CAPA slams AWA proposal

Postgraduate students view further Federal Government involvement in University industrial relations as another stark indicator of the unfolding "intellectual holocaust" in our institutions of higher learning and research.

"CAPA opposes any attempt by Government to link research funding to the signing of Australian Workplace Agreement (AWA) contracts," CAPA President Benjamin McKay said today. "it would be an assault on the very fabric of our research culture."

"As for proposals to amend laws to make it a breach of the so-called national interest for academics to exercise their right to strike, CAPA is astounded. Such a move in an increasingly casualised university workplace can only be seen as a means for Government to stifle debate and criticism - in effect silencing the nation's intellectual heartland."

"Alongside a plan to rehash so called VSU, these 'reforms' are beginning to look like an all out attack on collective activity at our universities," McKay added.

"Does the Minister not see the irony in designating universities as providers of essential services in a climate where in real terms Federal Government funding to universities is continually decreasing?"

"Canberra reduces its fiscal commitment at the campus level while increasing its political control over both the universities and their academics. This is bizarre economics and a very disturbing attempt to undermine the autonomy, independence and intellectual viability of our 38 public universities and their academics," McKay went on.

"Universities are currently one of the last bastions of engaged critical inquiry in this country. They have an obligation to uphold enlightened critical discourse. The measures proposed by Nelson and currently being considered by Cabinet are at best Draconian," said McKay.

"If the leaks from the Crossroads package to date are any indication of the overall substance of the final Nelson review, then 2003 will become a sad milestone in the history of Australian Higher Education."