Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Higher Education Legislation Amendment (2007 Budget Measures) Bill 2007 amends the Higher Education Support Act 2003 to provide for the government’s 2007-08 budget commitments, indexation increases and other technical adjustments and measures. After more than 11 years of complacency and neglect, and within a few months of a federal election, the Howard government has finally decided to do something about higher education. This side of the House, which has been leading the agenda for some time with its education revolution, agrees to support the bill in recognition of the increased spending on education and more scholarships and Commonwealth supported places contained in it—finally supplied after 10 years of neglect.

There are some aspects of this bill, though, that are not welcome. Those that will increase HECS fees for students in my electorate, placing university education in some cases out of their reach, are not welcome. In moving a second reading amendment to this bill, Labor wishes to voice a few important concerns surrounding those aspects of the bill which threaten the educational future of many Australians, including people in my electorate of Parramatta, who dream of studying at university. One of the main concerns surrounding this bill arises from the changes to CGS funding levels across disciplines and the revised maximum student contribution, HECS, for commerce, economics and accounting courses. The impact of these changes will result in an increase in HECS fees for students in commerce, economics and accounting courses. That impact will be far reaching for future students in the electorate of Parramatta and the Western Sydney region.

In amending the Higher Education Support Act, this bill sets the maximum student contribution amount for accounting, administration, economics and commerce units of study at the same amount as law, dentistry, medicine and veterinary science units. What this means for the University of Western Sydney is that CGS funding cuts in 2008 due to the federal budget will see a decline in funding from $12,860,000 to $7,800,000, thus causing a loss of $5,050,000 from its accounting, economics and commerce courses. What this also means for future accounting, economics and commerce students is that the government’s cost cutting will ultimately be passed on to them through the inevitable rise in HECS fees for these courses to cover the gap in funding. Unfortunately, these changes will provide an additional disincentive to the students in Western Sydney—many of whom are already experiencing disproportionate levels of social and economic disadvantage—who want to invest in their future through studying practical courses such as business and accounting.

Another concern arising from this bill relates to the Howard government’s decision to lift the cap limiting the proportion of full-fee domestic undergraduate places. This decision to lift the cap on full-fee-paying students, which comes into effect on 1 January 2008, once again calls into serious doubt the Howard government’s understanding of the educational needs of the people of Western Sydney.

By promoting and supporting a user-pays system, this government is encouraging queue jumping and rewarding earnings over learning. Instead of taking responsibility for adequately funding our universities, offering increased opportunities and investing in our country’s future, the government is doing the opposite by limiting learning for many who cannot afford to pay full up-front fees for education. In this regard I wish to support Labor’s proposed amendments to this bill, which would delete that part of the legislation lifting the cap on full-fee undergraduate places.

I also wish to bring the attention of the House to the part of this bill which amends the Australian Research Council Act 2001. The effect of this amendment is to reflect updated caps on funding for 2007-08 and to add the financial years starting on 1 July 2009 and 1 July 2010. Once again this measure is a case of too little and far too late. After letting research infrastructure run down over the past 11 years, failing to provide a real increase for ARC project funding and neglecting the Research Training Scheme, the government is now trying to make some eleventh-hour amendments. But these amendments will fall short of addressing the serious shortfall of young researchers needed to renew the academic research workforce; nor will these amendments go far enough towards closing the widening gap between Australian researchers and our competitors, which has allowed Australia to fall behind over the past 11 years. With falling productivity growth, inadequate levels of research and development and a record run of 59 trade deficits, a real boost to research and development is needed to reverse this decline.

The community response to the government’s initiatives regarding higher education has been quite illuminating. When it comes to increasing the HECS fees for business, commerce and accounting, the Australian on Wednesday, 30 May said:

The business sector has criticised the move, saying it will exacerbate skills shortages in important areas of the economy, particularly accounting.

Geoff Rankin, chief executive of CPA Australia, which represents 112,000 finance, accounting and business professionals, is quoted as saying:

We would like the Government to actually explain to us where the upside is.

Mr Rankin went on to say:

It is hard for us to see how this is going to attract more people into doing those courses. In fact, it might turn them away.

He then went on to call for an increase in the number of Commonwealth supported places in accounting. Sheena Frenkel, the general manager of the chartered accountants program and admissions at the Institute of Chartered Accountants, said:

... the profession and Australian business generally faced “really critical shortages off accountants at all levels”.

She went on to say:

If (the budget change) results in a negative impact on the number of young people selecting accounting as a career, then that is absolutely not good.

Tim Brailsford, president of the Australian Business Deans Council and the head of the University of Queensland business school, said the decision to slash business course funding was:

... rash, hastily made and not consistent with previous or current logic.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Western Sydney, Janice Reid, said:

It is a great worry to us ... It will be a significant disincentive for students who might have seen a bachelor of business or bachelor of commerce as a viable alternative to a bachelor of arts or a general degree in the humanities. I think for students in (UWS) who will be taking a degree without necessarily having the assumption of a good salary when they graduate, who see (business) as a good preparation for a career, it becomes a less attractive proposition.

The National Tertiary Education Union said:

The biggest losers from the Budget are clearly future students wishing to undertake commerce and business related degrees. They will face an increase in HECS fees of about $1200 per year, or almost $5000 for a four year degree, while at the same time seeing a cut of about $1000 per year in the Commonwealth’s contribution.

