When Education Minister Simon Birmingham addressed the Council of Deans of Education the other day it sounded like he was practising his lines for crossbench conversations

On vouchers for coursework masters: “rather than postgrad education as being an historical mix of this university gets this many quotas for commonwealth supported places, this discipline and that university gets another amount …we go right back to first principles and say, ‘well, we have a certain pool of places to be supported; what disciplines should they be; where is the public benefit greatest in terms of the investment of those dollars for students in those disciplines; how do you ensure they’re effectively shared across the states?’ Then let them go to the most worthy, able students and let those students choose which of our wonderful universities they think best meet their needs.”

On performance-contingent funding for universities: “a little bit of financial incentive to think about optimal rates of enrolment, optimal approaches in terms of minimising attrition, the necessary support for students to succeed and ultimately the employment outcomes for students, are all I think quite important.”

And he did not talk about money, probably because keeping the conversation off cash is his best chance of getting his bill through the Senate.