By Jeannie Rea. Backed up by her university Vice-Chancellor, ‘Sandy’ has borne the brunt of public debate over controversial education, research and community engagement about the centre she manages. She has been vilified on a personal and professional level, particularly by sections of the media, politicians and commentators who are intractably opposed to the centre’s work. More...

By Jeannie Rea. In this long federal election campaign it has become far too easy to be cynical and to disengage other than to ‘like’ the occasional witty meme on Facebook. More...

By Paul Kniest. When analysing the 2016-17 Federal Budget, one might be forgiven for thinking that the Government had adopted a position of ‘masterly inactivity’ when it came to higher education. More...

By Paul Kniest. The higher education polices contained in the June 2013 Issue of the NTEU’s Advocate include the policies as announced up to and including Friday 10 June 2016,when Advocate went to print. More...

By Paul Kniest. The funding and regulation of higher education remain a highly contested policy area in the lead up to the 2016 Federal Election. While the Coalition Government has tried to neutralise the debate by taking full fee deregulation off the agenda, in undertaking further consultation, it remains fundamentally committed to the core of the policies it announced in 2014. More...

By Paul Kniest. The funding and regulation of vocational education and training (VET) has presented the Coalition Government with significant policy issues over the last three years. The expansion of demand driven fully contestable funding (between public TAFE and private providers) to all States and Territories has been, in anyone’s language, a complete and utter policy and market failure. More...

By Sarah Roberts. When the PM called this double dissolution election, it seemed it was set to be fought on the well-trodden terrain of industrial relations. More...

By Sarah Roberts. Due to public outcry against its ideas of raising the GST and allowing the States to charge tax, the Coalition has opted for safe Reaganomic rhetoric about ‘growing the pie’ and ‘the trickle-down effect.’ By contrast, Labor and the Greens have been running hard with relatively risky and innovative tax and superannuation policies. More...

By Terri Macdonald. Research and innovation is a key policy area targeted by all major political parties in the 2016 federal election. Indeed, while noting that it appears that you can’t have research without innovation, it has been bandied around to the point where it almost seems to be another three word election slogan. More...

By Terri Macdonald. The 2016 federal election campaign has seen a shift away from the mantra of ‘working families’, probably because both major political parties have realised that single women are now a substantial block of voters. More...