The Wire

The Voluntary Student Unionism debate took another turn yesterday with the release of documents embarrassing to the Howard government as it seeks to win support for its position. The documents from Dr Brendan Nelson’s department of Education, Science and Training concede that disadvantaged students could be forced to drop out of university should VSU become law. Dr Nelson did not deny this instead counter-claiming that the fee university students pay for services on campus which is as high as $590 every year hurt disadvantaged students more than his legislation ever would. The documents also revealed the government has considered three other options for funding services for university students but refused to announce what they were. This report from Michael Atkin include comments from Michael McKinnon, Freedom of Information editor at the Australian newspaper. The Australian has appealed the Howard governments decision to withhold 40-60 pages of documents from the Education department. The refusal was based on a provision in Freedom of Information laws which allows the government to keep secret documents which are not in the public interest to see. This will be subjected to an internal government review which if unsuccessful will be referred to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.