Senator Lee Rhiannon incites student protests on uni funding

GREENS senator Lee Rhiannon has called on students to campaign against funding shortages in higher education.

GREENS senator Lee Rhiannon has called on students to engage in a sustained campaign of public agitation to raise awareness of funding shortages in higher education.

Senator Rhiannon said it was "a no-brainer" that removing caps on the number of students who could enrol meant more resources were required. "But the issue of more resources has not been addressed by the Labor government," she said.

Senator Rhiannon traded verbal blows with ALP stalwart Doug Cameron during a one-hour panel discussion at the National Union of Students conference at the University of Technology, Sydney, yesterday.

She said students needed to have "a strong voice" on funding shortfalls.

They should "not leave it up to the vice-chancellors and finance managers to decide how staff numbers will be allocated" amid decreasing resources.

She pointed to recent student protests at Sydney and La Trobe universities, which had contributed to proposed staff cuts being reviewed or changed.

The two leftist politicians were asked to speak on the topic of university funding and student fees, but they also touched on refugees, a tax on financial services, the social contributions of Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer, the "evils" of News Limited and the unwillingness of Labor to co-operate with the Greens.

Senator Rhiannon, the Greens spokeswoman for higher education, said the party's position on supporting free public universal education was unchanged.

But she said higher education was an area that the Greens and Labor could "obviously work together more closely on, especially with the spectre of an Abbott government".

Her overtures were rebuffed by Senator Cameron, who said he was "sick and tired of the pontification, stupidity and intransigence of the Greens". "I'm not here to be lectured by you about working together," he said.

However, Senator Cameron did agree students needed to find a common voice and to oppose a possible Abbott government "which is the biggest threat to the defunding of higher education".

Senator Rhiannon said despite big funding increases to universities since 2009, funding per student place had "plunged 30 per cent since 2007". "The increases in skills and knowledge that Julia Gillard talks about can't be paid for by increasing student fees and eroding staff numbers and conditions," she said.