Australian Greens Education spokesperson Senator Mehreen Faruqi has labelled today’s news of cuts to approximately 500 full-time equivalent jobs at UNSW, and the amalgamation of nine faculties into six, as devastating and infuriating.
Senator Faruqi said:
“Hundreds of hard-working UNSW staff will bear the disastrous consequences of the Liberals’ callous abandonment of higher education.
“The Morrison government has no shame or sense. Australian universities are in crisis and frankly it’s the Liberals who are squarely to blame.
“The government could have easily extended JobKeeper to universities and provided a new funding package. Instead, their plan is to cut funding and hike up student fees.
“Higher education is a case in point for why the government’s professed obsession with ‘job-making’ and ‘job-keeping’ is all spin and no substance. If they really cared about jobs, they would have invested in universities and protected our invaluable higher education system from disaster.
“My heart goes out to the hundreds of staff who are now facing unemployment during a recession. The Greens will fight on, alongside staff and students, for a jobs-rich, well-funded higher education sector,” she said.
