University funding slashed in Labor's "Gonski reform"

On the weekend, Labor announced that they would fund the reforms to school funding by cutting money out of university funding. Here is an article from The Age about it: http://www.theage.com.au/national/university-sector-to-be-hit-in-gonski-reforms-20130413-2hry2.html

I think it is a very silly move. Universities in Australia already are underfunded as they are. They have been relying heavily on full fees from international students for funding for a while, and the reform a few years ago to disallow local students taking full fee undergraduate courses has compounded the impact. Now this hit just adds insult to injury to the university sector. It is counterproductive to cut funding from universities. This will result in a decline in the quality of both teaching and research done in our universities.

Now I don't approve of many of Tony Abbott's policies and views, but this policy by Labor is just silly. Many voters are indeed waiting with their baseball bats for the next election. If Kevin Rudd's government had "lost its way", then the current Labor government under Julia Gillard seems to have found itself stuck in the Southern Ocean in between the Nisshin Maru and a whale about to be harpooned. The Labor caucus had the opportunity last year to choose between Kevin Rudd (who most voters preferred) or Julia Gillard, but Julia Gillard won in a landslide; 71 to 31. Perhaps this is indicative of a more fundamental structure problem with the Labor Party with "faceless men" having too much power, but I don't know enough to comment.

While Prime Minister Gillard had made a few gains in the opinion polls, she has slipped back considerably and there appears very little prospect of gaining back ground before the next election. If nothing changes, it looks almost certain that we will be having an Abbott government after this year's election. And while I don't condone that campaign with Margaret Thatcher's death last week, I would be unsurprised if "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead" shoots up to the music charts in Australia if the current prime minister loses this election in a landslide.