or appropriate, to a general’ staff; and another 7.9% use ers, NTEU members who move cartons of profession; engaged in one of the learned Professional as part of the title. There is, books, cleaners, many admin staff who sit professions (theology, law or medicine); therefore, a total of 68% of the sector’s looking at their monitor all day and many and relates to a vocation requiring knowl- current Enterprise Agreements that use other General Staff. edge of some department of learning. the term Professional in their title and Conversely, it can also mean more broadly: defined coverage. www.nteu.org.au/general

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 35 Refugee policy Hope within horror

Most Australians are Organisation for Migration. These were the lucky ones. Few refugees are ever reset- confused about refugees. tled. In 2010, only 0.8% of the world’s 10.4 million refugees were resettled. The vast A recent opinion poll majority either return to their homelands revealed that 60% of when it becomes safe to do so, or live precariously in neighbouring third-world Australians see them countries indefinitely. as migrants and think Arrivals in Australia they come to Australia Asylum seekers are refugees who arrive in Australia in one of two ways. Those able for a better life. Most to obtain a temporary visa fly to Aus- Australians cannot tralia and request protection on arrival. Under Refugee Convention, Australia is comprehend the obliged to consider their request. In many countries of first asylum, however, there is intolerable persecution no way for refugees to apply for a visa. In that impels refugees to desperation some engage smugglers to harsher, although the Government goes to bring them to Australia by boat. great lengths to prevent the public from leave their countries, and learning the true extent of their suffering Although the 1958 Migration Act requires in detention centres. fail to understand the all entering Australia to have a visa, the Convention requires signatory nations Australia ‘s mandatory, arbitrary and different ways they arrive not to penalise refugees arriving illegally, time unlimited detention policy is one in Australia. to treat them humanely and consider to of the most restrictive in the world. Over their claims for protection sympathetically. 6,500 people were in closed immigration More than 90% of undocumented refu- detention in Australia in September 2013 This confusion is understandable as over gees are found to be genuine refugees. and almost 22% of them were children. the past twenty years, both major political Another 1,200 detainees are on Manus parties have referred to asylum seekers In the past, few refugees arrived by boat. Island and Nauru in conditions conducive as ‘queue jumpers’ or ‘illegals’. The current Only 2,000 Indochinese refugees arrived to mental illness and self-harm. This has Government’s military-led Operation Sov- in Australia by boat in the ten years been condemned by the UNHCR as below ereign Borders now employs the rhetoric following the end of the Vietnam War. international standards and possibly in of warfare. As the difference between This is because Australia collaborated in breach of a number of human rights. government-assisted refugees and undoc- international efforts to process refugees Mandatory detention has clearly failed to umented boat arrivals is not observable, in countries of first asylum. Those arriving deter unauthorised boat arrivals since its this impacts on the public’s perception of by boat were not punished, but helped to introduction in 1989. It is economically all refugees. resettle. unsustainable re-traumatises the victims What is a refugee? Australia continues to select refugees of persecution. from camps offshore and provides them Let’s unpick this tangled web. The term I wrote my book Hope. Refugees and their with excellent on-arrival services to help supporters in Australia since 1947 to help ‘refugee’ was first defined by the 1951 them become productive members of the UN Convention on Refugees, ratified by Australians today better understand the community. Three out of four Australians unbearable pressures that force refugees Australia in 1954. It defines a refugee support this. as a person with a well founded fear of and asylum seekers to flee their homes to persecution on the grounds of their race, The hard line seek refuge in an alien land, and the long nationality, religion, political views or history of support ordinary Australians Our current treatment of boat arrivals, membership of a particular social group, have provided to help such new arrivals however, has divided Australians and who is unable to be protected by his or to integrate into their communities. This is risks damaging our reputation as a good her country and has fled to another. a history we have every right to feel very international citizen as it contravenes our proud of. Since Federation, 800,000 refugees have obligations under a number of interna- found a new life in Australia, most since tional conventions. Over the past ten Ann-Mari Jordens the Second World War. Immigration De- years opinion polls have revealed that M@JamjordAM partment officers were sent to the coun- 25% of Australians consistently oppose Ann-Mari Jordens’ book Hope. Refugees tries to which they first fled to process the harsh treatment of detained asylum and their supporters in Australia since their claims for protection with the aid of seekers and a similar per centage think it 1947 is available via Halstead Press at a the United Nations High Commissioner for is appropriate, or should be made even reduced price for NTEU members. Refugees (UNHCR) and the International page 36 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate International Thai academics suffer in latest coup

In a statement issued on 2 June, the NTEU condemned the 22 May military coup d’etat in Thailand and called for the immediate restoration of constitutional rule and for the release of all academics and students detained by the military junta.

As the union representing the staff of Aus- tralian universities, the NTEU is specifically concerned with the round-up of academ- ics and students calling for democracy and civilian rule. The statement continued to say: ‘NTEU, joins with other unions, NGOs and governments in calling upon the Com- The Thai scholars also noted that the The NTEU supports and admires the mander in Chief of the Royal Thai Army to speed and severity of the imposition of courage of university staff and students immediately release politicians, activists, restrictions and arrests of political leaders who continue to gather at Thammasat journalists and academics who have been and activists makes Thailand ‘notorious University and other protest sites. Intel- harassed and imprisoned following the worldwide’ and the ‘international commu- lectual freedom and freedom of speech military summons to cease any political nity cannot tolerate such actions.’ are fundamental tenets of a civilised and democratic society.’ criticism or face prosecution. We are appalled to read that universities ‘The NTEU notes the Australian Govern- have been ordered to monitor political The statement was translated into Thai ment has expressed grave concerns about activities on campuses, and further that and circulated amongst the brave Thai the actions of the military in Thailand some universities responded by issuing academics and students. It was also picked and supports the continuing ‘call on the orders to staff and students to desist from up in the Bangkok Post on 2 June. making any political comment in the military to set a pathway for a return to The Guardian (UK) published a similar media. democracy and the rule of law as soon statement from a group of British academ- as possible, to refrain from arbitrary Academics and students who have been ics on 9 June. Thai academics and students detentions, to release those detained for critics of the lèse majesté law have been have passed on their appreciation of inter- political reasons and to respect human summonsed and we understand that, national solidarity. However, the situation rights and fundamental freedoms.’ quite sensibly, some academics and on the ground is worsening and remains The NTEU applauds the open letter of 23 students have gone into hiding and very dangerous for dissenters. May from an international group of 26 Thai reportedly face house raids by the military. Jeannie Rea, NTEU National President scholars, to General Prayuth Chan-ocha, The lèse majesté law is also being used to which observes that none of the previous charge activists since the declaration of Follow Thai scholars monitoring the coup: eleven coups in Thailand since 1932 has martial law. asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala achieved its objectives, but every time has NTEU calls for the abolition of the lèse ma- damaged the development of law, democ- jesté law, which is interpreted liberally to Above: Soldiers in Bangkok, May 2014. Photo by racy and human rights. not just persecute critics of the monarchy, Saptawee Puthom. Used with permission. but also of the State.

