The NTEU welcomes Labor's plan to fund new university and TAFE places but said the sector needs a much larger assistance package to recover from the devastation inflicted by the Morrison Government's abandonment of higher education during the pandemic.
NTEU National President Dr Alison Barnes said "Further funding is always appreciated, however if its purpose is to secure the recovery of the higher education sector and improve conditions for staff and students, it must match the scale of the destruction.
"The Morrison Government could have placed education at the centre of the COVID recovery.
"Instead the Prime Minister cut funding per university place, hiked fees and arbitrarily excluded universities from the JobKeeper wage subsidy programme.
"This resulted in the loss of 40,000 tertiary education jobs across Australia with 35,000 of those at public universities.
"Both the Federal Government and the Opposition should look at the Australia Institute's Centre for Future Work report which earlier this year recommended a $3.75 billion support package to enable universities to recover lost jobs.
"The success and wellbeing of academics, staff and students depends on it."
