He comes from afar, he carries a big stick, but he rarely speaks softly. This past Thursday was no exception. After dealing with News Limited's annual general meeting in Adelaide, Rupert Murdoch flew to Melbourne (airline undisclosed) to deliver the inaugural Keith Murdoch Memorial Oration, and while it lacked the brilliance and brevity of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, it was heard by many more in its uttering.

It's doubtful that many of the Coalition will listen to let alone heed him. As Arthur Miller might have had Willy Loman say, he is not well liked by them, and by media accounts the feeling appears mutual.

But that doesn't make what he has said any less true.

[T]he financial assets of any country - its real estate, stocks, bonds, natural resources, pension fund reserves, cash deposits and other instruments - together comprise less than 30 percent of the national balance sheet. According the world's foremost social scientists, such as Nobel laureate Gary Becker of the University of Chicago, around 70 percent of the real value of any society lies in its human capital.

 We must learn to protect and increase Australia's share of human capital as carefully, and as ambitiously, as we would financial capital... There is no more effective way to capitalize on [Australia's] growth potential than to arm our people with better education.

Just to drive the point home Mr. Murdoch continued:

 ...Australia's colleges and universities, [are] our best generators of human capital. Institutions of higher education have the capacity both to develop the strengths of our own citizens and to attract a wealth of human power from elsewhere. The result would be a powerful diversity, a rich influx and output of skilled effort, that this country now lacks.

Without urgent support for our centres of learning, Australia is at risk of becoming something worse than globally disadvantaged: it is no exaggeration to say we are threatened with global irrelevance. Last year, the Commonwealth government spent more on peacetime defense measures than on Australian education.

... no country in the developed world needs educational improvements more urgently than Australia... we have proven that educational reform works below the level of higher education. Now is the time to redirect and redouble those efforts to improve our colleges and universities.

He then cites example after example of how and why "education improvement... works." In his own way he echoes the plea of the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee,  the Group of Eight and the recent Senate committee report, Universities in Crises pointing out, "At least as important as expanding our learning institutions [by making more places available to prospective students] is elevating their capacities, standards, rewards for their teachers and their international reputations as centers of excellence."

The day following Mr. Murdoch's address the Group of Eight released a statement strongly endorsing his sentiments. In addition they published the table (left) listing the revenue per student available to various universities on four continents.
    Chairman of the Group of Eight, Gavin Brown, V-C University of Sydney, pointed out "The activities of Australia's leading universities build networks of parents, students and alumni who are the current and future leaders of their nations. Adequate investment in our universities is critical to the future of all Australians."

  Rupert Murdoch is the world's most powerful media baron and by his own account, "For better or for worse, our company [News Corp] is a reflection of my thinking, my character, my values." Well, is he prepared to back Thursday's rhetoric by using News Corp's reach and power to further the cause he has espoused of elevating Australia to becoming a 1^st rank knowledgeable nation or is he just so much talk and having given his oration will now go on about his many business interests. The fact is, without a groundswell of public opinion demanding that real political will be exercised, little will happen. That's true for the Coalition and despite Knowledge Nation, were it to gain office, it will be true for Labor.

Alex Reisner
The Funneled Web