Australian Labor Party

The Federal Government’s Student Services and Amenities Bill was defeated in the Senate today in a tied vote.

“This is a regrettable outcome for government, for universities and for students. This will mean the standards of services and amenities available to students will continue to decline” CAPA President, Nigel Palmer said.

The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) welcomes the outcome of the 2007 Federal Election. “We look forward to working with Labor to rebuild the higher education sector, to support the promise of an education revolution, and to ensure that Australia remains a leader of innovation and research, in the sciences, in the humanities and in the arts. There will be many opportunities for the new Labor government to demonstrate “new leadership”.

A report card on the higher education policies of the Coalition and Labor parties released by university staff and students on Tuesday has failed the Howard Government for its record on universities.

The report card, prepared by National Tertiary Education Union, the National Union of Students and the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, awarded Labor a pass on the basis of the well targeted but limited commitments announced during the campaign and its stated commitment to build on these in office.

A new report by the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) has established that, one year after implementation, voluntary student unionism (VSU) has resulted in a critical diminution of service delivery and significant loss of staff and representative capacity in postgraduate student organisations across university campuses.