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 37 UK experience signposts Australia’s future Student debt and cashpoint colleges

At the University & Colleges Union (UCU) we have The UK experience been following recent events in Australia closely. Your What has been happening in England regarding fees, debt and the overall government’s plans to increase student fees and to open sustainability of the loan system? Since 2012-13 universities in England have been up the sector to for-profit providers are depressingly able to charge up to £9000 a year for new familiar to staff and students in English higher full-time undergraduates. As in Australia students don’t pay upfront fees but are education. On a more positive note, it has been fantastic required to take up a government-backed loan, which is paid back after graduation. to see the level of protests in Australia at the proposed Graduates must repay 9% of their gross fee changes and budget cuts! income above a certain level of annual income (the current threshold is £25,000). Interest rates on loans vary from 0–3% above the inflation rate. So far, the impact on full-time undergrad- uate numbers has been less negative than one might have feared (one of the reasons for this has been a difficult labour market for young people). At the same time, we have seen a dramatic decline in the number of part-time students in higher education. For example, the number of part-time students in English universities now stands at 139,000 – nearly half the 2010 total of 259,000 students. A recent report, Pressure from all sides: Economic and policy influences on part-time Rob Copeland higher education, argues the axing of government funding for people returning Policy Officer to study, as well as reduced employer University & Colleges Union sponsorship during the recession, are the M@AcademicsAnon main reasons for this substantial drop. Photos: Demonstrations against UK higher education changes. Charlie Owen, www.flickr.com/photos/sonniesedge. Owen, Charlie changes. against UK higher education Demonstrations Photos: page 38 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Student debt skyrockets VIDEO Of course, our new tuition fee regime will Cashpoint lead to increased levels of student debt. A recent study by the influential Institute colleges: how for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that a typical student in England would now leave the student university with ‘much higher debts than loan system is before’, averaging more than £44,000. This compares to just under £25,000 if the open to abuse pre-2012 system (i.e. roughly £3000 annu- al fees) had remained in operation. In a four-month investigation, the Guardian heard from lecturers and students at one of Britain’s biggest private colleges. What they reveal are allegations of serious abuse of In previous years most graduates hoped to the student finance system, with money lent to students regardless of attendance or pay off all their debts by their late thirties, suitability for courses in order to pay fees to profit-making colleges. The investigation whereas future students will continue exposes flaws in a government policy intended to widen access to further education. paying back their student loans until their early fifties. This is likely to coincide with a www.theguardian.com/education/video/2014/may/21/cashpoint-college- period of one’s life when family and mort- student-loans-video gage costs remain relatively high. Despite these worrying scenarios, the whole. Recent high-profile stories about a set of six questions against which we will authors of the IFS report estimate that ‘cashpoint colleges’ have highlighted how judge all new education funding policies, almost three quarters of these graduates our current loans system is being abused asking whether proposals would: by unscrupulous companies. These would not repay their loans in full, more • Make it easier for people to reach their examples, as well as a series of high-pro- than double their projected rate under the potential. old system. file scandals in the USA, should serve as a warning to Christopher Pyne about the • Make it less costly for individuals to One of the reasons for this is the higher dangers of expanding for-profit higher study. repayment threshold (£25,000 compared education. to £15,000 under the old system). Conse- • Increase our academic capacity and quently, a second IFS report found that In England, the rising cost of the student research base. the new English fee regime will do little to loan system has led to renewed specula- tion that a future government will need to • Make the UK more attractive to academ- reduce the overall taxpayer contribution ic staff. per student. For example, the authors look again at the current system. Arguably estimate that it will be just 5% less than it this issue will become more pressing from • Broaden the range of subjects available was under the old system (around £1,250 2015-16 when the current cap on funded for study. per student in 2014 prices). student places ends (i.e. England will have a broadly similar policy to Australia’s • Heighten quality and reduce fragmenta- Of course, these calculations depend demand-led system). Possible changes tion in the sector. heavily on what happens to graduate to the current system might include the Although designed for a UK policy frame- earnings over the coming decades and so introduction of less favourable repayment work (including increasingly divergent the figures may shift accordingly. However, terms (e.g. lowering the income threshold) funding policies in Scotland, Wales and what it undeniable is that this radical and/or raising the level of interest rates. Northern Ireland), these tests may be shift towards greater cost sharing has led A future privatisation of the student loan useful in judging tertiary funding policies to increased financial uncertainty in the book also remains on the cards. in other jurisdictions. system. Finally, the Labour Party opposition has And given the common challenges faced Cashpoint colleges talked about a graduate tax as a long-term by NTEU and UCU, it is important that we policy objective, although their sole con- One of the reasons for the greater level continue to share information and experi- crete pledge is to reduce tuition fees from ence on future funding developments in of financial uncertainty has been the un- £9000 to £6000. checked expansion of for-profit provision our respective countries. under the UK Coalition Government. Future funding policies www.ucu.org.uk UCU has long argued for-profit providers The next general election will take place in threaten the quality of the sector as a May 2015. In May this year UCU launched

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 39 Human Rights Recent actions by NTEU

NTEU National Office regularly sends letters to foreign governments and companies in support of imprisoned or victimised educators and workers, upon the request of education and human rights organisations.

Date Action Requested By Country Addressee/s Issue & Action Taken 20 January University and Colombia Colombian Letter re arrest of academic Francisco Toloza on 4 2014 College Union Attorney-General January 2014. As well as being a leader of the Patriotic (UK) Justice for March, Mr Toloza is a respected political scientist Colombia from the National University in Bogota, and a popular educator and social activist. As a peace activist and academic Mr Toloza was recently involved in the organisation of the ‘Roundtables for Peace’ held in Bogota to support the ongoing peace talks in Havana between the FARC guerrillas and the Colombian Government. His arrest is part of a Government strategy to persecute and discredit critical academics and the Patriotic March. Francisco Toloza Anthony Doyle Prof Amr Hamzawy

30 Amnesty Iraq Prime Minister Letter calling for a stop to the planned executions of January, International Abdullah ‘Azzam Saleh Musfer al-Qahtani and Safa 2014 Ahmad ‘Abul’aziz ‘Abdullah, and the overturning of their sentences. Also calling for an official moratorium on executions and the abolition of the death penalty. 4 March Amnesty Mozambique President Letter re proposed new legislation which will enable 2014 International rapists to escape prosecution by marrying their victims. 5 March Amnesty Iran Leader of the Islamic Letter calling for the bodies of two executed teachers 2014 International Republic of Iran (who were members of Iran’s Ahwazi minority) to be returned to their families, and calling for a stop to the execution of three others and retrial. 11 March Amnesty USA Letter to Board of Letter conveying opposition to scheduled execution 2014 International Pardons/Paroles, (27 March 2014) of Anthony Doyle for crime committed Austin Texas in 2003 when he was 18-years-old, and calling for his death sentence to be commuted. Response received from US Embassy on 12 March: Thank you for your letter dated March 11, 2014 in reference to Anthony Doyle. The death penalty is an issue that many Americans, like many Australians, have strong feelings about, and it remains a subject of robust debate. Indeed, some U.S. states prohibit it while others permit its application in limited circumstances. Where disputes exist, the death penalty is imposed only after a case receives multiple rounds of judicial reviews. Ultimately, though, judgments about individual cases are based on the specific facts and findings in those cases, as determined by the courts. The debate surrounding the use of the death penalty will continue in the United States and around the world, and we appreciate the letters and thoughts that people have shared with us on this subject.

13 March Scholars at Risk Egypt Prime Minister Letter re prosecution of Professor Amr Hamzawy on 2014 charges relating to his academic profession. He is professor of political science at Cairo University and public policy at the American University of Cairo.

page 40 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Human Rights

Date Action Requested By Country Addressee/s Issue & Action Taken 18 March Education Ukraine President and Message of solidarity to Union of Education and 2014 International International Science Employees of Ukraine (STESU) whose Secretary of STESU headquarters were burned down in Kiev during recent political turmoil.

