Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek visited the University of Western Sydney Kingswood campus this morning to campaign with students against university fee deregulation.
After taking a tour of the university, Mr Shorten addressed a crowd of about 50 students and urged them to add their voices to the debate and oppose the Federal Government’s planned 20 per cent cut to course funding, deregulation of course fees and increase in student loan interest rates.
“30 to 40 years ago there was an argument that it should not be about how much money your parents have, it shouldn’t be your credit card limit that determines your education,” he said.
“These days it is fashionable to say that there’s no need to be involved in politics, that all the big fights have been had, all the great battles have been struggled. All this changed one Tuesday night in May this year when the Abbott Government revealed it willfully and systemically lied to Australian people.
“Where the education prospects of western Sydney go, the nation goes.”
He said that UWS would be severely impact by the proposed changes, with 60 per cent of students currently enrolled being the first of their families to obtain a tertiary education.
Mr Shorten urged the students to campaign against “bad policy” and have “100 conversations” to let others know how they will be impacted by fee deregulation.
