Senator CAMPBELL (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer)(10.48 a.m.) —The government's view of amendments Nos 1 to 5 moved by the Democrats is that Senator Stott Despoja's amendment to include the commercial arms of universities in table A of section 4 of the act not only means they would be eligible to receive funding under the Higher Education Funding Act but also that the conditions of HEFA would be applied to all of their activities. For example, this means that these companies could not charge fees as section 3 fees of HEFA because it prohibits the charging of fees for tuition or related purposes in connection with a course of study. Such an amendment would threaten the commercial viabilities of these organisations and would be viewed by universities as gross government interference in universities' commercial activities.

This amendment would also impact on the Open Learning Agency's commercial viability, as it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Monash University. My advice is that it seems to be in conflict, Senator, with your wish that access to OLA services be expanded. It is the view of the government that this would effectively close them down. We believe that it would also lead to a loss of income of hundreds of millions of dollars and threaten a great many jobs in that sector. It would appear to mean that universities could not charge companies for purely commercial training. I am not sure whether that is what Senator Stott Despoja actually wants.