The Dead Roo

In the ABC 7:30 Report (2007-02-28) debate on education between Julie Bishop (Lib) and Steve Smith (ALP), the only substantial difference between the parties concerned tertiary education, and the reasons behind needs for change.  Bishop discussed tertiary education only in terms of an international market of students, whereas Smith spoke of it as an enabler of economic prosperity. 

Although viewed as a high-flyer and media-savvy, Bishop amply demonstrated the fundamentally flawed and limited understanding of society and infrastructure common throughout the Howard cabinet, and how the modern Liberal Party lacks the strategic vision required of a federal government.

Bishop’s opening statements on the subject included the following, indicating her view of the key issues facing tertiary education:

Well, education at the tertiary level is an international enterprise. We’re in a global marketplace for students… …We must see a much greater emphasis on a diverse range of offerings, of modes of delivery, of mission statements so that we have a flourishing higher education sector for the century ahead of us.

The implication of her statements was that the purpose of Australia’s tertiary education system is to create an income stream from foreign students.

By extension, Commonwealth funding to universities is merely an "export assistance grant".

Bishop’s lines must have come from her desire to spin the Howard government’s agenda to promote private sector tertiary education institutions, and moving even more dollars from public to corporate pockets, and an expectation that Smith would attack this.  It was an extended "blonde moment": she kept up the university-as-market-supplier line even after a number of exchanges with Smith.

That’s an F-minus in socio-economics for Julie.

Smith stressed that tertiary education was an investment in the economy that would generate national income once students had graduated and become inventive and productive in the wider economy.  He made direct comparisons with the contributions to their own economies of the rising numbers of graduates in India and China.

Bishop, despite many opportunities, didn’t consider this an important line of argument, and kept talking from her limited perspectives.

Julie Bishop and the Liberal Party government she represents as Education Minister, by unequivocally demonstrating a failure to understand the contribution of universities to the broader development of national economies, are patently unfit to be in control of either.

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