Labor's decision to back the abolition of a $4 billion fund for TAFE and university infrastructure has divided the party and outraged the Senate crossbench, with Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick telling ACT Labor's Katy Gallagher that she desperately needed to improve her negotiating skills.
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Labor agreed to abolish the education fund and shift the $4 billion to disaster relief in return for $50 million to be spent on TAFEs. The deal took an angry Senate crossbench by surprise on Thursday.
Crossbencher Jacqui Lambie said she was "stunned that Labor and the Coalition have done this dirty deal and sold out TAFEs".
"I've got to be honest with you you're talking about the ACT's marijuana laws but I'm starting to think that's all for show and you're all on the stuff yourselves," she said.
Labor was far from united, with Labor Senator Carr going so far as to lobby the crossbench this week from London, according to Senator Patrick.
He told the Senate that Senator Carr had been so concerned that he had written to him twice and called him in the middle of the night this week.
He tabled a letter from Senator Carr, which said "raiding" the education fund was a subterfuge, and once the money had been lost it would be difficult to restore. Labor originally set up the fund in government, but the Coalition hasn't allocated funds from it.
Labor's education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek would not comment, but is also understood to be angry at Labor's deal - which was made by Labor's frontbench, but without going to Labor's caucus. Labor education caucus secretary, Canberra's Dave Smith, said the group had empowered the frontbench to negotiate. And he described the deal as "the best of a bad situation", given the Coalition had frustratingly refused to use the fund for years.
Just four weeks ago, Victorian Labor MP Julian Hill described the plan to take money from education for disaster relief as "profoundly dumb".
"It's robbing Peter to pay Paul. It's a false choice, a pretend choice and con trick," he told parliament in September.
Senator Lambie said TAFEs trained heroes and helped re-build lives, but they desperately needed funding to fix crumbling buildings.
"My heart goes out to those kids in regional Australia because by god you're about to get slapped again. They will have to move away from their friends and fans to get a decent education and that is shameful," she said.
The new TAFE money was paltry, she said.
"Fifty million bucks, God almighty, I can get more out of the government with just one of me than what you lot can altogether ... For goodness sake," she said.
Senator Patrick said Labor could have pushed for much more. "In this $4 billion discussion you managed to squeeze out $50 million," he said. ".. Senator Gallagher, I'm happy to invite you to crossbench negotiating school because you desperately need it."
Senator Gallagher hit back at Senator Patrick as "caving into the government on a daily basis".
"After many years in politics I am used to men patronising me," she said, defending the deal.
Labor disaster spokesman Murray Watt said the $50 million would be an important shot in the arm for TAFEs.
But Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi said Labor and the government had "teamed up to stab education in the back".
The $50 million for TAFE would not even build one TAFE or university building, she said.
Under Labor's deal, the $50 million in federal money for TAFE facilities assumes dollar-for-dollar funding from the states.
Senator Patrick pushed government leader in the Senate Mathias Cormann on how the new disaster money would be spent - including how decisions would be made on who got money, whether the government would call for applications for the money, whether experts would be involved and who would make decisions.
He didn't get answers from Senator Cormann, who told him the money would go to areas of highest need but the process for allocating funds was yet to be decided.
Asked how he knew whether the states would match the $50 million funding, Senator Cormann said he would be surprised if they were not receptive. Asked which states would get the money and how it would be allocated, Senator Cormann said that, too, was yet to be decided, but it would be a competitive grants program - with applications called for the TAFE funding.
The new disaster fund would only be used after a natural disaster that had a significant impact. The government had intended for no more than $150 million to be spent in any one year, but Labor said its deal upped the amount to $200 million. The extra would be spent on risk reduction, including flood levees, sea walls and fire breaks.
The fund was set up in in 2007 by Peter Costello and renamed and broadened by Labor, which says $7 billion of grants was made until 2013 when the Coalition stopped spending from it. The Coalition tried to abolish it for asset recycling in 2014 and for the disability scheme in 2017.
Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson said the fund was designed to pay for teaching and research infrastructure "in perpetuity - not just today or tomorrow".
"[The fund] was created to secure the future of Australia's tertiary education sector for all generations to come. With its de-funding, there is now no other dedicated source of ongoing funding for investment in capital works - new classrooms and research buildings - for universities or TAFE."
