GST: A Tax on Education
25 June 1999
The National Tertiary Education Union, representing 25,000 staff in universities, today slammed the GST as a tax on education.
National Assistant Secretary, Mr. Ted Murphy, said that the package agreed between the Government and the Australian Democrats would increase the cost of education, and would severely disadvantage students especially postgraduates.
\"When the legislation was first introduced, we had four major concerns of direct relevance to education: the status of higher education institutions, the treatment of books, the effect on representative bodies such as unions and student organisations, and the indexation of postgraduate incomes. The package has dealt with none of these issues effectively.\"
\"Fees paid to student organisations and Unions will be taxed, and the incomes of postgraduate students will not be indexed like other groups in the community reliant on government financial assistance.\"
\"We maintain that education is an essential item which should be zero rated. The tax as now before the Senate will have a detrimental effect on students and higher education, and will also artificially raise the costs of union membership.\" Mr. Murphy concluded.