Hallelujah! We used to recognise that life was about life, not just work. Now that we are all employees before we are citizens, society is much the poorer, in spirit, if not in bucks.
Thanks for a great piece.

I really get fed up with the politics of envy Brendan Nelson engages in when he wants to slug higher education students with more fees. Here we have students working hard, aspiring to the Liberals' dream of making something for themselves as doctors, lawyers, computer programmers or whatever and what does Nelson say? He whinges that "battlers" shouldn't fund their education.

Well, if "battlers" got off their behinds and did some study, they too could earn a bit more as professionals - once they are suitably qualified. And would these "battlers" like to have a situation where doctors or nurses can't qualify because the courses are too expensive? I don't think so. We already have too few practising nurses. Why make things worse by pricing potential students out of higher education?

And as for belly dancing courses, I am not aware they discriminate against bricklayers. Everyone is welcome to study. On the proviso that you put a bit of effort into the course.

Tony Smith
Thank you for such a down to earth article. Whatever happened to hobbies, to pursuing personal interests, to broadening our horizons? This 'everything has a dollar value' mentality is just another way of controlling people. We are not all able to be employed in work that actually is interesting or is a passion for us. Learning an art or craft for the sheer pleasure of it is often the only way to relieve the tedium of the day to day grind we endure to keep a roof over our heads. Brendan Nelson is not on my list of people to be marooned with - but a belly dancer would most certainly be very welcome.

the courses for nurses were exempt from fee hikes and as for doctors it has nothing to do with how much the course costs it is about the limited financial incentive to practice as a doctor.
If someone got 99.95 UAI and was tossing up a career as a doctor or as a lawyer, most are taking the lawyer option because of the huge insurance premiums needed to be a doctor.
There is no negligence for lawyers yet there is for doctors - who are often forced to work 18 hour days seven days a week in country towns because they are the only game in town.
Even if yuo halved the uni costs for doctors there is still not enough incentive for them to do medicine because of the enormous pressure.
I have seen what it does to people and you couldn't convince me to do medicine for a million bucks.

t.u.s

The ALP's destruction of the Three-tier tertiary Education system and its introduction of tertiary fees and wholesale adoption of economic rationalism in the '80s/'90s has led to the problems of today in terms of bizarre uni fees and a crisis in TAFE. As we race headlong into a high technology 21st century replica of 19th century social and political relations perhaps the time has come to resurrect the idea of the community based School of Arts. To hell with government contralled education. Like me, there are probably hundreds if not thousands of relatively well eductaed people wasting there education in jobs they can do standing on their heads but who could conduct night classes in community halls solely for the purpose of imparting knowledge and skills and fomenting discussions among the community members who can't afford TAFE/Uni.

I find myself stuck in the middle on the business of government subsidisation of recreational interests. The kind of issues which make it not so clear cut are.

- I recognise that we all benefit when people are more active and more engaged, more spent on belly dancing might equate to less required in intensive care wards and mental hospitals.
- I want choice on where my recreational dollars are spent. If the government took less (I'd like to see that) I might have more options for my own choices which may not be ones supported by the government.
- I'm a keen bushwalker, no way could the bushwalkers in australia afford to own and manage all of the public land available for walking. That land also serves other purposes for the entire community.
- Spending by government will always advantage some and disadvantage others. Similar to my second point.
- I have used and loved Tafe adult education in the past and started an evening art class last night (for recreation).

The suggestion of getting more community based stuff going sounds wonderful, I suspect however that it might become a legal minefield without some significant centralised support behind it though (insurance, duty of care etc).

Any thoughts on how to get this moving, are they clubs (like my bushwalking club or the local bonsai club) or run on a different model?