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

While those opposite might find it funny, the one thing that we can say for the Liberal Party on this is that they have been consistent. The Liberal Party have been consistent in being completely blinded, all through this debate, by the sort of extremism that brought about Work Choices. We have seen that. But what is particularly interesting about this debate, and what I think we should focus on today, is the role that the National Party have played in this—in blatantly selling out the interests of the bush once more. It is particularly interesting on a day when we have seen them rise in this place and claim to care about the plight of regional students. Let us consider this. It is well established that regional campuses have been the hardest hit by this legislation. We know this. I refer to Professor Sandra Harding, Vice-Chancellor of James Cook University, who said that the current approach has ‘hit regional campuses particularly hard, as there is no metropolitan area providing readily available alternative services’.

We also know that the support services offered at regional universities create much-needed jobs. But it is not just the vice-chancellors and it is not just the government who say that it is regional universities that are being hit the hardest; it is the National Party themselves. Perhaps I should quote the Leader of the Nationals in the Senate, who said on this matter as recently as November, ‘VSU has been a fiasco for regional universities.’ So I say to those opposite: you like to stand up in here, you like to talk and move motions in the morning, but yesterday you had your chance to stand up for regional students and you squibbed it. Yesterday we saw that the Liberal Party were once again guided by their extreme ideology. The National Party once again said one thing in the bush and did another thing when they were here in the parliament. But I can assure everyone that we on this side, we in the government, remain absolutely committed to restoring services and amenities to our campuses to ensure that we have world-class universities that are capable of attracting overseas students, and we will continue to find a way forward for our higher education sector.

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