The government’s decision in the recent budget to reduce CGS funding for accounting, economics and commerce students and allow for an increased HECS contribution to be paid by students in these courses has some potentially serious consequences. This decision comes at the same time that the Howard government has presided over a drop in the number of students starting a university degree at the University of Western Sydney as well as cuts to the base funding of the university, further stretching its already overstretched resources and increasing the financial burdens on both the university and its future students.

According to figures released by the Department of Education, Science and Training, the number of students commencing courses at the University of Western Sydney in 2006 was 10,599, marking a decline of 11.5 per cent on the previous year’s commencements. The total number of students attending the University of Western Sydney in 2006 was also one per cent down on its 2005 student numbers. It is a measure of how out of touch this government has become that the number of people starting university at UWS has fallen at a time when Australia’s economy is desperately short of nurses, teachers, scientists and accountants. It is also a measure of how out of touch this government is with the growing population of Western Sydney and the needs of its university.

The University of Western Sydney made a submission to the inquiry into higher education funding and regulatory legislation and explained very clearly the issues that the university confronts. I will be drawing heavily on sections of that submission. The University of Western Sydney, as a new generation university, was established as a result of the sector-wide reforms of 1989. It is a direct product of the abolition of the binary system and mass expansion of higher education and has grown from under 10,000 students in 1989 to over 35,000 in 2003. Its legislative charter is to provide university level education and research in a regional context. For this university, regional context is the greater Western Sydney region, an area historically and to this day underprovided for and underrepresented in terms of university level participation. The higher education participation rate in greater Western Sydney stands at three per cent compared to 5.2 per cent for the rest of Sydney. 10.5 per cent of greater Western Sydney residents have a degree compared with 20.8 per cent for the rest of Sydney—that is just over half. The number of students at UWS has continued to increase substantially. However, the growing population in the region shows a trend since 1996 of a widening gap in participation rates between greater Western Sydney and the rest of Sydney. The gap has grown from 1.8 per cent to 2.2 per cent over the period of 1996 to 2001, according to the ABS census data.

So we have a situation where, in Western Sydney, only 10.5 per cent of residents have a university degree, compared to 20.8 per cent for the rest of Sydney, and where people in Western Sydney enrol at only three per cent, compared to 5.2 per cent for the rest of Sydney. You cannot underestimate the importance of Western Sydney and the importance for this government and any future government to get it right out there. The futures of the University of Western Sydney and greater Western Sydney are interlinked. The UWS provides a broad range of courses and applied research across six teaching campuses in a geographic area of 2,000 square kilometres, encompassing 14 local government areas and with one-tenth of the nation’s population. Of UWS commencing students in 2003, 72 per cent came from the greater Western Sydney region.

The population of Western Sydney grew by 8.5 per cent in the last census period, 1996 to 2001, compared to 6.5 per cent for the rest of Sydney. It is predicted that 25 per cent of all of Australia’s population growth in the next 20 years will be in greater Western Sydney. In this regard, the region represents both the heartland and the powerhouse of national growth and development. There are 72,000 businesses in greater Western Sydney, and the region generates more than $54 billion in economic output a year, making its economy the third largest in Australia behind the Sydney CBD and Melbourne. Given the importance of this region and the growth that we are likely to experience, I will say again that only 10.5 per cent of residents in greater Western Sydney have a degree, compared to 20.8 per cent for the rest of Sydney, and they enrol at three per cent compared to 5.2 per cent for the rest of Sydney.

The region deserves a well-resourced, robust and vibrant university, providing the highest quality educational opportunities. How true that is. After 11 years of the Howard government, the people of Western Sydney deserve much better. The people in Western Sydney still enrol, as I said, at just over half the rate of the rest of Sydney, and the gap is widening. I ask the House today: how can that possibly be okay? How can it possibly be okay for any region in Australia, let alone for a region that is one of the drivers of economic prosperity for Australia’s future? Let me assert on behalf of my constituents and my colleagues on this side of the House who represent people in Western Sydney that it is not acceptable to us that people in Western Sydney are so far behind the rest of Sydney as a whole. Nor is it acceptable that our major university in Western Sydney has been ignored for so long by the Howard government.

Another aspect of this bill which I mentioned earlier is the likely prospect of an increase in HECS fees for accounting, economics and commerce students. Students’ rising HECS burdens, which are alarming and obvious, show just how out of touch this government is with both our students’ and our country’s educational needs. Statistics show that the government has decreased its commitment to education, with total education spending falling from 7.7 per cent to 7.4 per cent by 2010. They also show that overall investment in education is just 5.8 per cent of GDP—less than that of countries such as Poland and Hungary. At the same time, students’ HECS debts are consistently increasing. Since 1996, the cost of a university degree has increased by between $7,500 and $30,000 per degree, and student debt has more than tripled from $4.5 billion to nearly $13 billion.

The Howard government HECS hikes of 25 per cent mean medical students will pay more than $30,000 extra over the course of their degree, law students will pay over $20,000 extra and engineering students will pay more than $16,000 extra. Accounting students face paying almost $5,000 extra for their degree. Unfortunately, the electorate of Parramatta has not escaped the national trend in HECS hikes. Parramatta’s total HECS debt is $99 million and rising, according to figures provided by the Department of Education, Science and Training. Young people are being put off by the cost of going to university, and it is just not fair that young people have to take on these kinds of debts, particularly to undertake degrees which are seen very much as starting degrees. The Howard government’s only plan for our universities is higher fees, more full-fee payers and funding cuts. Labor wants to give Parramatta residents the world-class education and training opportunities they deserve. This bill does not do that. The people of Western Sydney deserve better than this bill. They deserve a world-class education system in their own backyard.

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