Response received 19 March 2014: Dear friends, Recently we’ve received a lot of letters of solidarity from our colleagues from different corners of Europe and the world. We are very grateful to all of you for your support so much needed today by the whole Ukraine. Members of the Trade Union of Education and Science Employees of Ukraine together with all Ukrainian citizens honour all those who died during the conflict from both sides. Many of them were students and teachers. There is a huge piece of work ahead: to preserve unity and integrity of the country, to build a new system of government, to ensure the return to the sustainable development of the economy. The Trade Union of Education and Science Employees of Ukraine together with other unions will do its best to protect members’ rights and interests in this difficult time.

Hamid Babaei Dr Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Peter Greste

3 April Scholars at Risk Iran Ayatollah Ali Letter re six year prison sentence imposed against 2014 Khamenei Hamid Babaei, an Iranian doctoral student, for allegedly acting against national security by communicating with a hostile government. It is reported that the sole evidence for the charges against Mr Babaei is that he received scholarship funding from the University of Liege, Belgium. 11 April Amnesty Egypt Interim President Letter re detention and trial of Al Jazeera staff 2014 International and Public Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste and Baher Mohamed Prosecutor charged with broadcasting false news; and detention and ill-treatment of five students. 23 May Amnesty Sudan Minister of the Letters re scheduled hanging of Meriam Yehya 2014 International Interior, Minister for Ibrahim (a 27-year-old doctor). Prisoner of conscience Justice convicted for her refusal to renounce her Christian faith. Note: She is heavily pregnant and cannot be executed before giving birth and nursing the child for two years. 29 May Amnesty Thailand Leader of the Letter re arbitrary detention of numerous politicians, 2014 International National Peace activists, journalists academics and demonstrators and Order Council, following the declaration of martial law on 20 May. General Prayuth Follow up letter also sent on 5 June. Chan-ocha 5 June, Amnesty Russian Prosecutor General Letter re abduction of asylum seekers from Uzbekistan 2014 International Federation (Dilshodbek Nazarov and Davronbek Mamazhonov) and their forcible return, and risk of torture and other ill-treatment. 5 June Amnesty Colombia President Santos Letter re concerns for safety of human rights defenders 2014 International Doris Valenzuela, Christian David Aragon and Jose Miller Sinisterra following threats from paramilitaries.

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 41 News from the Net Pat Wright Net snares Budget bombs

The 2014 Abbott Debt have been able to access accurate infor- For the Budget’s implications for tertiary mation more readily, much to the chagrin education, The Scan (the-scan.com) has and Hockey Deficit of various Government Ministers. been an invaluable resource. This website and email listserv provides tertiary sector Consequently, the Treasurer’s withholding (ADHD) Budget has been news and views from the government, certain information which is usually pub- non-government organisations, unions, the most unpopular in lished – such as the impact of tax changes employer associations and the commercial on different household income groups, living memory. Usually, media, all archived and machine-search- and the women’s Budget – were quickly able by keyword. Within hours of the rectified by researchers and the Opposi- the shock-horror aspects Budget speech, The Scan had distributed tion. This goldmine of information has via email the Government papers and first of an austerity Budget fuelled a gusher of analysis and commen- reactions from the NTEU, Universities Aus- tary disseminated through email, listservs are hosed down after a tralia, the Group of Eight, the Australian and blogs to an unprecedented extent. Technology Network, Innovative Research More people have been better-informed few weeks with a bit of Universities, Regional Universities Net- about the Budget more quickly than work, TAFE Directors Australia, Australian smooth talking by the ever before and have therefore become Council for Private Education and Training increasingly sceptical about the need or Government, but this etc. The compilation of comments from wisdom of such austerity. organisations with a particular interest in Budget has so many Many reports released online in recent higher education is much more insightful destructive aspects buried weeks have further undermined the than the generalised comments we get in Government’s case for austerity. Terms the commercial media. in the detail or hidden of trade data indicated a lowest monthly Such online services quickly revealed the deficit since 1980, due, said the Murdoch hidden nasties in the Budget, often buried from first sight, and has press, to a surge in mining exports rather under a mass of more spectacular details, than the economic settings left by the pre- been so poorly ‘sold’ (with such as the average 20% (some much vious Government. The World Bank found higher) cut in the Government subsidy Ministers contradicting that 39 countries and 23 States or Provinc- of higher education places (and a lower es within countries have adopted either indexation rate on those subsidies) under each other and getting emissions trading or a carbon tax. The the deregulation of university fees; the Dec 2013 Quarterly Update of Australia’s stuff just plain wrong), availability of higher education subsidies National Greenhouse Gas Inventory found to 174 providers (rather than 39 universi- that the unpopularity of that the carbon tax had helped drive the ties) under the expected 80,000 additional biggest fall in greenhouse gas emissions in places; the much higher interest rate on the Budget has escalated, 24 years. The Business Spectator rediscov- HECS and HELP debts incurred in the past ered 2004 research by Jeff Borland and Yi- rather than subsided, over under the extension of HELP income-con- Ping Tseng of Melbourne University which tingent loans to more students and the past several weeks. found quite large significant adverse apprentices in the future; the lower-level effects of participation in Work for the (if not lower-quality) higher education Much of this mounting disillusionment, if Dole schemes. The report of the Jan 2014 qualifications from non-university pro- not anger, can be ascribed to the uncer- roundtable convened by Australia 21, ANU viders under the promised lower prices tainty about how much of the Budget will and the Australia Institute, and Oxfam’s of a higher education qualification; the get through the Senate, anyway, so people Still the Lucky Country? report both showed probable transfer of places for low-SES stu- are reluctant to accept the nasties that an increasing tendency towards wealth dents from average-priced Universities to they might not have to. However, some of inequality in Australia. The Household scholarship places for low-SES students at the unpopularity is due to greater access Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia higher-priced universities, funded by 20% to Budget information and enhanced report from the Melbourne Institute of of their additional fee income; and the exchange of information, analysis and Applied Economic and Social Research domesticating influence of indebtedness commentary – thanks to the internet. showed that working-age Australians for all students and apprentices under the have become far less reliant upon welfare Since the then Labor Government’s com- ‘No Upfront Fees’ slogan. payments, contrary to Government claims mitment to Open Government in 2010, of increasing welfare dependency. The net has helped unmask the neo-liberal Budget papers have been made available ideologues who seek to remake the next online under a Creative Commons (CC) The flow of Budget-related commentary generation of young Australians in their licence. This year, the Budget papers and through the internet has been strategical- own image – those who know the price the entire Budget website are covered ly reticulated through various websites, of everything and the value of nothing by a CC licence, and, for the first time, all email listservs, and blogs. Foremost beyond money. Budget tables and data have been made among these services has been The Con- available in csv format, readable by Excel versation (theconversation.com), which has Pat Wright is Director of the Centre for or other spreadsheet software, on the a Budget 2014 tab linking to a compilation Labour Research at the University of Government’s data.gov.au portal. This has of more than 120 articles by university-af- Adelaide. meant that researchers and commentators filiated researchers and commentators. [email protected] page 42 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Lowering the Boom Ian Lowe McDonaldisation of higher education

