Swapping billionaire wealth for more brains

Still, the idea that universities are for those who are able to pay - whether upon entering the hallowed halls or some time after leaving and gaining a job – without acknowledging that this impacts differentially upon the working-class which Whitlam's 'no fees' policy sought to benefit, needs to be confronted.

Chapman contends that HECS has not deterred many – if any – from seeking a university education. Yet in the next breath he asserts that, in any event, Australians in 'relatively disadvantaged' brackets 'were less likely to attend university even when there were no student fees'. This sounds very much like an excuse for maintaining the status quo – not only the status quo of HECS and fees, but that of reserving universities for the middle-class.

Chapman says the argument that without student fees, the more disadvantaged sectors of Australian society were less likely to go to university 'provides further support for the view that a no-charge public university system (that is, financed by all taxpayers) is regressive'. Surely what it shows is that implementing a 'no fees' policy requires more than simply eliminating university fees. It requires a full-on, well-targetted policy of ensuring that those unlikely to see university as 'for them' have a real opportunity to discover what a university is, what it could mean to and for them. This requires opening up university grounds, buildings, classes and classrooms so that children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds – along with their parents – can visit, walk about, investigate and acquaint themselves with just what constitutes a university.

Writing off an entire sector of Australia's population as 'not for university' is not only regressive. It is surely the sort of thinking that accords with the philosophy projected by Gina Rinehart and her cohort. Does Australia wish to remain 'true' that ideology? Surely not.

The resource/mining tax is an open opportunity for a return to the proposition that universities are for all – not just the well-shod or those sufficiently fortunate to have parents who can pay.