Book review 'Vital Signs Vibrant Society': Labor can lead reform

Productivity and education

Emerson asserts that a doubling of university education places can occur in a 10-year period if Australian student equities and human capital contracts are promoted as access tools. In essence such tools would consist of investment funds and companies entering bonds and contracts with students to pay for education in exchange for an annual repayment sum that could be agreed on specific terms. He cites American approaches that limit an amount of income for a set period.

In my view, this is not a complete solution. A doubling of places can be justified if it fills gaps in Australia’s skills; the gaps may be better covered by a combination of more university education and TAFE and trades. Also on the specific policy, access and placement numbers could be advanced further by deregulating HECS fees in high earning degrees and ensuring that full fee places are used to top up Federal Government university funding rather than as a replacement for it.

Conclusion

I conclude that Emerson is indeed one of the brightest Labor MPs and has a real appreciation for the market zeal that drove the Hawke Government, including Keating, Walsh and Dawkins as ministers in the 1980s.

While Emerson may lose some friends in the Labor party over his more radical market-based approaches, he should proudly claim for Labor the mainstream values of work over welfare, hard work being rewarded, choice in services being valued by all, more available education paid by deferred individual contribution and opportunity being extended by incentives rather than gifts.