Kim Wilkie (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Higher Education Endowment Fund Bill 2007 and the Higher Education Endowment Fund (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2007. These bills give effect to the government’s announcement in the 2007 budget to establish a perpetual endowment fund. The government announced in the budget that the intent of the fund is to generate earnings for capital expenditure and research facilities in higher education institutions. The Higher Education Endowment Fund (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2007 amends the Future Fund Act 2006 and the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 to support the implementation of the Higher Education Endowment Fund. The consequential amendments bill also provides that investments made by the Future Fund Board of Guardians will be determined by that board and not by ministerial direction. The two bills are linked and so I shall be dealing with them together.

Labor fully supports these bills. Any measure that seeks to repeal some of the damage that this tired and out-of-touch government has levelled upon the quality of education in this country will always meet with approval from this side of the parliament. Before I proceed, it is important that we recognise why we are all here today debating the future of education funding, 11 years into the Howard government’s tenure and only weeks from a looming federal election. It is true that this government is suffering from a highly advanced state of election jitters catch-up. The only reason that we are debating this issue here today is the sullen fact that the Howard government has for 11 long years neglected education in this country, since coming to power. Nowhere is this neglect more evident than within our premier learning institutions, our universities. In their desperate bid to retain power at any cost this government is venturing into all sorts of brave new worlds, from acknowledging the existence of climate change to the ‘novel’ idea of adequately funding our education sector.

In the lead-up to the federal election, this government has become as predicable as a tennis match involving Roger Federer. The sad truth is that the neglect shown by the Howard government over the past 11 years has been nothing short of a total disgrace. Indeed, one only needs to glance over some of the findings from the recent Australia Fair report 2007 to get an idea of the degree of underinvestment that this government has made in education since coming to power. The report found that, of the English-speaking OECD countries and with the exception of Ireland, Australia spends the least on education, as a proportion of GDP. The report found that, out of the English-speaking OECD countries, only the UK has lower rates than Australia of people aged 25 to 34 and 45 to 54 with an upper secondary education. Also, literacy rates among Australian adults are below those of much of northern and western Europe, with one in six Australians lacking functional literacy skills.

Only 1.5 per cent of public investment in education in Australia goes to pre-primary education, compared to the OECD average of 7.2 per cent, with only Ireland investing less. Australia’s average rate of preschool enrolment falls in the bottom half of all of the OECD countries. Furthermore, as the most recent figures published by the OECD show, Australia ashamedly has the fourth lowest proportion of public expenditure on primary, secondary and postsecondary non-tertiary education, at 83.7 per cent, down from 85.5 per cent in 1995 and well below the OECD average. Australia has the fourth highest proportion of private expenditure on primary, secondary and postsecondary non-tertiary education, at 16.3 per cent, up from 14.5 per cent in 1995 and more than double the OECD average.

It has been our universities that have suffered the most under this government’s neglect. Over the past 11 years, this government has grossly underfunded the university sector, which is so vital to Australia’s future. In contrast, the great majority of OECD countries, and a great many non-OECD countries as well, recognise that the economy of tomorrow requires much greater investment in universities, while this tired and out-of-touch government has slashed it. It took little time to get to task. In its first budget, in 1996, the Howard government saw fit to cut university operating grants by a cumulative six per cent over the forward estimates from 1997 to 2000. This resulted in a total of $850 million in cuts to the sector.

Overall, Australia has the fourth lowest proportion in the OECD of public expenditure on tertiary education, at 48 per cent. That is down from 64.8 per cent in 1995 and well below the current OECD average of 76.4 per cent. In all of the OECD, only the United States, Japan and South Korea make less significant investments in tertiary education, in proportional terms, than Australia.

As an article published in the Australian on 6 September reported, since the late 1990s Commonwealth funding for private schools has outstripped funding for universities. Let me repeat that: this article stated that Commonwealth funding for private schools has outstripped funding for our universities. Yet, in the light of these facts and figures, this arrogant government has had the audacity to claim that it has increased tertiary spending by 25 per cent since 1996. Yes, it is true that the amount of money spent on tertiary education has risen under the Howard government, but it has not done so in real terms. In fact, under the Howard government, the amount of Commonwealth funding per student in real terms has plunged by nearly $1,500. And, as public investment has progressively fallen, universities have had little choice but to increase their reliance on HECS and other fee increases.