We all knew what to a drunken sailor: billions for new roads to and the empowerment of critical citizens, a mythical new airport that will probably phasing out such ‘luxury’ courses in favour expect from the Budget: never be built, even more to prop up the of narrow professional accreditation. US military-industrial complex by buying As well as being fundamentally unsound, a whole heap of pre- 58 fighter jets to defend ourselves against there are two practical problems with this possible invasion by penguins or refugees election assurances approach. One is that students’ time is a in leaking fishing boats. turn out to have been limited resource. Jacking up fees increas- We are asked to believe the budget is in es the need for them to do paid work to ‘non-core promises’, that crisis and spending must be cut, when make ends meet, reducing their ability to the Government is trying to abolish the put time into their study. The weekly al- outrageous phrase the carbon price, scrap the embarrassingly in- lowance for full-time students is just above Coalition introduced adequate mining tax rather than strength- half the income level that is regarded as en it, continue the ridiculously generous the official poverty line. So more and more to politics. Tony Abbott treatment of high-income individuals, students are forced to neglect their study subsidise the mining industry with fuel tax to do mindless paid work. famously explained his exemptions, prop up the luxury vehicle The second practical problem is that mar- industry by reversing the ALP crackdown past barefaced lies to ket choices only work, even in principle, on fringe benefits and generously reward in areas where it is possible to learn from well-paid women for having children. Kerry O’Brien by saying our mistakes. The market works for coffee that only his written or bread, since we buy them often enough to shift our patronage away from vendors statements could be ‘taken Opening up university study to ‘the market’ who offer over-priced or sub-standard goods. But most people only decide once as gospel’, so we should not is likely to lead to the to undertake higher education. Having have been surprised when McDonaldisation of higher chosen to study field x at university A, they education ... can hardly then compare the first year of his pre-election promises their degree with the equivalent first year at universities B, C and D to determine turned out to be dishonest. Those of us who live in Queensland which is the best value. Nor can they go see similar dishonesty from our State back to square one and compare fields y It takes real chutzpah to look straight at Government. They are inviting voters to and z at university A. the camera and give the sort of assurances go to their Strong Choices website, which Independent evaluations show that there Abbott gave before the election about ed- pushes the Coalition line that public assets is little correlation between community ucation, health care, pensions and funding funded by taxpayers must be flogged off perceptions of the standing of a particular of the ABC. As Woody Allen said, ‘The most to their mates at the big end of town to university and the quality of its under- important things in politics are sincerity balance the budget. I found that I could graduate offerings. Most universities and integrity. Once you can fake those, easily solve the problem and provide more have strengths and weaknesses; our most you’ve got it made!’ resources for education by attacking the prestigious universities have some degree generous treatment of the minerals indus- Shameless dishonesty offerings that are not as up-to-date as try, but the site is set up to discourage this those at neighbouring institutions, while The usual excuse for having lied before approach to increasing revenue. the election is that things turned out our newest and smallest universities have to be worse than the new government Free market approach doesn’t some outstanding academics and some expected. The Coalition can’t run that line, work in education wonderfully innovative degree programs. since Joe Hockey was saying last year that We should be particularly concerned by But the school leaver is rarely in a position the budget outlook was really awful in the attacks on education. The Coalition to evaluate the options. Opening up order to accuse the Rudd Government of ideology is that higher education should university study to ‘the market’ is likely irresponsibility. not be seen as a public investment in the to lead to the McDonaldisation of higher The ‘Commission of Audit’ was a shameless capacity of the community, but as cynical education: just as the punters can be political exercise to portray the ideological individual attempts to increase their earn- persuaded to pay more for an inferior attacks as essential measures to tackle a ing capacity. This blinkered view justifies hamburger by a huge marketing budget, ’budget emergency’; the same nonsense saying that students should pay more, it will prove equally cost-effective for uni- Peter Costello trotted out when he be- since they are only studying so they can versities to invest in slick marketing rather came Treasurer in 1996. become more wealthy. than improving the quality of education. Everyone loses. The Coalition line is obviously dishonest: It also justifies a market approach to set- Joe Hockey was solemnly saying that the ting fees, charging more for courses that Ian Lowe is Emeritus Professor of pain had to be shared and everybody had effectively give graduates a licence to print Science, Technology and Society at to help with the ‘heavy lifting’ while his money. That in turn encourages universi- . leader was throwing money around like ties to steer away from genuine education M@AusConservation

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 43 The Thesis Whisperer Inger Mewburn Academic assholes and other jerks

About a year ago, I wrote or write up their Big Idea. And that is to power. There are many reasons why where jerkish attributes can start to people stay silent. Junior academics are a post on my blog called creep in, whether or not with conscious often on time-limited contracts and fear or malicious intent. rocking the boat in case they are left out ‘Academic assholes and to sea when it comes time for contract Athene goes on to highlight the self- renewal. I see the same behaviour in PhD the circle of niceness’. In it ish behaviour that results from these students who are too afraid to hold their self-focussed drives, such as leaving all I asked ‘do academics get ‘star supervisors’ to account for lack of the teaching to junior academics and not time and care reading and providing feed- doing a fair share of the ‘invisible work’ further in their career if back on their theses. While doing research of the department: serving on commit- about administrative procedures a couple they act like jerks?’ I wrote tees, sitting on selection panels and so of years ago I was shocked by how often I on. Some staff members, Athene claims, the post after reading The heard the similar sentiments expressed by become particularly adept at appearing professional staff too. No Asshole Rule by Bob ‘useless’ at routine chores unless they have something at stake, like paperwork to Sutton, which included ensure a grant application is put through, research suggesting we or ensuring their favourite student gets a It’s pretty convenient, isn’t scholarship. it, that the selfish behaviour tend to assume mean by senior members of staff Selfish academics? people are cleverer than which enables them to ‘focus Are many academics selfish? Google on their research’ also results nice people. My contention defines the word ‘selfish’ as ‘… lacking in junior faculty members consideration for other people; concerned was, since cleverness is chiefly with one’s own personal profit having less time on their hands? so valued in academia, it or pleasure’. I’m not sure about you, but I’ve encountered my fair share of these might be advantageous to creatures during my travels through aca- demia. How much does selfishness play a be an asshole. role in building and reinforcing academic People clearly hesitate to formally ‘out’ hierarchies? those who under-function, but senior If this is true, people who play nice would management would be well advised to tend to be under-valued, even pushed out, It’s pretty convenient, isn’t it, that the listen to the silence because it really is the which, over the long term, would feed an selfish behaviour by senior members of most powerful form of communication. If increasingly nasty and unhappy work- staff which enables them to ‘focus on you are reading this think about next time place. I suggested one way to counter their research’ also results in junior faculty you are tempted to avoid filling in a form, this problem was to consciously cultivate members having less time on their hands? sit on a selection panel or provide advice what my friend Rachael Pitt calls ‘the circle If those enthusiastic level A and B lecturers to a curriculum design working party in of niceness’. Inside a circle of niceness we are managing huge first year classes, or order to ‘concentrate on research’. Who is know and trust that colleagues will be representing the department at central really benefiting – and who is stuck with generous and supportive of each other. committees, they have way less time to be your dirty dishes? doing research. As it turned out, this post really struck a Dr Inger Mewburn does research on nerve. It’s one of the few posts I’ve written And it just so happens that having time to research and blogs about it, too. do research might make these young- to truly go viral. To date it has been read www.thesiswhisperer.com sters competitive in future grant rounds. by over 90,000 people and has sparked a M@thesiswhisperer lot of follow up blog posts, newspaper ar- Eventually we see an entrenched hierarchy ticles and commentary (even from Sutton where, as Athene puts it: ‘Academic assholes and the circle of himself), which has been very pleasing. … the worst offenders hold too much niceness’ power, too much money and have been Recently, the excellent Occam’s Typewriter thesiswhisperer.com/2013/02/13/ securely established as the departmen- blog maintained by Professor Athene Don- academic-assholes/ ald of Cambridge University devoted two tal golden boys (or girls). They have Occam’s Typewriter posts to the concept of academic jerkiness achieved this by virtue of the fact that in a way that made me think more about they get their way in the world by their occamstypewriter.org the problem. I encourage you to read the brutish behaviour and so acquire the posts, but what struck me was this state- resources necessary in order to make ment in the second one: yet further progress. Many academics simply don’t care Bullying and intimidation about the big, departmental picture, The potential for bullying and intimidation they only want to solve their pet increases when those who are empow- problem, get their experiment to work ered within this system do not speak back page 44 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate Letter from Aotearoa/NZ Lesley Francey Kiwi tertiary staff working in fear

