Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Hansard source

I raise an issue of great concern to the constituents whom I represent in the town of Broken Hill in far west New South Wales: the future of Robinson College. It is a community college which fills an important role in Broken Hill by providing adult education—if you like, a gap between postsecondary education and more traditional forms of tertiary education. The courses that this excellent facility delivers include computing and IT software, digital photography, first aid, CPR, health, hospitality, leisure and recreation. It also provides a very important outreach to Menindee, which is a small town east of Broken Hill, and provides online and distance courses.

We feel that the future of the education provided by this college to Broken Hill is under threat. The facility is actually owned by Charles Sturt University, and local reports indicate that Charles Sturt University is looking to sell the facility for $1.5 million. Going back in history, I would like to briefly quote from remarks by my colleague the member for Murray-Darling to the New South Wales state parliament:

University education in Broken Hill started in 1959 when the Broken Hill division of the University of New South Wales was formed at the rear of the technical college.

And further:

In 1964 the Vice Chancellor of the University of New South … visited Broken Hill and announced that a new college was to be built … called W. S. and L. B. Robinson College. The tender … was ₤100,000, but Zinc Corporation … contributed the money and donated the land.

So the university provided nothing towards the college and did not want to run the facility; it handed it over to Charles Sturt University for, I understand, the princely sum of $1. This was a community facility always, for the community, and now, if my interpretation of the current facts is correct, Charles Sturt University wishes to realise their asset for an amount of money that the community of Broken Hill cannot possibly afford: $1.5 million. I have written to the vice-chancellor of Charles Sturt University. I wrote on 20 July asking for an urgent intervention and an explanation. I have not received a response, though I understand that the vice-chancellor is contacting me via email today. I look forward to those remarks.

But I want to make the point here, in the federal parliament, as my colleague has done in the state parliament: even if Charles Sturt University accept that community education will continue from the college, and they may have made that statement, how long would that go on for before the facility might be used for something else? That something might be traditional tertiary education. But, important though that is, we need community education in Broken Hill. The other point is that if Robinson College has to pay for a lease of the facility, that, again, could be a sum that they could no longer afford. And we cannot afford, in Broken Hill, to lose this very valuable facility.

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has been contacted and she has explained that the university was established under New South Wales legislation, so any action to dispose of its property assets would need to be in accordance with New South Wales legislation. A representative of the New South Wales minister—who, I think, at the moment is Verity Firth—has advised that, to date, the university has made no formal approach to the New South Wales Minister for Education and Training seeking approval for the sale of its Broken Hill property. So I hope that that gives us, as a community, some breathing space to plead with Charles Sturt University. I understand that, from an asset management perspective, one needs to do the best with all the assets in one’s possession, particularly in the tertiary sector. But I do plead with Charles Sturt University to acknowledge the outcry from and the real frustration and concern of the people of Broken Hill, who have always seen this facility—which the university acquired for $1—as part of their community assets, for the long-term benefit of community and adult education in Broken Hill. I do plead with the university not to propose any sale or long-term lease of assets to the New South Wales minister. I very much look forward to their communicating with the Broken Hill community and letting us all know and explaining to us what their decisions for the future of this college might be.

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