While student HECS contributions have increased by nearly $2,000, fees and charges have risen by over $3,000. So, like some university students in the United States and the United Kingdom, many Australian students can now look forward to the prospect of a crippling burden of debt upon graduating. I was pleased to read in some articles printed this week that the Leader of the Opposition is looking to address those sorts of issues if he is elected Prime Minister. In fact, since 1996-97, the debt burden for Australian university students has nearly tripled, from $4.5 billion to nearly $13 billion in 2005-06.

While all of these figures may look bad on paper, their actual effects on the front line of university teaching have been disastrous and have compromised greatly the level of teaching quality that our students receive. One of the most poignant examples of how this government’s failure to invest in our universities compromises the level of teaching effectiveness is the deterioration of staff-to-student ratios. As Universities Australia has shown, in 1995 there were approximately 14.6 students at Australian universities for every member of staff. Today that figure stands at approximately 20.4 students for every member of staff. In fact, I have it on good advice that, down the road at the ANU, finding a political science, history or international relations tutorial with fewer than 20 students is becoming increasingly rare. While an additional six students may not sound like a lot, the effect on students’ quality of learning cannot be overstated. Most significantly, it means that teachers have less time to engage students one on one, which, as any uni student can tell you, plays a critical role in students acquiring a proper understanding of what they are being taught.

As this host of damning facts attests, our universities have been chronically underfunded by the Howard government, a fact backed up by the government’s own Department of Education, Science and Training figures which show that Australian universities were forced to defer approximately $1.5 billion in infrastructure development. These are pretty embarrassing figures for any government, but when you also take into account the debacle in vocational training that is the government’s fabled Australian technical colleges, and the government’s failure to invest in broadband infrastructure, it is perhaps little wonder that those who sit opposite are in such frenetic haste to play catch-up on education funding before the election.

Put simply, if Australia is to make the long-term economic adjustments to sustain its growth and prosperity beyond the current resource boom, we must make significant and long-term investments in our education capabilities. When we look to where Australia is going to get its next great improvement in productivity, we see that there is a very strong argument to say that we should be looking towards improving the standards of our education facilities. It is a sad indictment on this government that it has taken the threat of electoral annihilation for it to recognise this simple fact. After 11 long years of wasted opportunity, Australia needs a change.

In order for Australia to secure its future, universities need to have modern and adequate infrastructure. They need state-of-the-art scientific laboratories and equipment, and they need to have staff-to-student ratios that enable students to get the very most out of their learning experiences.

I am proud to say that located in my electorate of Swan in Western Australia is the world-renowned Curtin University of Technology. With over 40,000 students, including nearly 2,000 research students, and offering over 850 undergraduate and postgraduate courses, Curtin is both the largest and most comprehensive university in Western Australia and, I believe, one of the best in Australia, if not the world.

Having developed a strong reputation for quality research and an established partnership with industry, Curtin university well deserves its international reputation. However, being the local member, I often hear firsthand how this government’s failure to adequately fund education is impacting upon students’ studies. From creeping staff-to-student ratios to infrastructure construction delays, the chronic lack of funding is negatively affecting students’ ability to learn. Not only that, being in one of the many broadband black spots that dot the suburbs of Perth means many students cannot get access to broadband internet services. This government has held back our students for long enough. If universities such as Curtin are to continue their proud history of achievement and excellence, Australia requires a government that recognises the true value of education investment, not one which starts backtracking at the first sign of bad polling.

As I mentioned previously, Labor fully supports these bills. While we do hold some concerns regarding the transparency surrounding the funding decisions, and the scope available to the minister for education to make funding decisions for political reasons rather than on clearly defined criteria, the thrust of the legislation is both welcomed and desperately needed, and I commend the bills to the House.

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