Page 968 - Week 03 - Thursday, 3 April 2008
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Next, the Chief Minister and the minister for education must explain to the people of Canberra why they have said nothing about these problems until now, as one of the major universities in this city has recorded such a significant trading loss.
Next, I believe the Chief Minister and the minister for education must explain to the people of Canberra how these problems came about and why the government has been unable to ensure that the university could trade and operate and stay in the black.
If this outcome was indeed the result of large numbers of redundancy payments—and I believe that a significant part of that loss is but that there are other elements than that—we are entitled to know why there has been such a large loss of staff that would trigger this large payment. The bottom line is: how did we get into this situation that meant 100 people had to lose their jobs? How did we get into a situation where we lost $16 million last year and are expected to lose more money this year? We are hopeful that the university will start to come back into a balanced trading position in 2009; it is, at this stage, an objective. But, until we reach that point, we do not know whether that will be accomplished.
Despite the poor financial performance of the university, I am the first to acknowledge that there are some positive signs from the current administration which may see the university return to a sound financial position in the future. I am particularly glad to hear that the student population of the university has grown by 2.6 per cent this year. This is a good sign for the future of the university, so long as it is able to cope with the additional population of students.
As was said in the interview with the vice-chancellor on radio, one of their problems is that the skill shortage and the tendency for people to move away from full-time tertiary studies, take employment and then extend the time for their studies has presented them with a financial problem. I would be keen to know how they will solve that, because growth in numbers in itself is not all of the answer that is needed to address this financial challenge.
The university’s provision for 500 new beds for student accommodation and its new planning course for students are welcome additions in view of the growth of the student population. However, I do have a real concern with the university’s current proposals to move into lines of business that are far outside of its core business and areas of expertise.
In particular, I am concerned about plans by the university to invest in office blocks and aged care facilities. I heard the rather tenuous justification for this—that we have to look to the future and that, as people get older, they may want to go to university, so we will build aged care facilities. I thought that was the longest bow I have ever seen drawn and I think, to be frank, the whole thing is about trying to get some revenue into the place. That certainly was the justification provided to me for getting into these activities, but I am one who is always nervous about people moving into lines of business that they do not have expertise in. These seem to be questionable investment ventures—
Mr Barr: The Liberal Party in economics.
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