Professor Stephen Parker AO, Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Canberra, presented the keynote address to the TJ Ryan Foundation's second anniversary event held in Brisbane on Tuesday, 16 February 2016. The TJ Ryan Foundation is a progressive think tank focussing on Queensland public policy and public administration. Professor Parker's speech addressed changes over the last fifty years to Australia's higher education sector, and to levels of societal inequality in Australia, drawing comparisons and identifying links between the two. These 'rear view' observations were made in light of more recent government proposals, supported almost universally by the nation's cohort of Vice-Chancellors, to deregulate higher education fees for domestic university students. Professor Parker's address outlined his opposition to such additional changes to Australia's higher education landscape, and considered their wider implications for exacerbating inequality in this country.