Budget update shows debt slashed as universities brace for funding cuts

UNIVERSITIES are bracing for a new wave of funding cuts as the Turnbull Government chips away at the nation’s debt and works to deliver a promised Budget surplus by 2021.

UNIVERSITIES are bracing for a new wave of funding cuts as the Turnbull Government chips away at the nation’s debt and works to deliver a promised Budget surplus by 2021.

Today’s midyear Budget update will see the government stop borrowing this year for everyday spending — such as $164 billion in welfare payments — for the first time since the Global Financial Crisis.

The new figures also reveal $23 billion will be slashed from the nation’s gross debt by 2021, when Australia will still owe $583 billion.

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It is understood the government will use the update to ­deliver $2.8 billion in tertiary cuts — such as freezing funding for student places — which could not pass the Senate.

Fresh from John Alexander’s Bennelong by-election win, Malcolm Turnbull will seek to use the new economic data to deliver on his promise of turning the “jobs and growth” slogan into a reality.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull takes a selfie with a supporter in Putney, Sydney on Sunday. Picture: AAP

But the Prime Minister said his government needed to have “humility” and “get on with the job” after a 5 per cent swing to Labor.

Treasurer Scott Morrison said the government planned to make further debt reductions as it brought the Budget back into the black.

“We are no longer putting the equivalent of the national grocery bill on the credit card,” he said.

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Universities Australia chief Belinda Robinson warned tertiary funding freezes would be a “double whammy to opportunity and equity”, slashing the number of students who could go to university.

Amid the fallout from Bennelong, Mr Alexander apologised for a joke at the expense of people with disabilities, but accused critics of being “mischievous”.

Opposition frontbencher Tony Burke said the result showed Labor’s push to win the next federal election “will be hard” as he admitted the resignation of Sam Dastyari had hurt candidate Kristina ­Keneally.

She is now tipped to take his place in the Senate.

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