Whitlam gave free Uni education to the rich
Yet the facts, and the Whitlam and Hawke Labor governments, say otherwise. Whitlam’s private secretary Peter Wilenski wrote that the abolition of university fees “had no impact on the socioeconomic distribution of the origins of university students, and was in effect a direct handout to the better off”. Academics and administrators got larger salaries, wrote Wilenski, but “it was doubtful whether it should have had first call on government funds”.
Though Bacon and the baby boomers are loath to admit it, the pioneers of popular university education were Robert Menzies and his Liberal-Country Party successors who quadrupled university admissions between 1956 and 1972.
Tens of thousands of undergraduates were receiving commonwealth scholarships when Whitlam came to power, including, incidentally, former treasurer Wayne Swan. Scholarships were awarded competitively to the most able students regardless of circumstances, guaranteeing that those who entered academe were the academically able.
One consequence of the Whitlam free-for-all was to increase the failure rate. At the start of the 1970s, 34 per cent of students who enrolled would leave empty-handed; by the end of the decade, the rate had risen to 40 per cent.
As Whitlam’s education minister, Kim Beazley Sr, wrote in his memoirs: “Generally speaking, those who have a tertiary education in Australia tend to come from the higher income groups. Making tertiary education free therefore tends to shift resources upwards in the community.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/bacon-and-baby-boomers-just-maintain-the-myth/story-fnhulhjj-1227040577057
Whitlam unlike the libs gave opportunity for all to attain higher education . That concept is beyond your grasp .