Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

I take this opportunity to again call on the House to support the government’s measures to ensure that we return university campuses to world-class institutions which have the services and amenities in place to support students throughout their time at university. We know that the previous government’s voluntary student unionism legislation ripped $170 million of funding out of the higher education sector and that this had some devastating consequences, such as the increase in prices for a range of different services and the cutting of some services altogether.

But it also affected students in an indirect manner. We have heard time and time again from universities themselves, from vice-chancellors, that as a result of this $170 million being stripped out of the higher education sector many universities were forced to redirect funds to prop up the services which they thought were vital to continue on their campuses. And we have heard that the consequence of this was that funding which might previously have been directed towards teaching and research budgets was redirected into propping up student services and amenities. This meant that students, even those who might not have been directly using those services, were paying for the consequences—in some cases, through larger class sizes and, in other cases, through less funding going towards research and libraries.

This evening I would like to particularly focus on the devastating impact that this legislation had on sport. This is an area that I know will be the subject of some debate when the government’s student services and amenities bill comes before the Senate, and I must say I am a little disappointed that the opposition have resisted moves to debate this legislation as a priority this week. We know that it does not stand alone as a tough issue which the opposition has shirked debating, but it is critical that we give universities certainty about the road forward.

It just so happens that as I was sitting in the chamber listening to some of the contributions before mine I came across a letter which was recently sent to me, in my capacity as Minister for Sport, by Basketball Australia—and I stress that this is just one example of sporting bodies writing to me to express their concern about the impact that the previous government’s legislation had on their sport at the time and going forward. I would like to take this opportunity to quote some of this letter to the House. Larry Sengstock, the CEO of Basketball Australia, said:

There is ample evidence that the introduction of VSU led to increased cost for participation in sport as well as reduced support for the structures within the university that assist the organisation of sport. If this is not addressed, it is likely that many athletes will cease participation in sport altogether. This will affect our local associations directly (as players/teams do not participate) but may also lead to reduced involvement in officiating and administrative areas.

That letter from the CEO of Basketball Australia is backed up by statements from Luke Schensher, the Australian Boomer, as well as Carrie Graf, the head coach of the Australian Opals.

I use the example of basketball because it is such an important sport within Australia; it is such a popular sport when it comes to participation. I think that we should all reflect very seriously on the fact that one of our major sports has put forward its view that we need to ensure certainty for our universities and we need to ensure certainty for students that the services that they rely on will be in place going forward. But we also need to ensure certainty for Australian sport, because we know that sport is important for a whole range of reasons, not least of which is keeping the Australian population healthy. When students are at university, they are at that vital age where they so often fall out of sport and physical activity as they become preoccupied with other activities that they come across at university. That is why it is so important that the university sport sector is supported, and I know that this is something that Don Knapp and his organisation are behind as well. I urge all members to support our legislation. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.

See this speech in context