Underfunding. Commercialisation and job crooked ideas. As unionists and members insecurity of the public who believe in collaborative, Reviews. Restructures. accessible institutions, we must fight The squeeze in our universities and that agenda. We need to wake up to the Redundancies. It’s a polytechnics has been so marked that changes being done to our sector that familiar pattern, and one countless staff are living under a cloud of make it unrecognisable, but for more than job insecurity. They fear for themselves ourselves. This is a battle for the heart of you’ll be experiencing and their families. With mortgages, rent the tertiary education sector. It’s about and ever-increasing bills to meet, our whether tertiary education this century more and more with members need certainty again. But our will be about congeniality, debate and the first Abbott budget governments in Canberra and Wellington cooperation; or division, dictation and aren’t listening; in fact they’re driving the competition. set to take the knife to squeeze for their own purposes. tertiary education in Your Minister for Education, Christopher One staff member said in Pyne, has championed his reforms as the Australia after years of building blocks for achieving an Australian our survey ‘the emphasis Harvard. But at what cost? And why? The on the commercialisation luke-warm support from Anzac spirit is one of egalitarianism. The of education, where money- Labor. Across the ditch, idea that Jack is as good as his master, and orientated decisions are that come hell or high water we all work eroding the intrinsic value here in New Zealand, a towards a society that is better, fairer and more just than the places many of our an- of education... has damaged similar cycle of cutbacks cestors left in Europe. Deregulation of fees collegiality and mutual continues to count its and cuts to research funds will not achieve support.’ that society. His low-income scholarships victims and near-victims. are a cruel joke for working class kids who During March and April will cough up for up to 60% higher fees. Hope for the future In a similar fashion, the New Zealand Our sector is supposed to be the critic alone our union dealt Government, which is spending half a and conscience of our societies. How can billion dollars less on tertiary education with 59 reviews and we fulfil that role when we work in fear than it did six years ago, is busy pushing of our livelihoods? With the number of our demoralised and underfunded sector restructures, across reviews, restructurings and redundancies to pursue its own ideological goal of total rife within the New Zealand tertiary edu- 16 different tertiary commercialisation of the sector. Predicta- cation sector how can our comrades be bly, the Government’s messages are being institutions, affecting over expected to be that critical, leading voice heard loud and clear by managers at the under a cloud of fear, let alone be certain coalface. 350 employees. they have a job come Monday. Just last month, the University of Auckland And what is the impact of a sector tread- The answer is they can’t. But it can be doled out three Vice Chancellor’s ‘Com- ing water? Of all those reviews and savings different. The insecurity juggernaut can be mercialisation Medals’. While I say good targets? It is the staff that cop it and dread halted. With no Coalition majority in the on the researchers who were awarded it. Senate, there is a real chance for stopping them, I am concerned when 67% of the the Abbott Government’s nasty cuts in staff in our survey say that the commer- Our recent ‘State of the Sector’ survey Australia. With New Zealand’s general cialisation agenda has negatively affected reveals that three out of five tertiary election taking place in a few short their working life. One staff member said education workers believe that their job months, there is equal cause for hope that in our survey that ‘the emphasis on the will be restructured within the next two we can put an end to this madness. But we commercialisation of education, where years, and 30% believe they will be made will only get there through our own work money-orientated decisions are eroding redundant. and organising. the intrinsic value of education...it has Many commentators in the media still damaged collegiality and mutual support.’ Let’s part that cloud of fear, and amplify think of the tertiary education sector as Many are beginning to see how these our calls for a sector that champions the being filled with secure, plum jobs with issues are deeply connected. best in humanity and community. Let’s degrees of autonomy. bust the budget and all budgets like it. In 2014, the reality could not be more For-the-few agenda Let’s put an end to this awful cycle on different; 43% of staff feel that there has It is becoming clear that for our gov- both sides of the Tasman. been an erosion in their working condi- ernments and their ideological allies to Lesley Francey is National President/ tions while a majority have seen deterio- achieve their commercialised, for-the-few Te Tumu Whakarae, New Zealand ration in the recognition of their contribu- agenda, they need insecure workforces. Tertiary Education Union/Te Hautū tion. In reality, its reviews, restructures and They need staff that work away in fear and Kahurangi o Aotearoa redundancies which reign. have little or no capacity to challenge their www.teu.ac.nz M@nzteu

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 45 My Union

The conference involved a series of work- Ultimately, good organising is about Organising shop discussions where staff were able engaging with members and other to drill down to the nitty-gritty about the university staff; developing and support- positive and negatives of NTEU organising; ing workplace activists and delegates; our the way we communicate with ourselves working to implement the Union’s policies and members; our collective approaches and initiatives, and providing inspiration to planning and co-ordination; the range and leadership during the hard times as Organisers of tasks that organisers perform. well as the good. Guest speaker Tim Kennedy from the It can be a tough and sometimes thankless NTEU organising staff from National Union of Workers spoke about his job, but the rewards can also be high around the country gathered experiences of grappling with organising when members are empowered to achieve for a three day residential work in other sectors of the workforce, good collective outcomes for themselves, conference in March in the where it was clear that good organising through the organising work we do. skills are common regardless of the indus- picturesque surroundings of The overwhelmingly positive feedback try or sector in which you are working. the Yarra Ranges, just outside from participants at the Conference means Melbourne. ACTU Educator/Organiser Jane Clarke that this initiative was a big step towards spoke about the research done on the being able to provide more cohesive and crucial role of organisers in developing effective organising strategies for NTEU The first national conference for organis- effective delegates networks in active members in the future. ers in nearly four years, the theme for the workplaces, and some strategies around gathering was to examine the obstacles how we can better focus on this. Michael Evans, National Organiser at different levels of the Union to effective Below left: Celeste Liddle (Indigenous Organiser), organising work, and to start developing The final session of the conference pro- strategies for improving our work. duced a statement broadly covering the Jeannie Rea (National President) and Adam Frogley range of issues identified by the partic- (Indigenous Coordinator) with Aunty Dot Peters who It was a great opportunity for organisers ipants for further work. This has since performed the Welcome to Land. Below right: NSW to simply talk with each other about their resulted in an action plan developed by Senior State Organiser, Jo Kowalczyk addressing the experiences. Many NTEU organisers work the National President Jeannie Rea, which group. Bottom: The full conference group. Photos by day-to-day from a single person office on the senior organising staff group and Un- Paul Clifton. a university campus, and it was reassuring ion Education staff will take responsibility for them to understand that the challeng- for working through over the next six to es they face in doing their jobs are similar twelve months. for many organisers elsewhere.

