Senator MASON (1:48 PM) —Mr President, I seek leave to make a short statement.

The PRESIDENT —Leave is granted for two minutes.

Senator MASON —The job of the ALTC is to improve the quality and excellence of teaching at Australia’s universities. It costs the Australian taxpayer about $88 million over four years. The government have already said that they will provide $50 million of that $88 million and move the functions into a department, thereby saving about $38 million over four years—less than $10 million a year. What the ALTC does is better direct the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars to Australian universities for teaching and learning. For the price of less than $10 million a year, and that is all it is, we are going to waste potentially hundreds of millions of dollars by expenditure of that money that is not as well directed, so not better directed. It is a total false economy. It is a charade coming from this government, who have wasted a fortune in so many other areas of government expenditure.

Question put: