John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The premise of the deputy leader’s question is wrong. There was no requirement; there was a condition that it be offered. There is a difference. I would say to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and all those who sit opposite: what happened in respect of university funding was that we overcame a longstanding practice of the academic unions which had required universities to conform to a particular approach. What we said as a condition of funding was that one of the options should be AWAs.

Let me emphasise that the conditions that apply in relation to the employment of nurses in our view is quite different and that is why we have absolutely no intention of introducing any conditions, either of the type contemplated in the question that I answered a few moments ago or indeed of the type that were introduced in relation to academics. We have no intention of doing that in relation to nurses.

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