Fed: govt refuses to table unis' financial documents
By Denis Peters
CANBERRA, Aug 26 AAP - The government today refused to table documents in the Senatewhich Labor claims show Australia's universities are heading for financial crisis.
Acting on a leaked document which showed the Department of Education, Science and Training(DEST) made forward financial projections for four years for each institution, startingfrom the current year, Labor sought to have them tabled.
Labor claims one in four Australian universities is currently in deficit and the figureis heading to two in four.
But the manager of government business in the Senate, Senator Ian Campbell, said thedocuments were too sensitive to release.
Instead, he supplied reports, on instruction from Education Minister Brendan Nelson,relating to the current year.
"When the department requests education profiled information from institutions it makesclear that certain information will be regarded by the department as commercial-in-confidence,"
Senator Campbell said.
"For these reasons, in accordance with past practice, it would be inappropriate toprovide this information to the Senate."
Opposition science and research spokesman Kim Carr said the government was hiding thetrue financial state of universities from the public.
"What we see today is a response from a government that is desperate to hide the truenature of the financial crisis in the Australian higher education sector," Senator Carrtold parliament.
"What we've heard today is a government that clearly does not want the public to knowthe nature of the financial state of the Commonwealth-funded universities."
He said the government was saying it was not the business of Australian taxpayers toknow whether or not the universities were financially secure.
Senator Carr said the opposition was considering a range of options to have the informationdisclosed.
These included calling on the Senate to have the Senate estimates committee recalled,using its powers to require public servants to provide information sought by senators.
Dr Nelson said Senator Carr had taken an extraordinary step in attempting to tablethe commercial-in-confidence documents.
"He has done this despite the (DEST) secretary advising him in writing that the documentsdetail the universities' private business affairs which had been provided to the departmentin confidence," Dr Nelson said.
He said Senator Carr had also been advised the Australian Vice Chancellors' Committee(AVCC) supported the department's decision not to release the information publicly.
"The AVCC confirmed to the department that disclosure of private information in thisway would have the potential to severely damage the interests of individual institutionsand that institutions would be reluctant to provide such information in the future.
"Senator Carr is clearly happy to play fast and loose with their in-confidence documentsfor some ill-defined political goal."
AAP dep/jmd/br
KEYWORD: UNIVERSITIES NIGHTLEAD
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