Barry Wakelin (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The government amendment to the Higher Education Legislation Amendment (2007 Measures No. 1) Bill 2007 was introduced into the House of Representatives less than a month ago, so it is well on its way to becoming part of the legislative framework. This bill builds on the government’s $8.2 billion investment in higher education this year, which is a 26 per cent real increase on 1995. Australia compares well internationally in education. Around 31 per cent of Australians aged 25 to 64 have a tertiary qualification, compared with the OECD country mean of 25 per cent. Thirty-five per cent of Australia’s 19-year-olds are engaged in tertiary education, which is seven per cent higher than the OECD average. Therefore, to suggest that the Australian government’s investment in tertiary education declined between 1995 and 2003 is simply wrong. In her second reading speech the minister said:

That is only taking half the picture—and leaving out much of our training expenditure and taxpayer subsidies to higher education students. Including such public subsidies, Commonwealth funding for postschool education has increased by 35 per cent in real terms since 1995-96.

It should be quite clear that the Australian government’s strong commitment to higher education is very obvious. This bill builds on that $8.2 billion investment.

There has been some discussion this evening about the research quality framework, the RQF, and whether the UK is abandoning this process. It is my advice that that is not the case. After more than 20 years of successful operation, the United Kingdom has undertaken significant consultation, and there will be a full peer review process of the research metric. The UK is just simplifying its own processes.

I thought it worth while defining the repository because, I must admit, I am on new ground. Apparently a repository is an electronic location where data is stored and maintained. So far so good. A repository is a place where multiple databases or files are located, for distribution over a wider network. Institutions will store their research outputs in a repository with DEST, which will provide an interface for assessors to access the evidence, portfolios and other necessary information from the universities’ repositories.

Research output stored in repositories will range from traditional journal articles to non-traditional research items, including multimedia items and architectural designs. I welcome that investment. I hear the concerns from the other side, but we should never lose sight of the fact that if all of the research that is now available were implemented—if people actually knew about it and were able to access it in a more usable form—the whole system would be significantly enhanced. This is a $40 million investment over four years, and I certainly welcome that initiative.

The bill will also give effect to a national protocol for higher education approval processes. If you think this legislation has not gone through a reasonably protracted process, the national protocols were first agreed to in 2000 by the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, and they regulate the recognition of new universities, the operation of overseas universities in Australia and the accreditation of courses offered by higher education institutions. In July 2006, ministers approved a set of revised national protocols, to take effect from 31 December 2007, which will require legislative changes in all jurisdictions.

In separate measures, the bill allows for the first time cross-institutional arrangements to be extended to Commonwealth supported students at non-table A higher education providers. Previously, Commonwealth supported students were only able to undertake study in Commonwealth supported places in a cross-institutional arrangement between tables A providers. I welcome this greater flexibility.

There are a number of other measures. The six-week time limit for the provision of corrected information by a student was touched on earlier. The bill also clarifies the overseas studies requirement in respect of eligibility for OS-HELP assistance by enabling a student to apply for OS-HELP assistance if they are already overseas. It is a practical suggestion.

The bill requires a Commonwealth supported student to reside in Australia while undertaking their studies, although provision is made to ensure entitlement to Commonwealth support and assistance where a student is required to be overseas for part of their course of study. In addition to these measures, the bill contains some minor technical amendments which will improve the overall operation of the Higher Education Support Act 2003. One such measure is to ensure that the suspension of approval as a higher education provider under the act will be a legislative instrument and therefore made publicly available on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.

In concluding my contribution on the Higher Education Legislation Amendment Bill this evening, we can be well assured that our higher education sector is in excellent shape. There will always be need for reform, and change is constant, but the constant debate I hear in this place that this government has cut resources to this sector and in some ways has devalued this sector through that mechanism is absolutely nonsense. I am pleased to support the bill tonight.

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