Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker Bishop, it is a pleasure to see you in charge of this chamber this evening. I thank you on behalf of the member for Lingiari for your profound generosity, because his contribution strayed as far and as wide from the subject matter before the House as I guess was humanly possible. I also want to congratulate the Minister for Defence for not taking offence at the member for Lingiari’s comments, because the Minister for Defence’s previous portfolio role created enormous stewardship. It seemed to be the member for Lingiari’s ambition to try and bait him. I say to you, Dr Nelson: tolerance is a great attribute that you have—through you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Nevertheless, I am going to try and stick to the subject matter at hand, and that is the Higher Education Legislation Amendment (2007 Measures No. 1) Bill 2007. I want to deal in particular with the research quality framework. I will make a number of comments, though, in quiet reflection on what the member for Lingiari said—without, I hope, incurring the wrath of you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

I am a past student of Griffith University. I am in fact the first member of this House to have come from Griffith University. I guess I am also the first student of Runcorn primary school and MacGregor State High School to have entered this place, to the best of my knowledge. Griffith University, in my electorate, is working very hard at gathering a lot of research dollars off their own bat, not simply waiting for the dollars that might come through the government system, which is underpinned by the matters before us tonight, but also by gaining private research dollars to sponsor a number of very good things that it is doing in pharmaceutical research and the creation of new possibilities. That is the sort of thing that we have always expected from Griffith, which as a university is not even 35 years old. I was there on opening day. I remember shaking the hand of then Prime Minister Whitlam. I was a young teenager but I went along and met him on open day.

So I was the first ever student from Griffith University to stand in this place, but there have been others since. In fact, it is interesting because with the member for Bonner and Senator Mason being former students of Griffith University, and Senator Trood being a former professor at Griffith University, that makes it a complete set on this side of the chamber—from what is supposedly a very left wing campus. It has a very aggressive student union operating there, albeit not as well supported by the average student.

The other point I want to make on this is that, in the pursuit of research grants, Griffith have had to think outside the square. They have expanded their campus operations through Logan and to the Gold Coast. And they have done so quite deliberately, because they want to sponsor new ideas and the creation of new possibilities for Australia. I studied there part time. I suppose, in order to meet the member for Lingiari’s commentary head on, this whole question of students affording their time of study can be too overplayed. It is really important to note that there are many people just like me who have studied part time. I started there 20 years ago. I was in the workforce for 10 years before I started my bachelor of commerce degree. I am simply putting this on the record because I found the struggle of balancing full-time work and the obligations I had to the ABC and Channel 7—which is where I was working when I started my studies, being a media reporter with those stations—as well as the obligations to work at my university progress something that I gladly took on. I think there are a lot more students with a lot more ambition than perhaps those opposite realise.

There is not this great cohort of people attending university today who have a victim mentality that suddenly the cost of study is out of their reach. We have record numbers of people attending university today. Remember, as the Minister for Defence used to say when he was the minister for education: why is it that, if only 10 per cent of Australians get a university degree, the other 90 per cent has to subsidise their existence? Can’t we challenge that 10 per cent to actually make a contribution? I think I was one of the first people to ever pay the HECS requirements, which were of course introduced by the Labor Party. I simply make the point that I do not want to hear any more concepts of victimhood from those opposite.

Equally, we have more people studying from overseas in our fine universities, participating in the research and adding to the sum of knowledge that Australia is generating for the use of the world. We have 136,500 undergraduates from overseas studying in Australia today. There are another 90,000 who are studying as postgraduates. Based on 2005 figures we have almost 900,000 people studying in universities today. So there is no doubt in my mind about the viability of the university sector to create an environment of learning and an environment of strong research.

This bill tonight is adding further to the funding of the research quality framework, providing almost $41 million in current year prices over four years to help fund universities and other higher education providers to assist with the implementation of the research quality frameworks from July this year to December 2010. It gives certainty to this sector so that they can make the plans that they need to make, not to simply generate good research but to ensure the whole operation of their universities—it is absolutely vital. So in that regard, on the commentary about overseas students: full-fee paying students are very much at the heart of the way in which the university sector operates. It cannot be seen purely in isolation of research alone. It cannot be seen purely in isolation of those students who may be afforded a government no-interest loan through higher education subsidies. The demand of the Higher Education Contribution Scheme to make a contribution to the overall costs of higher education is quite reasonable. It cannot be seen as just that alone. It is all part of the overall mix of the economy that a university is—this multi billion dollar enterprise that we see right around the country today.

I note that it is quite timely that the Group of Eight is chaired by my former tutor Professor Glyn Davis AC, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne.

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