First day back

First day back and all went well. I started both my new serials ( Prince and the Puaper and Tales From Moominvalley)  It was an early start for me and a busy day finishing off tasks from last term and starting new work.

The Age had an interesting story on voter backlash toward changes to the university sector.

Extensive automated phone polling across 23 federal electorates taking in all states has found cuts in federal funding and changes to allow increased fees, higher loan charges, and access to limited federal funding by non-university course providers, have not gone over well with households.

Sixty-nine per cent of those polled said they opposed “significant increases in fees” and 65 per cent said they opposed a 20 per cent funding cut.

And just 28 per cent of voters said they approved of the idea of deregulating the higher education sector to allow privately owned higher education institutions to have access to Commonwealth subsidies.

The strong negative reaction has fuelled a fierce voter backlash sending Coalition stocks plummeting in a more than 10 per cent swing away from the government averaged across the 23 seats.

Education Minister Christopher Pyne appears to have taken much of the blame and would currently lose his electorate of Sturt in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs in a 15 per cent swing away from him, propelled by a disastrous approval rating of minus 14 per cent.

He retained the seat easily at the 2013 election securing 54 per cent of the primary vote for a two-party-preferred result of 60 per cent.

Wait until the electorate grasps the true significance of these changes ( if they get them through the Senate) 

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/university-funding-cuts-cause-severe-indigestion-for-government-20140713-zt63m.html#ixzz37R8AOb4c