The Abbott government’s advertising campaign on higher education contains “demonstrably untrue” claims about funding levels after deregulation, Labor has alleged in an official complaint.



The campaign, launched on Sunday, seeks to allay the misconception that the higher education contribution scheme (Hecs) is being abolished under changes yet to pass parliament, and says the federal government “will continue to pay around half your undergraduate degree”.

Labor argues this claim breaches the guidelines on taxpayer-funded advertising which require that “where information is presented as a fact it should be accurate and verifiable”.

In a letter to be sent to the finance department secretary on Tuesday, Labor’s higher education spokesman, Kim Carr, says the government’s legislation reduces commonwealth funding by 20% on average, removes limits on the tuition fees universities can charge and contains no mechanism to ensure an equal cost-sharing arrangement.

“In fact, publicly available evidence to date suggests that should the bill be passed, the cost burden will shift dramatically with students bearing up to 90% of the cost of degrees and the commonwealth contribution falling as low as 10%,” Carr writes.

“In support of this I draw your attention to the fee structures published by the University of Western Australia and the Queensland University of Technology, the only universities to have advised publicly what their fees would be should the bill pass.

“Under the University of Western Australia’s announced fee structure, commerce students will pay almost 90% of the cost of their degrees, arts students will pay almost 74% and even science students will pay more than 57%. Figures published by the Queensland University of Technology on Friday 5 December 2014 show business students will pay 88% of the cost of their degrees, law and business/law students would pay 89% and IT students would pay 55%.”

Carr argues the campaign also breaches other parts of the guidelines because it does not fulfil a “demonstrated need” and is designed to serve a political purpose.

“I suggest that the contraventions of the guidelines outlined above are sufficiently grave as to warrant all further advertisements being immediately withdrawn,” Carr says in his letter to the finance department secretary, Jane Halton.

“As the departmental secretary tasked with oversight of these guidelines, and government campaign advertising more generally, I request that you investigate this matter at your earliest convenience.”

The secretary of the education department, Lisa Paul, certified last month that the campaign complied with the guidelines. She determined that the campaign fulfilled several suitable uses, including informing the public of new, existing or proposed government policies. Paul certified that the campaign materials were “presented in objective language” and “free of political argument” with factual information that was “accurate and verifiable”.

The campaign was also approved by the special minister of state, Michael Ronaldson.

The education minister, Christopher Pyne, has declined to reveal the campaign’s cost but said it “received all the appropriate government approvals”.

His spokesman said the campaign was was designed “to better inform Australians about the current higher education system and funding available to students”, after feedback from attendees at university events revealed “a consistent lack of understanding” about the status of Hecs.

“The information campaign will help to counter any myths and misconceptions about the current higher education system and raise awareness of Hecs,” he said on Monday.

“This is an information campaign focusing on the facts. The cost of the campaign will be released in due course. The government is spending far less on information campaigns that the previous government did. Labor spent over $500m on advertising during its period in office.”

Several crossbench senators who voted against the higher education package last month, including the independent Nick Xenophon and Palmer United’s Glenn Lazarus, have criticised the taxpayer-funded campaign.

“This is not the law of the land,” Xenophon told the ABC. “This effectively is party political advertising paid for by taxpayers and that’s wrong.

“This won’t convince me, it won’t illuminate me – it will just aggravate me because this is a waste of taxpayer funds.”

Guardian Australia revealed last month that an advertising campaign was likely after the government spent $150,000 on market research aimed at testing “the level of understanding about the higher education funding system and how it works”.

Department of Education officials have previously said they were concerned that prospective students were confused about Hecs, with some people asking at education expos whether the income-contingent loan scheme had been abolished.