Kerry Bartlett (Macquarie, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to continue the comments I commenced last night on the Higher Education Legislation Amendment (2007 Measures No. 1) Bill 2007. This bill amends the Higher Education Support Act 2003 to do a number of things. Firstly, it provides funding of $41 million to support the implementation of the research quality framework. The research quality framework’s aim is to ensure that taxpayers’ money is being invested in a way such as to maximise the benefits for the higher education sector and for the community more broadly. The government is committed to the twin goals of excellence and relevance in research, and this initiative will help to ensure the achievement of these goals.

The second amendment alters the Higher Education Support Act 2003 to reflect changes to the National Protocols for Higher Education Processes, agreed to in 2000 by the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. These revised protocols will apply to all new and existing higher education institutions. They will provide pathways for more institutions to become self-accrediting where they have a strong record in higher education delivery and quality assurance. The revisions will also allow the emergence of specialist universities. The important point is that the effect of these amendments will be a more diverse higher education sector, with greater flexibility, enabling it to better adapt to change and more effectively meet the needs of students, of business, of employers and of our broader community.

The Australian government is committed to increasing opportunities in and continuously improving the quality of our higher education sector, consistent with and part of our clearly demonstrated commitment to the highest possible education standards in this country. This year the Australian government is committing $8.2 billion in university funding, an increase of 7.7 per cent in real terms since this government has been in office and, importantly, part of an increase of 26.2 per cent in real terms in funding for the tertiary education sector as a whole. This year we will see 407,000 taxpayer-funded places for universities for higher education, an increase of 17.6 per cent since 1995. Recently the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee said that, in their view, there are sufficient places now in our university sector, with 4,200 new commencements this year, many in medicine, nursing and engineering.

I am very pleased that this year the University of Western Sydney has taken its first enrolment of students in the new medical school, a medical school that was pushed by me and my colleagues from Western Sydney, the member for Macarthur and the member for Lindsay, some three or four years ago. I am delighted that the government, prior to the 2004 election, committed funding for the medical school for UWS and that that medical school has become a reality. This year, the first intake of students, including from my electorate, are now studying medicine at the University of Western Sydney. While I am on that topic, let me say that, with the same degree of determination, I am fighting for the establishment of a dental school for Charles Sturt University for the central west, and I am determined to see that come to fruition. I will be delighted in two or three years time to be able to see the first enrolment of dental students in Charles Sturt University.

On the broader issue of funding for our universities, I do need to take issue with the mantra that we hear so often from the other side: the mythological claim that this government has somehow cut funding from education and cut funding from universities. That could not be further from the truth, and the facts show that very clearly. The facts show very clearly that this government has substantially increased funding for education right across the spectrum. As I said in the one or two minutes I had to speak last night, we have increased funding for total education from 5.5 per cent of GDP to 5.8 per cent of GDP. That might not sound like a lot, but with the strongly growing economy that we have had for most of the last 10 years—we have a much greater GDP now than we had 10 years ago—we are spending an increased percentage of that greatly increased GDP on education. So the ignorant and ill-informed or deliberately deceitful comments from the other side need to be rejected out of hand.

We have increased funding for education right across the spectrum. We have increased funding for higher education for universities, as I said, by 7.7 per cent in real terms. We have increased funding for the tertiary education sector, covering the whole area of vocational and technical education, by 26.2 per cent in real terms. And we have increased funding for the school sector by 160 per cent, including direct increases in funding for public schools by 118 per cent in 10 years. So the cry that we get from the other side and the nonsense that we get from the teachers unions and so on that we have somehow cut funding needs to be seen for what it is. It is nothing but dishonest political propaganda. The evidence is there that this government has strongly increased funding and continues to strongly increase funding for the whole spectrum of education. Compared with some other countries in the OECD, while we have increased the percentage of GDP going to education, we find countries—like Canada, Ireland, Finland and Germany—whose funding has actually fallen. So this government is putting its money where its mouth is in terms of education policy.

I want to bring to the House’s attention one other aspect of funding for universities that I have mentioned on previous occasions but which we need to be continually reminded of. That is the iniquitous policies of the state governments with regard to their payroll tax regime and what that does to our universities. I call on the state governments to remove their harsh treatment of universities, to remove the payroll tax that they impose on our universities—a net deficit across the country of $148 million. We have this ridiculous situation in which the state governments pat themselves on the back for giving $230 million to our universities but with the other hand taking away $378 million in payroll tax dragged out of our universities. So they give with one hand and take more with the other, and this has to stop. There are no prizes for guessing which state is the worst offender.

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