Abbott government cuts uni support; funds priests' training - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#14494764
Taxpayers would subsidise the training of priests and other religious workers at private colleges for the first time under the Abbott government's proposed higher education reforms.

As well as deregulating university fees and cutting university funding by 20 per cent, the government's proposed higher education package extends federal funding to students at private universities, TAFES and associate degree programs.

Religious teaching, training and vocational institutes would be eligible for a share of $820 million in new Commonwealth funding over three years.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/ ... l#comments

The fuck? Is this a joke? I don't find it very funny if so.
#14494810
Sounds like a great time to become a priest. Igor, what is the point of fighting it if the government is going to help you pay to get a job? There is obviously a shortage of priests that the market can't value properly and Abbott is correcting the market.
#14494867
There is actually a severe shortage of Priests in training and so this is simply an assistance payment to help promote social wellbeing.

Even with attendance down, the Catholic Church(in particular) still doesn't have enough Priests to cater for the congregation that currently exists nationwide. And additionally to this, the overwhelming majority of Priests that currently serve here are from overseas(Mainly Africa and Asia!).

So summarizing:
A) We need more Priests!
and
B) We need more Australian Priests!

It could feasibly be argued that Abbott is employing a policy designed to help catch up with much of Asia and India.
#14495257
He pumped $10 billion into a weapons acquisition program (F-35) and then moved to cut defense personnel wages.

He scrapped the all fiber national broadband network in favor of a 'cheaper' coaxial alternative to save money, then moved to privatize all NBN infrastructure already built, effectively selling off tax payer investments to the lowest corporate bidder. Now the private contractors are dithering, half-arsing a half baked network into something no longer worth building, but more tax payer billions are being funneled to the corporate owners in the interests of speeding up construction. Tax payers are paying more for what is to be a sub-standard NBN, and in the end it won't be owned by us.

He scrapped the carbon tax to lower electricity prices and then eliminated regulatory controls over private energy firms, this has led to electricity prices going up.

He scrapped federal funding for public schools, and increased federal funding for private schools. To get around the separation of church and state (which only applies to federal government and not state government) he came up with a conditional federal funding budget, those states that fire their secular councilors and hire clergy will receive more federal cash.

He unsuccessfully tried to cut public university funding, deregulate price controls and he tried to sell off the student government contributions debt scheme to private companies so that students would end up paying more, and getting into more debt.

This guy is a malicious fiend and he's in it for his little cartel of corporate pals and religious zealots. The Church is one of the biggest corporate entities and interest groups in this country, they are in a frenzy developing land they own at the moment. And they need not worry about taxes. Now he's giving them taxpayer handouts.

Unless he is voted out decisively in the next election, unless the ultra-neoliberal scummery of his cliche is kept away from the reigns for the decade thereafter, this country will start resembling a socioeconomic steaming pile of shit akin to parts of the US I had the unfortunate pleasure to visit.
#14495388
The Church is one of the biggest corporate entities and interest groups in this country, they are in a frenzy developing land they own at the moment.


Yet I haven't set foot in a brand new Church since back in 1998.... And I've not even heard a whisper of any new major churches being built since then either, in Melbourne at least.

That "frenzied development" is more like the development one sees in someone desperate to "do it up and sell it because we can't afford to run it anymore", or even mainly restoration work. I've heard of heaps of restorations and renovations going on, but hardly any "brand new" development.

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