Will, Emma (SEN)
From:	Glouftsis, Terry - GLOTY001 [GLOTY001@students.unisa.edu.au]
Sent:	Wednesday, 28 March 2001 1:27 PM
To:	'eet.sen@aph.gov.au'; 'nswpresident@unistudent.com.au'
Subject:	Please disregard first e-mail, and take notice of this one.
My name is Terry Glouftsis, and I am a student who attends the Magill branch of the University of South Australia.  I am a mature age student, in my mid twenties, who has been in and out of the university system.  Magill is the only campus I stayed with.  I have also attended Adelaide University and the City West branch of UniSA.  I feel that I have been too quiet for too long about the inequities that have risen in tertiary education over the last decade.

So where do I start?  How can express to you, my concerns without offending you?  You see my dilemma.  I am absolutely furious with the Federal Government.  Our HECS debt is astronomical, funding has been cut to research, the Welfare system has been gutted (Making studying without working difficult), Corporate interests have taken over, Universities are being closed down, Government funding to universities is pathetic....I should go on, but I think you see my point.

Higher Education is absolutely essential to the survival of our nation.  I put that bluntly, but it is the truth.  The coming decades will make or break Australia.  We need to start investing the future, because if we don't then we are nothing.  We already are losing our best minds overseas, this must stop.  Universities are not a privilege, they are not even a right.  They are essential.  All people should be able to get a tertiary education and gain those qualifications that will shape the future.

At this time I see Australia at the crossroads, we have two choices to make.  The first is the wrong choice.  If we follow the corporatisation of the tertiary education system, then only the privileged will study at university.  How impartial then would these students be?  If a corporation is paying your way, would you challenge them?  No Australia needs to be brave.  The only choice is that education should be for all.  I am an advocate for free education.  Whitlam did it.  I do not understand why it can not be done again.  However I am also a realist and I know that Federal governments do not listen to the people.  They pretend they do, but the reality is they serve only their interests and the interests of their supporters.  I know free education is a pipe dream.  

I believe society only works well if four basic criteria are met; 

•	A well staffed efficient police force exists
•	That the public health system is well funded
•	The welfare system is free from inequities and is accessible to all
•	That Education serves the nation and is also funded.

So what have we seen?  We've seen the whittling down of all of these areas.  Ever since deregularisation banks have lost their brains, electricity water and gas have become more expensive and the public transport systems have gone to hell.  And then comes government who decide to virtually destroy welfare and then make higher education study difficult.  University is expensive to the student.  So where is the logic in taking away their youth allowance?  Where is the logic in increasing HECS?  Where is the logic in applying the GST to education?  The cold truth is that the government as it exists has short changed students.  They are too worried about bringing the economy back into the black that they will sacrifice anything to achieve that.  But society can not survive that way!  Our basic freedoms are already being challenged, if we let education fall who will be left to stand up and say no!  In the past students have prided themselves on having a political voice, and they should be encouraged do so in the future. This is what I mean, Education is essential to the nation.  It is after all the most important thing our nation has.  Think about it.  Who trains the police, the doctors, the nurses, the economists, the politicians, education does.  To short change education is to play dice with the future.  Dumbing down the country is not a good idea.

OK so I have rattled on, but someone has to say it.  To you the senators of Australia, I thankyou for your time.  I pray you will listen, and I hope some things are done.  For the first time in my life I truly hope that I am not disappointed by government.  

Thankyou. 

Terry Glouftsis 
Magill Equity Welfare 
University of South Australia Students Association 
Ph: 8302 4618 
Mobile: 04 0909 3592 
E-mail: gloty001@students.unisa.edu.au