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The power of education

Sharan Burrow is a globally recognised union leader whose 35 years of service in local, state, national and international trade unions has made immeasurable contributions to workers’ rights.

Sharan was the first in her working-class family to have access to university, thanks to a teaching scholarship and Gough Whitlam's visionary move to make university education free. Reflecting on the impact of this policy change for Australians, Sharan says, “You saw women flood through the gates of all universities, but �����Ʊ in particular.”

However, it was the response from her father that made her realise the power she now had: “My father was a macho type, but he broke down and cried when he understood the opportunity that he and previous generations were denied by being working class.”

Now Sharan has seen the costs of education rise with the Hawke Labor government establishing the Higher Education Contributions Scheme (HECS) that introduced a flat rate of $1,800 a year for degrees in 1989 and the Howard Coalition Government brought in the three-tiered rates in 1996. Sharan says, “It makes me sad that young people today don’t have access to university in the same way. We desperately need to lay a values-based future to save our planet. Students are burdened with debt which prevents them from going to university entirely.”

This educational inequality paved Sharan's path as an advocate for intergenerational education and instilled in her a strong belief in the responsibility to share prosperity.