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August 10, 2005
The day the Howard Government has control over the Senate arrived yesterday. Celebrations all around whilst the talk is about Coalition unity
The legislation to ban universities charging a compulsory fee for student amenities and services, ranging from sporting facilities to dental treatment will shortly come before the Senate.
There are divisions over voluntary student unionism in the Coalition ranks about the principle that students should not be required to join a university "union" or guild; and whether universities should be allowed to charge students a mandatory levy for sporting, health, and other facilities.
I'm not sure where the rebel senators stand on these two issues. Barnaby Joyce's concern is about how university sporting facilities will be funded if compulsory student union fees are abolished.Does that mean compromise on voluntary student unions as is likely to happen with the sale of Telstra?
Pryor
I noticed that the rebel senators said nothing in the new Senate yesterday when the Howard Government reduced the number of hostile questions it fields each day, and it gave itself more time for the soft queries (Dorothy Dixers) from its own side.
Why should they? They are part of one happy family even though the Liberal and National Party MPs are scrapping publicly, as they should.
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Not sure if I heard the wireless correctly the other day, in hindsight I probably didn't but can't be sure.
They played the bit about Joyce and regional unis and their student services which he is 100% spot on accurate.
Then they played the NUS saying the students want nothing the govt wanted to do.
They were played one after the other but I'm guessing now that they were meant to be separate events, the NUS pertaining to what Howard wanted and nothing to do with what Joyce wanted.
If it turns out they were connected like that the NUS is as bad as politicians who represent themselves and not the electorate they represent.