As expected (CMM October 15) the EIF is no more – and it only cost the government $50m! 

The Senate sent amendments to legislation ending the EIF back to the Reps yesterday, where they were passed quicker than a finance minister can say, “whacko! that’s $4bn into the kitty.”

There is $50m for TAFE, (not VET, just TAFE) which was enough to win Labor’s support for the government legislation abolishing the fund. This is despite the party’s education shadow Tanya Plibersek calling on the education community to lobby a Senate committee to protect the EIF. “Labor will continue to fight for fair funding and proper investment in education,” Ms Plibersek said last month (CMM September 20). Perhaps she used “education” as a synonym for “TAFE.”

If anybody heard a distant rumble lunch-time yesterday, it may have been Kim Carr, in London, responding to the news. Senator Carr fought to save the EIF, from the first Abbott Government move to close it down in 2014, to the last – at the start of the week his friends were still suggesting it was not dead yet. It is now.