Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues) Share this | Hansard source

You can always rely on Labor to scaremonger. The Labor Party would have you believe that the higher education sector is on the verge of collapse and that no student can afford to go to university. Labor would have you believe that students have to choose between a house and a university degree. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Australian education system is one of the fairest, most equitable and accessible in the world. The latest figures show us that there are almost one million students in higher education. Over 700,000 of them are Australian students and over half of them are Australian undergraduate students. One million students in universities is a 50 per cent increase since we came to office in 1996.

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