Rupert Murdoch lines up with peak bodies to call for reinvestment in education

CAPA welcomes the support of media magnate and NewsCorp chairman Rupert Murdoch in our sector's struggle to focus attention on Australia's urgent need to reinvest in education.

Giving the inaugural Keith Murdoch Oration, entitled "The Human Wealth of Nations'‚ Mr Murdoch chose as his central theme the perilous position in which this country finds itself as a result of a shameful decline in investment in our education system, and the need to reverse this laissez-faire trend.

"The support of a high profile stakeholder in this country's capacity to function effectively, intelligently and competitively in the future is a welcome addition to the chorus of voices in the higher education sector that have already been raised for some time," said CAPA President John Byron last night.

"Over the last five years, these pleas have fallen on deaf ears, and we who have been fighting for our nation's most precious resource have been dismissed as cranks, vandals and opportunists.

"It is to be hoped that the contribution of Mr Murdoch, who I imagine enjoys a more cordial reception from the Coalition that I do, will help the Government finally realise the monumental folly of their mean and short-sighted policies of deregulation and disinvestment," Mr Byron observed.

Mr Murdoch argued that Australia enjoyed an impressive potential to move confidently and successfully into the future, due to its human capital. "There is no more effective way to capitalise on this growth potential than to invest in our education system," he said.

Mr Byron argued that Mr Murdoch's passionate exhortation needed to be considered in light of the current federal electoral contest if his sentiments are to be converted to practical political action.

"We are right on the cusp now, and when John Howard called this the "education election'‚ back in January, he didn't know how true that was," said Mr Byron.

"Kim Beazley did, though: an imaginative and vital Knowledge Nation programme, and a determined and painstaking Senate Inquiry, clearly indicate the depth of commitment in Opposition ranks to revitalising education, which is the engine room of Australia's future prosperity," he said.

"The decision we make at this election will make or break our education system for the next decade or two, which will in turn profoundly determine the sort of country Australia becomes over the next half-century.

If we blow it at this election, and fail to make a serious and informed decision on which major party is willing to place as its first-order priority the future of this nation, then we may never get a second
chance.

"With a vital and engaged policy platform, and kept on track by informed and enthusiastic minor parties, the Australian Labor Party can turn around these five years of profound degradation under the Howard Government that have brought our public university system to the very brink of disaster," he concluded.