MEDIA RELEASE: “Invest into something tangible”, says CAPA.

The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations has submitted its 2022-2023 Pre-Budget submission to Treasury – a copy of our submission can be found here.

Our submission takes a bold stance to highlight the challenges postgraduates have experienced for decades. We feel it accurately represents the resentment felt by our cohort and provides recommendations based on the most recent data available. 

Our recommendations include: 

1. Increase government investment expenditure into R&D by a sum of 4 billion annually to match the commitment of other nations.
   • Fundamental (‘Blue Sky’) research should be funded at the recommendation of the ARC and not fall under the scrutiny of industry representatives.
      
2.  Income support payments must be extended to all full-time domestic postgraduate students
    
3. The minimum stipend rate of the Research Training Program (RTP) must increase by $150-$250 per week to remain consistent with historical precedence.
    
4. Extend the Medicare subsidised 20 psychologist session cap into 2023.
    
5. The government investigate options for price regulation of postgraduate coursework degrees.
    

 “Australia boasted 30 years of continuous economic growth, and what do we have to show long-term? A soaring real estate market now at speculative and at unaffordable levels?” says CAPA National President Errol Phuah. “..and what would happen to that wealth if that property market crashes?”

We need a government that has the vision to properly invest in tangible assets; assets that will bring real wealth to the country through the good times and the bad. These investments include supporting people through higher education, R&D funding and infrastructure. This has formed the basis of our Pre-budget submission for 2022-2023.

CAPA looks forward to the upcoming budget announcement and, we hope our recommendations will be considered. 
 

END


CAPA National President Errol Phuah
M: 0431 545 167
E: president@capa.edu.au