page 46 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate My Union Temporary incapacity & your super

If you are a member of unable to perform their own duties The fact sheet contains detailed advice UniSuper in either the Defined or any other duties for which they are about how ASF is calculated and other Benefits Division (DBD) or reasonably qualified by training and particulars about the way the benefit Accumulation 2, then it is in experience and which are available at salary is derived. your interest to take a couple the member’s employer where: In considering a member’s overall finan- of minutes to read this article. • The member has been absent from cial position when receiving the tempo- If you are experiencing, or employment through injury or illness rary incapacity benefit, it is important to ever do experience, chronic for three months within a period of note that during such periods, UniSuper or significant health issues, twelve consecutive months imme- continues to pay both the 14% employer then this may be one of the diately prior to the date of making a contribution and the 7% standard mem- claim for a benefit on the grounds of ber contributions to the superannuation most important pieces of temporary incapacity, and scheme. information you need to know. • The Trustee is satisfied that the state Fact 6 UniSuper provide an informative fact of health is not due to or induced by any wilful action on the part of a Your temporary incapacity benefit will sheet about temporary incapacity and cease if: ... the facts quoted in this article are set out member to obtain a benefit. in more detail on their website. Unlike workers’ compensation, the • you qualify for a disablement benefit or terminal medical condition... What is temporary question (apart from the ‘wilful action’ exception) is not how did you become In the event that a member’s health does incapacity? sick, but are you sick as per the tempo- not improve after the maximum time Fact 1 rary incapacity definition. Providing you on temporary incapacity or deteriorates have the medical evidence to support significantly while on incapacity, then Temporary incapacity benefits are an the claim and meet the eligibility criteria a member can apply for a permanent inbuilt feature of your membership. for application, then your chances of disablement benefit. In other words, as a member of either being accepted into the Scheme are very good. More information about permanent dis- DBD or Accumulation 2, you have ablement can be found on the UniSuper been automatically contributing to the Fact 4 website. scheme as part of your normal superan- nuation contribution. A temporary incapacity benefit will How can I find out more about generally be paid for a period of up temporary incapacity? Fact 2 to six months, as determined by the If you are temporarily unable to work Trustee. The Trustee may approve ad- If you want to find out more about due to injury or illness, you may be el- ditional periods up to a maximum of temporary incapacity, you can access the igible to claim a temporary incapacity two years if the claim is in relation to UniSuper website, contact your NTEU benefit. the same or related injury or illness. Branch or Division Office or contact your local university superannuation officer. On a number of occasions over the years, Under the terms of Clause 40.6 of the I have seen members who are on the UniSuper Consolidated Trust Deed, em- If you know of a colleague who is expe- point of resigning because they have ployers are required to keep a suitable riencing significant health issues, please used up all or almost all of their available position available for the member on refer them to this article or the other leave trying to deal with their health temporary incapacity for the duration of listed sources of information. the period of incapacity. In my experi- issues. Finally, as a staff member who has ence, this has meant that where health seen many members accepted into the The good news for members in DBD or outcomes have improved for members temporary incapacity scheme, I express Accumulation 2 is that there is an alter- on temporary incapacity, they have been my appreciation and thanks to the native to resignation and that is applying able to return to their positions. for temporary incapacity. In the cases I original architects of this scheme which have been involved in, all members who Fact 5 has proven to be so beneficial for staff experiencing major health issues. applied were subsequently accepted for The maximum monthly benefit pay- temporary incapacity. able is determined according to the Kathy Harrington, Industrial Officer, Fact 3 following formula: SA Division www.unisuper.com.au Temporary incapacity is defined as: Benefit Salary x 60% x Average Service Fraction (ASF) A state of health which, in the opinion of the Trustee, renders a member 12

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 47 My UnionIntroducing journey injury insurance for all NTEU members. www.nteu.org.au/traveltowork

Travel To Work Insurance

As an individual you could be paying • Maximum 104 week benefit period. Free travel to hundreds of dollars per year to get this • Death and capital benefits of up to valuable insurance cover, but as a financial $100,000. work insurance member of the NTEU, it is absolutely free! • Covers members up to age of 75 (some The insurance covers all NTEU financial restrictions for members aged over 70). for members members for injuries sustained during direct travel between their usual place of • Covers any difference which may exist The NTEU believes our residence and place of employment or between the compensation payable un- members should not be put at place of training for work. der motor accident legislation and the benefits specified under the policy. risk of financial hardship as a • Coverage for 85% of your weekly salary, result of simply travelling to and up to a maximum of $1,500 gross per For more information, contact IFS Insur- from work. That is why, from 1 week. ance via email [email protected] or call 1300 768 118. April 2014, all NTEU members • Waiting period of 14 calendar days will be automatically covered where sick or annual leave can be used. www.nteu.org.au/traveltowork for journey injury insurance.

page 48 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate My Union

Carolyn NTEU Allport Vale Jim The Carolyn All- McAllister scholarships port Scholarship for postgraduate feminist studies, NTEU CQU Branch lost Entries are now being accepted by research, is an inspiring friend and for the 2015 Joan Hardy worth $5000 per colleague when Jim Scholarship for postgraduate year for a maxi- McAllister passed away nursing research, and the mum of 3 years. on 29 March after a short inaugural Carolyn Allport The NTEU has established the scholarship illness. Jim, a proud life Scholarship for postgraduate in recognition of Dr Carolyn Allport’s member of the NTEU, was feminist studies, by research. contribution to the leadership and development of the Union in her 16 years a strong advocate on social as National President from 1994 to 2010. justice issues. Joan Hardy Carolyn became a prominent lobbyist at NTEU established both the national and international levels Jim was a lectur- the $5000 Joan including as a consultant for UNESCO, er in Sociology Hardy Scholarship through Education International. De- respected by for postgraduate scribed as a ‘warrior for women’, Carolyn colleagues and nursing research was tenacious in advocating for women’s students for in memory of the rights to employment equity. She was his humility, late Joan Hardy, particularly influential in the struggle for humour, sense who died in 2003. paid parental leave, establishing the NTEU of fairness and as the leader in setting high benchmarks what is right. He Joan Hardy was active in higher education for other unions and employers to match. worked at CQU from 1992 until his unionism for over 30 years, during which retirement in 2008. Although Jim was time she held many positions at local Carolyn is also recognised as a leading pleased that he had earned a PhD, he and state levels. She was the first woman advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait did not like the use of any honorific President of UACA (one of the predeces- Islander education, employment and and almost never allowed himself to sors to NTEU) a position she occupied for social justice. be referred to as ‘doctor’. five years. Carolyn worked as an academic for over 20 Although Jim was a dyed-in-the- Joan was a tireless advocate for union years at Macquarie University. Her teach- wool atheist, his personal philosophy amalgamation and was a key negotia- ing and research publications were in the was informed by his exploration of tor in the formation of NTEU, becoming areas of economic history, urban politics, religions when he was a young man. Vice-President when the Union was public housing and women’s history. He was profoundly influenced by the formed in 1993. Applications Quakers (Society of Friends) and their The Scholarship is available for any commitment to non-violence, refusal student undertaking a study of nurses, Applicants for both scholarships must be to participate in war, refusal to swear nursing culture or practices, or historical currently enrolled in an academic award oaths and opposition to slavery. Jim aspects of nursing as a lay or professional of an Australian public university, and be a epitomised these beliefs and they practice. The student need not therefore member of a union. Applications close on served to further shape his commit- be or have been a nurse and can be un- Thursday 31 July. A decision will be made ment to social justice, equity and an dertaking the study in disciplines/schools in late August 2014. Visit the link below abhorrence of any system that arti- other than nursing. for full information. ficially determined a person’s worth – thus their access to basic human Helena Spyrou, Education & Training Payment will be in two instalments; half on rights – according to wealth or power Officer the awarding of the Scholarship and the over others, preferring the power remainder on evidence of submission of www.nteu.org.au/myunion/ of joining with ordinary people to scholarships the thesis. achieve change. Jim was a selfless worker for the union movement. Whether it was Affordable health insurance helping to organise the local Labour Day march or manning the picket NTEU members now have access to UniHealth – a new health lines, Jim was always present with his pithy advice and gems of wisdom insurance provided to union members and their families. pasted to a placard or his homemade cardboard A-frame. UniHealth has been developed in consultation with the Teachers Health Fund. The fund offers some of Australia’s Jim will be fondly remembered by lowest premiums and is only available to union members his friends, colleagues and comrades and their families. In difficult times, the NTEU is always for his ‘good life’. Farewell for now, there to look out for our members. Jim.

