Cabinet chose the most controversial and hardline method of ending compulsory student unionism, against the recommendation of the then education minister, documents released on Wednesday reveal.
The Howard government had a longstanding opposition to student associations, seeing them as a hotbed of radical student politicking.
It decided as far back as December 1998 to end compulsory fees, going further than the model recommended by then-education minister David Kemp.
It took until 2005 when the conservatives had a friendly Senate for the measure to pass and it was relatively short-lived. The Gillard government reinstated compulsory fees in 2011. Young Liberals are still agitating today for the fee to be scrapped.
In a submission to Cabinet in late 1998, Mr Kemp urged the government to ban compulsory fees for membership of an association, but said universities should be allowed to charge a compulsory fee for general services. The money was used for health, careers, accommodation, counselling, academic support, sports facilities, financial advice and other services not directly related to education.
Mr Kemp said universities considered those services essential and an integral part of attracting and retaining students.
In banning compulsory unionism, the government should stay consistent with its wider approach of allowing universities more freedom to set and charge fees, Mr Kemp said.
"Institutions would consider limitations on their ability to charge a fee for general services as an attack on their autonomy and as inconsistent with recent moves to provide greater fee-charging flexibilities within the sector," he said. "It would also put further pressure on institutional funds at a time when universities are being encouraged to find savings, broaden their income base, develop a customer focus and compete for students."
But despite his arguments, cabinet decided on the option that Mr Kemp judged would meet "very strong opposition, due to its effects on university autonomy and costs", and would also be opposed by regional universities.
Cabinet agreed that universities should be banned from collecting any compulsory fee that was not directly related to educational courses.
This was the option Mr Kemp said would be supported by Liberal students.
READ MORE:
- ACT laws tangled spies gathering foreign intelligence
- How the GST brought the Coalition and the APS together at last
-
Govt's own advisers accused it of botching digital TV policy
But it was opposed by all of the departments which gave advice. The prime minister's department said the move would create the potential for universities to divert money that would otherwise be spent on education to student services. It, the finance department and Treasury all supported allowing universities to continue charging for some student services.
When the measure finally passed the Senate at the end of 2005, the Nationals' then-Queensland senator, Barnaby Joyce, crossed the floor to vote with Labor. Senator Joyce was among those who supported ending compulsory student unionism, but wanted universities to retain the power to collect fees for non-political purposes.
In his submission, Mr Kemp acknowledged that students organisations were "not strictly unions in the industrial sense" but said the same principles of freedom of association should apply.
