I can indicate to the honourable senator that, yes, the government is committed to deregulation of universities. We believe it is very good policy. I would just remind the honourable senator that a former distinguished Labor premier and the defeated Labor candidate for Forde, Peter Beattie, warned: 'Make no mistake, without funding reform, Australian universities will inevitably slip towards mediocrity'. That is the Labor Party's proposal for the universities. Even the Labor Party's own statesmen have called them out in relation to this matter.

In relation to the assertion of $100,000 degrees, Professor Chubb and others have ruled that out and have exposed the mischief that the Labor Party have been peddling on this.