unihealthinsurance.com.au Bill Blayney, NTEU CQU Branch President

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 49 My Union

Amber has spent the last decade working New NTEU staff on community and election campaigns, as a political staffer at both state and federal Please welcome new staff in levels and for a fleeting moment in 2013 as NTEU Branches and Divisions. an Organiser at Southern Cross University. Amber enjoys formulating plans, sticking to them, talking with members and long Glenn Walsh walks on the beach. Industrial Organiser, WA Glenn joined the WA Division in February, having previously been employed as a Lead Organiser with the CPSU/CSA. Phil Mairu, Aboriginal & Torres Employed as a school teacher for 17 years, Strait Islander Organising & Glenn has since been a business owner, Recruitment Officer, Qld and a Business Development Manager Matthew Partridge working with labour market services Phil is a Torres Strait Islander, from Badu Branch Organiser, ACU throughout Australia and abroad. He views Island on his mother’s side and Seisia on Matthew has recently taken up the newly his new role as an advocate for Union Cape York on his father’s. He grew up in created position of Australian Catholic Uni- members as an opportunity to assist peo- Townsville before moving to Brisbane, versity Branch Organiser, based in Sydney. ple who are experiencing difficulties in the where he began studying Politics and He is very excited to work with members workplace on an individual basis. International Relations at Griffith. from all seven ACU campuses in each of Phil began working in the Careers and Em- the five States where they are based. ployment Service, supporting Indigenous Matthew joins the NTEU from the UK cadetships and graduates for three years. where he worked for the National Associ- His interest in Indigenous employment ation of Schoolmasters Union of Women led him to gain a role in the NTEU National Teachers, the Association of Teachers and Growth team in 2013. This has evolved into Lecturers and the Trades Union Congress. Emily McMillan the Walking to a Different Drum Project, Prior to his career as a Union Organiser, Industrial Officer, NSW with Phil recruiting and organising Indige- Matthew worked in public relations in Having worked on a number of union nous staff in Queensland universities. Westminster, and has been an active cam- campaigns with members from industries paigner for the British Labour Movement as diverse as cleaning, nursing and the for many years. public sector, Emily joins the NTEU with Matthew has a BA Hons in Politics and over 12 years’ experience in campaigning, International Relations from the University industrial work and organising. of Kent and a Diploma in Trade Union Emily completed her double Arts/Law de- Organising from Ruskin College, Oxford. Ryan Costello gree at UOW and has most recently stud- Branch Organiser, Curtin ied community organising under Marshall Ganz at the Harvard Kennedy School. Ryan joined the NTEU in May after working Whilst Emily is involved in some communi- at the CPSU as a Field Organiser empower- ty organising projects outside of work, in ing Department of Human Services (Medi- her spare time you will find her on a beach care, Centrelink and Child Support) staff somewhere with a good (or not so good) to maintain and improve their conditions. Noeline Rudland book. Ryan brings a vast range of experience Industrial Officer, Qld with particular strengths in campaigning and recruitment. Noeline has been a union and community activist since 1971. In 1996 she was award- Recently, Ryan acquired experience help- ed Life Membership of the Australian ing to recruit and mentor 500 Volunteer Services Union (ASU). Noeline has worked Organisers in Senator Scott Ludlam’s cam- in a number of areas, predominantly in paign team for Scott’s re-election. social and community services, health Christian O’Callaghan and law including as National Secretary of the Australian Social Welfare Union and Industrial Officer, NSW Assistant National Secretary of the ASU for Christian is a solicitor and joins the Union 8 years, until called to the Bar in 1995. from the Transport Workers’ Union of , where he led the legal team Noeline practised as a barrister until her as the Senior Legal Officer. appointment to the NTEU Queensland Amber Jacobus Division. She has taken a sabbatical from Christian is looking forward to working Branch Organiser, UWS the Bar to work for the Union. with the NTEU team and achieving results for our members. He recently immigrated In 2003, the course Amber was studying Since 1988, Noeline has worked in many to Australia from the UK with his partner at the University of Western Sydney was jurisdictions but predominantly in Diana. Shortly after arriving they had a cut under the Nelson reforms, spurring her industrial, professional disciplinary and baby girl, Aoife, who has just celebrated into action, activism and organising. She discrimination jurisdictions in most States her first birthday. has never looked back. and Territories. page 50 • NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate My Union

Now open: shop.nteu.org.au NTEU Tax NTEU’s revamped Guide 2014 online store is now open and stocked The annual NTEU Tax with heaps of new Guide, published with merchandise for Teacher Tax, will be members. available We have new ‘Proud online Union Member’ from t-shirts, eco- 1 July. products, Union- branded pens, mugs and iPhone covers, beanies, hoodies and brollies to keep you warm and dry this winter, and even NTEU jewellery to really show off your union solidarity. nteu.org.au/tax

Paying fees via direct debit, credit Finding your annual NTEU Tax Statement card or invoice Paying fees via payroll deduction TAFE members and ex-members Statement can be accessed from your online Member Tools page. Login in at Membership fees will appear on the Tax statements will be sent to your home www.nteu.org.au/members and click on PAYG summary supplied by your em- address in early July. Print Tax Statements in the Payments ployer. Contact your Payroll Department box. Statements will not be mailed out. for any inquiries regarding this.

Your NTEU membership details When and how to update them

Have your workplace Has your Department/ address details (office, Update online: School changed its name building, campus) Go to www.nteu.org.au or merged? changed? Click on ‘Member Login’ ID = Your NTEU membership number Have you moved Password = Your surname in CAPITALS house? Go to ‘My Home’ Required if your home address is Has your name changed? your nominated contact address. Select ‘Your Profile’ then ‘View Details’

Have you moved to a Have your employment Please contact: different institution? details changed? Transfer of membership between Please notify us to ensure you are Melinda Valsorda, Membership Officer institutions is not automatic. paying the correct fees. (03) 9254 1910 [email protected]

Have your credit card Are you leaving Please contact: or direct debit account university employment? Deductions will continue until the Tamara Labadze, Finance Officer details changed? National Office is notified. (03) 9254 1910 [email protected]

Contact your institution’s Payroll Department Have your payroll deductions stopped without your authority? urgently

NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 2 • June 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 51 NATIONAL TERTIARY EDUCATION UNION MEMBERSHIP FORM  I want to join NTEU  I am currently a member and wish to update my details The information on this form is needed for aspects of NTEU’s work and will be treated as confidential.

