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Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 2. March 5 1979

Editorial $9 More if we Fight for it

page 2

Editorial $9 More if we Fight for it

The headline of the article which carried the story in the Evening Post made it look as though this rise was certain. Don't be fooled. The $9 increase is only what the Education Department has recommended. This proposal has gone to Treasury, who will add their recommendations, and finally to our new Minister of Education Merv Wellington. Treasury are almost certain to oppose the suggestion unless they can find some way of financing the proposal by cutting some other student allowances [unclear: tnces]. Wellington has already said that ranks the Bursary proposal towards the bottom of the 50 or so recommendations from the Education Department.

If we are to have any chance at all of getting this increase we must start fighting now. If we organise properly we have a chance of forcing Wellington to grant the increase. The Education Department proposal makes it clear that the existing level of the Bursary is quite inadequate. The increase would almost put the Bursary back on the same effective level that it was when it was set-up in 1975.

The ammunitionis there to use, if we combine it with mass action, if we ensure that appropriate representations are made, above all if we can demonstrate that students are behind the increases — then we may indeed get it. But there is no way that silting on our bums and placing our faith in the Education Department's recommendations will win it for us. Time and again students have allowed chances to slip through their fingers. If we let this one slip, we are not likely to get another so good.

We have the support of the Department, we have the documentary ecidence and possibly most significant, we have an inexperienced Minister. If students can't do something with all that, well we may as well all pack up and go home.

Pitfalls on the Way

The most significant pitfall we could encounter would be an incompetent Education Officer. More than ever before we must try and ensure that we select an EO who will be capable of carrying out a major, effective and thus hopefully successful campaign. We must ensure that there are sufficent funds allocated, both in VUWSA and NZUSA to allow such a campaign to be properly run.

On different level there are other problems we must watch out for. As I said earlier, Treasury are only likely to support this proposal if they can find an alternate course of funding, two likely sources have been suggested. The first is from Student Teacher Allowances, which have been under threat for some time.

The other proposal is a much newer one, and much more serious. Last summer vacation the Student Community Service Programme operated, and cost the Government around $5 million. It has been surmised that part of the funding for any increase (the $9 increase would cost an estimated $10 million) might be found by ceasing the SCSP on the grounds that, with the improved Bursary, students are not so dependent on holiday earnings.

Students must ensure that any hint of this proposal be thrown out. Unless the Bursary receives much more than a $9 increase and is payable year round, most students will still require holiday employment to sustain them through the year. This is particularly so for students on the abated bursary. As an aside it is interesting to note that there were no suggestions in the proposal to remove the abatement as students have been requesting ever since the introduction of the STB.

So the struggle is two-fold. Firstly to ensure that the proposal goes through and no less important to make sure that the Government isn't giving with one hand what it's taking away with the other, as happened with the bursary increase and the Tax changes in the 1978 Budget.

Peter Beach.