SECOND READING SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
RT. HON. R. G. MENZIES, M. P.)
Tllyo 4lli DD e mber 1962
STATES GRANTS ( UNIVERSITIES) BILL ( NO. 2) 1962
The purpose of the Bill before the House is
to authorise the Commonwealth to offer to the States of New
South Wales, Victoria and South Australia grants for the
University of New South Wales, Monash University and Adelaide
University respectively, which are supplementary to those
already offered for the years 1961, 1962 and 1963 by the
existing State Grants ( Universities) Act 1960-62.
Honourable Members are aware that since the
Government's acceptance of the Murray Report of 1957
Commonwealth grants to the States for their universities have
been on a triennial basis. The grants for the years 1958-
1960 were those recommended by the Murray Committee, and those
for the current triennium, 1961-1963 are those recommended
in the first report to the Government by the Australian
Universities Commission established in 1959.
Grants for a period three years ahead have
advantages both for the universities receiving them and for
the Governments responsible for providing them. The former
have an assured income for the period, and so can plan with
a large measure of certainty while the latter know, broadly,
the level of finance required of them by the universities.
My Government's policy is to offer, for a period of tnree
years in advance, specified sums of money for the university
purposes which have been recommended to us by the Commission.
In general, our view is that if a State university requires
additional money during that period it mast obtain it from
other than Commonwealth sourceso In fact, this usually means
State Government grants and private benefactions. The State
Governments recognise that they have a special responsibility
for their own universities. On the other hand, we know that the judgments
on which the Commission's recomrurendations for the years 1961
to 1963 were based had to be made on evidence presented by the
universities as long ago as 1959. Accurate forecasting of
needs and costs for such a long period ahead is difficult and
we recognise that in certain circumstances exceptions to the
principle of fixed offers by the Commonwealth for a triennium
are justified. For this reason, in 1960 we agreed to increase
our grant to Victoria for the early stages of the planning and
development of Monash University Again, in May this year,
we amended the Act to permit increased Commonmwealth grants so
that the Commonwealth and States would share the cost of
providing higher salaries to university academic staffs.
In recent months, the Commission has received
many requests that it should recolmmend to the Government
increased grants for the present trienniuma After close and
painstaking examination of the various proposals, the Commission
recommended to me that the special problems involved in establishing
two rapidly growing new universities the University of
New South Wales and Monash University and in planning a new
constituent part of the University of Adelaide on a new site
at Bedford Park justified suoplementary grants of the amounts
indicated in Sections 3 and 4 of the Bill for the purposes
mentioned there. These are
r
2-
University of New South Wales
Building for Medical and Biological Sciences: œ 242,500
Monash University
Recurrent expenditure œ iI4 + 000
University of Adelaide
Bedford Park College Capital Expenditure œ 37,500
Re current expenditure œ 26,000
These amounts mean a total Commonwealth grant of œ 4207000
The Commission had discussions with the
appropriate State Government authorities and was able to
assure me that the State Governments concerned would match
the recommended Commonwealth grants on the customary basis,
that is to say for for capital expenditure and œ 1.85 to
œ 1 for recurrent costs. In these circumstances, my colleagues
and I, kncwing how thoroughly the Commission had considered
the claims put to them. were prepared to accept the recommendation.
The result is the present Bill, which I commend to the
House.