YOUR PERSONAL DETAILS

TITLE |SURNAME |GIVEN NAMES

HOME ADDRESS

CITY/SUBURB |STATE |POSTCODE HOME PHONE WORK PHONE INCL AREA CODE | INCL AREA CODE | MOBILE EMAIL |DATE OF BIRTH | MALE  FEMALE  OTHER ______HAVE YOU PREVIOUSLY BEEN AN NTEU MEMBER?  YES: AT WHICH INSTITUTION? |ARE YOU AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL/TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER?  YES YOUR CURRENT EMPLOYMENT DETAILS  PLEASE USE MY HOME ADDRESS FOR ALL MAILING INSTITUTION/EMPLOYER |CAMPUS MAIL/ FACULTY DEPT/SCHOOL | |BLDG CODE

POSITION CLASSIFICATION STEP/ ANNUAL MONTH NEXT | LEVEL LECTB, HEW4 | INCREMENT | SALARY | INCREMENT DUE IF KNOWN YOUR EMPLOYMENT GROUP  ACADEMIC STAFF  GENERAL/PROFESSIONAL STAFF I HEREBY APPLY FOR MEMBERSHIP OF NTEU, ANY BRANCH AND ANY ASSOCIATED BODY‡ ESTABLISHED AT MY WORKPLACE.  TEACHING & RESEARCH  RESEARCH ONLY SIGNATURE DATE  RESEARCH ONLY OTHER:  TEACHING INTENSIVE You may resign by written notice to the Division or Branch Secretary. Where you cease to be eligible to become YOUR EMPLOYMENT CATEGORY & TERM a member, resignation shall take effect on the date the notice is received or on the day specified in your notice, whichever is later. In any other case, you must give at least two weeks notice. Members are required to pay dues and  FULL TIME  PART TIME HOURS PER WK  SESSIONAL ACADEMIC levies as set by the Union from time to time in accordance with NTEU rules. Further information on financial obligations, including a copy Office use only: Membership no. CONTINUING/ FIXED TERM  GENERAL/PROFESSIONAL STAFF CASUAL of the rules, is available from your Branch.   DATE OF EXPIRY PERMANENT CONTRACT IF YOU ARE CASUAL/SESSIONAL, COMPLETE PAYMENT OPTION 4 ONLY OPTION 4: CASUAL/SESSIONAL 1. Choose your salary range. 2. Select 6 month or 1 year membership. IF YOU ARE FULL TIME OR PART TIME, PLEASE COMPLETE EITHER PAYMENT OPTION 1, 2 OR 3 Membership fees = 1% of gross annual salary 3. Tick the appropriate box. OPTION 1: PAYROLL DEDUCTION AUTHORITY Office use only: % of salary deducted 4. Pay by cheque, money order or credit card. Salary range 6 months 12 months I hereby authorise the Institution or its duly authorised I INSERT YOUR NAME STAFF PAYROLL NO. IF KNOWN servants and agents to deduct from my salary by regular $10,000 & under: $27.50 $55 | instalments, dues and levies (as determined from time to   time by the Union), to NTEU or its authorised agents. All $10,001–$20,000:  $38.50  $77 OF YOUR ADDRESS payments on my behalf and in accordance with this author- ity shall be deemed to be payments by me personally. This Over $20,000:  $55  $110 authority shall remain in force until revoked by me in writ- HEREBY AUTHORISE INSTITUTION ing. I also consent to my employer supplying NTEU with updated information relating to my employment status.  PLEASE ACCEPT MY CHEQUE/MONEY ORDER OR CREDIT CARD:  MASTERCARD  VISA SIGNATURE |DATE NAME ON CARD OPTION 2: CREDIT CARD Processed on the 16th of the month or following working day I hereby authorise the Merchant to debit my Card account with the amount and at NAME ON CARD intervals specified above and in the event of any change in the charges for these goods/ CARD NUMBER services to alter the amount from the appropriate date in accordance with such change. This authority shall stand, in respect of the above specified Card and in respect of any Card CARD NO. issued to me in renewal or replacement thereof, until I notify the Merchant in writing of its — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — cancellation. Standing Authority for Recurrent Periodic Payment by Credit Card. EXPIRY $ EXPIRY |  MASTERCARD  VISA |PAYMENT:  MONTHLY  QUARTERLY  HALF-YEARLY  ANNUALLY | SIGNATURE SIGNATURE DATE | Description of goods/services: NTEU DATE Membership Dues. To: NTEU, PO Box OPTION 3: DIRECT DEBIT Processed on the 15th of the month or following working day 1323, Sth Melbourne VIC 3205 I hereby authorise the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) APCA ‡Associated bodies: NTEU (NSW); Union of Australian College Academics I INSERT YOUR NAME User ID No.062604 to arrange for funds to be debited from my/our (WA Branch) Industrial Union of Workers at & Curtin account at the financial institution identified and in accordance with the University; Staff Association (Inc.) at Curtin University; Staff terms described in the Direct Debit Request (DDR) Service Agreement Association of Edith Cowan University (Inc.) at ECU FINANCIAL INSTITUTION Full text of DDR available at www.nteu.org.au/ddr MAIL TO: BSB |ACCOUNT NO. REGULARITY OF PAYMENT:  MONTHLY  QUARTERLY NTEU National Office BRANCH NAME & ADDRESS  HALF-YEARLY  ANNUALLY PO Box 1323, South Melbourne VIC 3205 T (03) 9254 1910 ACCOUNT NAME 5% DISCOUNT FOR ANNUAL DIRECT DEBIT F (03) 9254 1915 SIGNATURE |DATE E [email protected] Member Benefits

Save with your NTEU benefits

Save on thousands of Save up to 20% on Free international lifestyle experiences new vehicle purchases money transfers2

Even a small break from the hustle Enjoy up to 20% off the price of Need to pay an international invoice and bustle can improve your sense a new vehicle with our free car or send money to family overseas? of well-being. Your NTEU benefits buying service (normally costs $178) Ozforex allows you to transfer offer a 12% discount on Adrenalin, available as part of your NTEU money worldwide at better rates and a $30 discount on RedBalloon benefits. Save time and money with than the banks. NTEU members experiences1; giving you thousands quotes available on all makes and enjoy free transfers3 as part of of different ways to unwind. models Australia wide. their benefits.

For more information: 1300 853 352 | memberadvantage.com.au/nteu

1) RedBalloon discount of $30 is available when you spend over $129. 2) Offer includes free transfers under $10,000 and 10 free transfers over $10,000. You’re in the right place with UniSuper

Since 1983, we’ve been Australia’s only superannuation fund dedicated to higher education and research sector professionals. We offer competitive fees, high quality products and services and a diverse range of investment options to fulfil the unique superannuation and retirement needs of more than 450,000 members.

www.unisuper.com.au [email protected] 1800 331 685 @UniSuperNews

Figures quoted are at 30 June 2013. Issued by UniSuper Management Pty Ltd (ABN 91 006 961 799, AFSL 235907) on behalf of UniSuper Limited, ABN 54 006 027 121 the trustee of UniSuper (ABN 91 385 943 850). Level 35, 385 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000.