Welcome to the latest edition of Clark Matters, Andrew’s monthly email newsletter to help keep you abreast of federal politics and what he’s been up to.
Federal election
As the dust tries to settle, despite the fractious Liberal-National Coalition, it’s still difficult to comprehend what just happened at the recent federal election. Even on polling day, a few hours before the tally began, Andrew was receiving calls from media outlets asking for his thoughts on the consequences of a power-sharing parliament. But within a very short time it was evident that a momentous upheaval was underway, with the Labor Party unexpectantly winning a swathe of seats and Peter Dutton losing his. Eventually of course even Greens Leader Adam Bandt was also gone.
When the Federal Division of Clark was officially declared on 23 May, Andrew had attracted 70.38 per cent of the two-candidate preferred vote, retaining Clark’s title as one of the safest seats in the country. This was as surprising as it was pleasing for Andrew, considering he is never one to shy away from the most difficult and controversial issues. A big thank you again to all those wonderful people who supported him at the election with donations, hosted a sign in their front yard, or braved the cold to hand out how-to-vote cards.
The election outcome, especially with the greatly diminished Opposition, means that the crossbench role of holding the Government to account is now more important than ever. This is not lost on Andrew and his colleagues, all of whom have considerable work ahead of them during this parliament.
Proposed Macquarie Point stadium
Recently it became clear that no private equity investors were willing to participate in the financing of the proposed Macquarie Point Stadium. No doubt they well understood that low financial returns would not justify the risks or capital outlay, high upfront costs, uncertain revenue streams and small local market.
The investors’ withdrawal of interest should have served as a dire warning to the State Government which has belligerently ignored financial and other warnings in one expert’s report after another.
Despite being armed with the knowledge that equity investors abandoned the stadium project, the State Government, already drowning in a sea of debt, now intends to borrow a further $240 million to help fund their financial absurdity. And the additional borrowings don’t take into consideration the other recent setbacks to the project like Cricket Australia declaring the future stadium unsuitable for their purposes, and the $45m increased costs for the AFL training centre in Kingston. To see this government’s financial planning in action is like watching a possum on crack trying to load a dishwasher. Be assured Andrew will continue to push for this madness to end.
High time to stop the assault on tertiary education
It is a cruel irony that the older federal politicians, who personally benefitted from the era of free tertiary education, are the first to try and stifle the aspirations of today’s university students. But that’s exactly what happened when the Morrison Government in 2021 introduced their so-called “Job-Ready Graduates Package” for tertiary institutions and, in doing so, severely damaged our higher education system.
Frankly there is no solid evidence that any of the intended outcomes of the Job-Ready changes were achieved. Instead, fees for many courses increased by up to 113 per cent, disproportionately penalising humanities students. And universities suffered significant revenue losses, compounded by the COVID pandemic, the ramifications of which are still rippling through the tertiary education sector. No wonder that here in Tasmania our university recently announced a significant restructuring of its humanities and arts faculties, citing declining student enrolments and financial sustainability as the key reasons.
Yes, in 2022 the Albanese Government did commission the Australian Universities Accord, a report that recommended scrapping the Job-Ready Graduates Package. But it has been slow to act on the 47 recommendations within the report and to date only 29 have been partially implemented. Andrew says it’s way beyond time for the Federal Government to actually do something and reform this vital sector. Indeed, we could do well to revert to the Whitlam-era policies when university tuition fees were abolished for domestic students.
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Yours sincerely
