Support Postgrads. Australia’s Future. – 2019 Federal Election Campaign
The Support Postgrads. Australia’s Future. campaign aims to bring issues important to postgraduate students into the national conversation around the 2019 Federal Election, and to encourage voters to consider these issues when deciding how to fill out their ballot on May 18th. Postgraduate students are an integral part of our higher education and research systems, but often have one of the quietest voices in higher education debates. This campaign aims to change that. We encourage voters the read the full report below and discuss the importance of postgraduate issues with your local candidates.
We have synthesised postgraduate priorities down to four foundational policies and four supporting pillars that we think are vital to improving the quality of postgraduate education and the postgraduate student experience. They are:
Foundational Policies
• Extending income support (e.g. Austudy) to all full-time domestic postgraduate students, subject to means testing
• Guarantee the continuation of the Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF)
• Reversal of cuts made in the last term of government to higher education and research funding, and return the HELP loan repayment threshold to pre-2018 levels
• Cap the cost of tuition for postgraduate full-fee places
Supporting Pillars
• Increasing the number of covered sessions with a mental health professional
• Increasing research grants targeted at early career researchers
• Making part-time government-issued scholarships tax-free, like full-time scholarships
• Outlawing conversion therapy Australia-wide
You can view the full report, outlining the rationale for each of these positions, and each party’s position on these below:
Download – Election Report (original report)
Download – Election Report Updated (29 April)
If additional information is provided to CAPA or announced during the course of the campaign we will endeavour to update this report and associated scorecard as soon as possible.