PEOPLE FIRST TO CAP TAXPAYER FUNDED UNIVERSITY PLACES It's time the taxpayer funded HECS rort is stopped. Why are taxpayers required to pay Universities to offer degrees that don't lead to employment? Too many young Australians are wasting time and money at University only to end up broke and brainwashed. People First will propose the following changes to higher education: • Foreign student graduate visas will be scrapped. Young Australians should not have to compete with foreign students for jobs, especially after the taxpayer has funded their degree. • HECS supported places, funded by the taxpayer, will be capped based on employment demand. STEM courses will continue to be fully supported along with Medical related degrees. • HECS support for Commerce, Law and the Arts (exluding education) will be capped at $10,000 per degree. • HECS support will be limited to one degree per person per lifetime. • HECS will be abolished for teachers and nurses • Universities will be obligated to repay HECS loans that are not repaid by graduates within 20 years of graduation. • Savings will be reallocated towards trade schools. You can see our education policy at Peoplefirstparty.au/educatio… Thanks to Project Black Sheep for the clip. •••••••••••••••• "Design graduate Harriet Lindsay has spent nearly a year emailing, calling and applying – but she still can’t land a job after spending $25,000 to obtain her UTS degree. After contacting about 200 design firms across Australia, the 23-year-old from Sydney’s Northern Beaches is starting to wonder whether she should have gone to university at all. “No one left with a job,” she said of the 90-person cohort who completed the degree. Ms Lindsay said she felt “ripped off” with universities failing to prepare students for the reality of the AI market."

COSTINGS AREN'T THAT HARD One of my biggest frustrations whilst a Senator was the fact that politicians would refuse to get their policies costed. Costings aren't that hard and the failure by political parties to release costings is a symptom of their incompetence. All politicians can access the Parliamentary Budget Office to get their policies costed. Chalmers asking for advice as to where government expenditure should be cut is just plain incompetence. He should know as he has had access to Treasury for over four years in his role as Treasurer. I'm pleased to say that People First got most of our policies costed at the last election. This is in contrast to One Nation. When asked why they didn't cost their policies Pauline Hanson didn't even know that she could use the PBO. This is despite the fact she's been a Senator for a decade! Yet again it's another example whereby Pauline Hanson is not up to speed on the basic workings of government. People First will continue to call out incompetence wherever we see it. Unfortunately none of the majors are currently fit to govern. Which is why we ask you to support PeopleFirstParty.au so that we can continue to hold the major parties to account. ••••••••••• "The Treasurer on Monday challenged business leaders to name the areas where the government should cut, after the Coalition threw down the gauntlet to him with a surprise midterm tally of spending cuts and budget savings of $31bn over four years from climate change to housing programs." V "One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has been caught out misleading voters over why she has not yet costed her signature policies, raising further questions about her capacity to be a candidate for prime minister. Senator Hanson has repeatedly defended not having costed One Nation's signature tax policy, income splitting, arguing the party was unable to use the PBO before the last election because it did not have enough MPs to be considered a formal party in Canberra. But the PBO rules allow any MP or senator to cost policies, rendering Senator Hanson's excuse invalid. The same income-splitting policy Senator Hanson took to the last election was costed by former independent senator Gerard Rennick, who told The Australian he had no problem utilising the PBO despite being the only member of his party in parliament last term."