Dr. Wendy Garden, President of the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand wrote to The Hon. Tanya Plibersek MP, Shadow Minister for Education to urge the Albanese Labor Government to reverse the discriminatory decision made by the Liberal government in 2020 to increase university fees for humanities students by 113%. This inherently unfair and short-sighted decision reduced the affordability of university education for many young people in Australia. The decision did not recognise arts an important career path for many Australians from diverse backgrounds and our current art sector is
thriving as a result of this diversity. However already university enrolments are down and the future health of the arts sector is now under threat.
AAANZ commends the Albanese Labor Government’s proposed investment in tertiary education by supporting an extra 20,000 university places. However, it is also imperative to ensure the accessibility and affordability of university education, to address skills shortage in the future and to ensure the future prosperity of the country that Labor includes in its Future Made in Australia Skills Plan a return to the previous fee structure for Humanities degrees.
You also can get involved with NAVA’s #VoteForArt: Federal Election Campaign 2022