They're our universities Don, created and funded by the Australian taxpayer and now withering on the vine for lack of critical funding, which seems to be impacting far more in the bush than in the cities?

Arguably Mr Menzies founder and Father of the real Liberal Party, wouldn't have withdrawn essential funding the way the, slipped to the right, conservative controlled coalition has!

Because the rivers of gold from mining booms one and two, were pissed up the wall, creating welfare for the rich and blatant pork barrelling. Economic illiteracy that saw a once great party put its own political prospects way, way ahead of the national interest/economic sanity!?

Creating a structural deficit as the cost of energy becomes unaffordable along with life saving air conditioners in this nation oldies' homes.

Having critiqued the current Administration somewhat less than they deserve or have earned? I offer some solutions.

We need to go nuclear, i.e., Molten salt nuclear with thorium as the preferred fuel source!

For all the reasons set out in Graham's Ambit gambit. Needs seven years? To iron out minor bugs, build factory built, mass produced, 350MW plus, models.

Among their first tasks, convert virtually worthless thermal coal into alternative diesel/petrol fuels etc, (complete local independence) completely replacing current imports! The 7 year plan?

This will guarantee a viable floor price for locally produced thermal coal, free up around 26 billion of scarce export revenue, massive extra revenue we'd generate via local increased economic activity and the usual flow on factors.

Put many new billions into consolidated revenue, some of which needs to be recommitted to public Tertiary education.

No need to follow the Americans, their highly flawed private models! Given all they've achieved or shown, is they lead the world in the world's most expensive degrees, with the highest dropout numbers!? A proud record we should emulate?
Alan B.

Ever hear the expression work smarter not harder!

It doesn't take much imagination to sell your finest mineral prospects to debt laden, tax avoiding, price gouging, profit repatriating foreigners!

When your finest ideas are limited to another wucking great hole in the wucking ground? You're wucked!

We're a little smarter than that surely? Why do we charge ourselves so much for our gas/coal fired power?

Especially if retained here as our own essential energy? Prosper our own manufacturing/exports!

Here's an example of just how clever we've become, as we chase the trickled down crumbs from the table. We ship silica sand to Korea, where they use our gas to turn it into glass. Then ship back to us! With a triple transport component added, which we pay! All while similar tonnages of recyclicable glass goes to landfill.

Truly affordable energy, all that is missing from viable recycling industries in this country! With everything included, around a million new jobs/new taxpayers, plus myriad tax paying, private enterprise industries!

The most efficient and profitable, employee owned and operated co-ops! Which by the way, completely deals out the usual union hacks, drones and lay-a-bouts!

Time to remove the ideological blinkers, start thinking like an Aussie academic, with Australia's interests first and foremost, not those of the nearest foreigner with deep pockets!

We need to chart our own course, not a flawed one imposed from without!

Given we do? Get back to affordable, not for profit education. Which must be seen as long term investments, not numbers on some bottom line!

In the interim, if we need to pay more tax to secure our own tertiary educated future?

Then that is what we must do, starting with complete wind back of welfare for the rich/entitlements for alleged aspirational voters, who ought to be satisfied with a fair go, that just doesn't need to be subsidised by tomorrow's academics!

Stop prevaricating! Just do it! Because it's the right thing to do for the country!

If you can't/won't help? Get out of the way!
Alan B.

ABS website: “"The increasing attainment of higher level qualifications since 2004 is also very significant, " Mr Collett said. "The proportion of Australians who have attained a Bachelor degree or above increased from 21 per cent to 31 per cent over this time." (as at 2017). 66% of Australians have a “non-school” qualification, which I take to meant TAFE etc. The 2016 Census indicates that only 22% of Australians claimed a Bachelor or higher degree.

If these figures are correct, it would seem that universities are good only for turning out radical Left thinkers, apart from a few necessary professionals. Most of us seem to manage without them.

I am afraid Don I have to totally disagree with Alan. To my mind we have 60% too many universities, churning out 70% too many fools with a bit of paper. When a large percentage use their bit of paper merely to get a job as a clerk in the public service, this is totally counter productive.

Nursers did a better job of looking after patients, when trained on the job, & primary schools did a better job of teaching, when kids did a 2 year teachers college course.

My first stint was paid for with a scholarship from General Motors, my second was paid for from my savings. We both expected, or demanded value for our money, & got it. Like me, most were there for a serious reason, unlike today, when with taxpayer funding, many are there because they don't know what else to do. Only the best students went for an education, not the indoctrination they get toady. Today below average students can get an environmental science degree with out being able to manage year 10 high school math. What a joke universities have become.

The service have depreciated along with the personal cost. When my eldest had to change Unis at the end of her first year B Sc./BE course she found the new institution was way ahead of her old one in a couple of things, including some Math. After 6 weeks of trying to get a math tutor who was never available to return phone calls, she gave up, & left. As she said, why would you pay anything for something you did not get.

Fortunately she is pretty smart, & today earns much more than she would have as a math/physics teacher, or HOD as she would be by now, in a job she loves

There you have it Don. All you managed to turn out was radical left wingers less useful than a hip pocket in a singlet?

And Hasbeen has no use for universities and teachers not available on demand for the privileged?

Well, why not? After all he was the most important and most successful man in Australia, at one time!

So, impossible for him to concede one of his could be out of her depth inside a uni and physics, where one is expected to find and absorb the requisite info from well stocked libraries!

My kids, both of them were forced to drop out, as with many country kids, found having to pay for accomodation costs, food and utility costs as well as uni fees, an impossible ask! Even with the living away from home allowance!

We did what we could but not enough!

City kids still able to live at home and commute to and from campus have no such difficulties!

There needs to be a different accommodation model with a couple of house mothers and fathers in it tasked with ensuring wide eyed kids don't have to tolerate too many distractions and predatory young adults.

Things like ritualistic hazing should be criminalized! But particularly as the number of non student predators hunting in this shared accommodation space, with their alcohol binging and party drugs etc.

Kids from the bush, who don't have wealthy parents, nearly always fare badly in a system as underfunded as ours is. Nobody is asking for special treatment, just a fair go and equal opportunities.

Incidentally, Emails are a lot harder to ignore that voice mail! Hard to claim you didn't receive something with a traceable electronic trail!
Alan B.

Totally agree with Hasbeen.