Hasbeen, not sure what the total cost would be.

Entered university in 1995 before the Howard govt raised fees in 1996.

I only paid $7200 for a four year degree as I paid my fees upfront by working throughout the period to get the 25% discount, including my Honours year.

Yes, I took advantage of the system through merit and hard work to achieve First Class Honours and a Commonwealth funded PhD scholarship. I think my PhD was $18,000 tax free a year for 3.5 years and all school fees paid. Easily over $100,000 in 1990s money terms.

So what did I contribute?

You will have to ask those who paid for my services, including a federal Labor politician, the liberal party thinktanks that paid for my services on a couple of occasions, and the many universities that employed me as a tutor, research fellow and research assistant, especially from 2008 to 2015. They were Monash, Melbourne, the ANU, Canberra, Latrobe and Charles Sturt. We are talking hundreds of thousands of dollars here over a seven year period.

Since my dispute with the ANU from 2014 to 2019, which culminated in the Federal Circuit Court action in 2019 which I lost but avoided legal costs, I have hardly been eager to work at any university again. https://jade.io/article/677823?at.hl=lewis+v+anu

I also got published in Quadrant magazine on four occasions under the editorship of Paddy McGuiness (late 2007 to Jan. 2008), a conservative forum.

My paid work also made it to a Liberal government initiated Royal Commission. See footnote 3 of the Home Insulation inquiry.
https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2014-08/apo-nid41087.pdf

Cheers Hasbeen, and thanks for supporting me with your tax dollars over the years

Yes, Mr Opinion.

i do love the Arts. i actually think they of crucial importance to any decent liberal democracy

If you are that young Chris, it must have been your father who paid for my flying training, & a couple of extensive ocean cruises on a big ship with it's own landing place, with flying around enjoying the views most days.

So I guess I should thank the tax payer too.

Of course I was prepared to put my life on the line for them, if anything nasty happened.

no, not that young, but I certainly don't feel old.

went back to school as a 33 year old who had worked in factories since age of 17.

so you can blame the govt and society for allowing me to do that.