Key events
Universities chief calls for more research spending
Caitlin Cassidy
The chief executive of Universities Australia will today call for greater federal government investment in research, forcing the sector to look overseas for revenue from international students to remain viable.
Speaking at the Australian High Education Industrial Association’s conference today, Catriona Jackson will say Australia’s research funding model is “limiting and unsustainable”, leaving universities exposed at a time of economic volatility.
New forecasts show government spending on research is at its lowest share of GDP, falling to 0.59% in 2022-23 and lagging behind the OECD average of 2.68%. It hadn’t dropped below 0.5% since records began in 1978:
Government and industry funding as a share of GDP is going backwards. This is pushing the nation towards the lower end of the international order. Grant schemes are providing well below the full cost for projects, leaving universities to pick up the gap.
And women are disproportionately affected by the funding system which is “not working in the national interest” and forces universities to seek alternative funding sources:
We are increasingly reliant on international student fees to pay for this work, which is highly unsustainable and underscores the urgent need for change … it’s unfathomable that our ability to continue performing fundamentally important research for the good of the nation hinges on people choosing to study in Australia. No other nation funds their research effort quite like this.
A 1% lift in funding for research would grow the economy by $24bn over a decade, Jackson will say.
UK free trade agreement to begin this month
Australia’s free trade agreement with the UK will start at the end of this month, AAP reports.
Under the deal, there will be no tariffs on almost all Australian goods exported to the UK and more Australians will be eligible for lengthier working holidays in the country.
During a visit to Bondi Green, an Australian-themed restaurant in London’s Paddington, Anthony Albanese said:
What the FTA between Australia and the United Kingdom is about is getting greater access to this market for Australian products – greater access for our beef, for our sheep products, for our wine.
The prime minister said that, after a two-year period, there would be no tariffs on 99% of Australian exports to the UK and the same would apply to UK products arriving in Australia.
After the same two-year phase-in, Australians will be able to apply for working holidays in the UK to the age of 35 – up from 30 – and stay for a maximum of three years instead of two. UK citizens coming to Australia will be also be able to work for three years.
The UK’s free trade agreement with New Zealand, with similar conditions, will also start on the last day of May.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our rolling news coverage. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll have some overnight breaking stories and updates for you before my colleague Natasha May takes the helm.
Jim Chalmers says Australia is “still paying the price” for the Coalition leaving behind a fiscal “mess” and a budget “heaving with a trillion dollars of debt” as he flags one of the most punishing items in his own federal budget – the cost of servicing the country’s debts. The annual cost will rise from $17.7bn in 2022-23 to a peak of $27.1bn in 2025-26, before falling to $26bn in 2026-27, according to estimates released last night, which is more than spending on family tax benefit, childcare or infrastructure.
The Albanese government will scrap the controversial ParentsNext program from next year and stop compulsory obligations for participants immediately in a significant win for campaigners.
Health officials are urging men who have sex with other men to be aware of symptoms for mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, with the first New South Wales case in six months detected in Sydney. There is concern that while cases have been linked to people who have been overseas, the man with the new infection has not been known to have been abroad, suggesting that mpox is spreading in the state.
And the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has announced a start date for Australia’s free trade deal with the UK, which will (over a two-year phase-in period) lead to lower tariffs on exports – and longer working holiday visas for travellers.
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