Chris Trevor (Flynn, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to speak tonight on the government’s Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Student Services and Amenities) Bill 2009 and to highlight the unparalleled importance of it for students of tertiary institutions in this country. The amendments proposed in the bill will provide measures that support a balanced, practical and sustainable solution to rebuilding student support services. I am a firm believer that, in order to uphold the quality of the universities our proud country has, we must be committed to ensuring that higher education students have access to adequate amenities and services as well as access to vital, independent, democratic student representation. Without these fundamental and basic requirements the once great conditions of our universities will be lost; a distant memory from a time long since past. It is in my opinion irrefutable that, in order to maintain services and amenities of any kind, funding is required. It is also irrefutable that many people, particularly university students who may be struggling financially already, will not pay a fee for something unless they have to, irrespective of how important they may perceive it to be. Basically, if the students do not have to pay, most will not, and if they do not pay, the services and amenities cannot be maintained.

The amendments proposed in this bill allow higher education providers to choose whether they want to implement a compulsory student service fee capped at $250 per student per annum. Whilst the bill does not make it mandatory for higher education providers to impose this fee, it does provide the opportunity for our higher education facilities that require additional funding to collect it in this manner. This makes the law more flexible as it does not force these facilities to impose the fee, nor does it disallow it entirely. The amendment creates a vital chance for higher education providers to accumulate the funding required to sustain student services and amenities. If we fail to support these changes we will witness the continued deterioration of services and amenities in our universities to the very point of no return, when the amenities become irreparable and the services unsalvageable.

I have already made the point of saying that we recognise the fact that many university students may be struggling financially and that this fee could further their financial troubles. To combat this and provide an opportunity for students to be relieved of this burden whilst they study, the bill has included the innovative decision to provide eligible students with the option of a loan for this fee through the establishment of a new component of the Higher Education Loan Program, known as HELP, which has been named services and amenities, SA-HELP. This not only will allow the universities the privilege of being able to accumulate funds for services and amenities but will also allow students to put off paying the fees. The result of course is a win-win, with more funding for services and amenities at universities and no money out of students’ pockets at a time in their life when they can least afford it.

As I understand it, the National Party have recognised publicly that the current approach to funding student services and amenities is not sustainable and that it has had a terrible impact particularly on our rural and regional campuses. As I further understand it, they voted at a recent party conference to support compulsory fees being levied on university students to support services and amenities on campus. Despite this they did not support the passage of this critical bill in the Senate, preferring to side with coalition partners and ignoring the needs of regional students.

Coming from a regional area, I know the value of our regional campuses and the value of student services to students who relocate to study. Regional campuses allow many students the opportunity to engage in higher learning, but without funding this opportunity may be lost and with it the opportunity for students from my area to study closer to home. Some may be forced to relocate, but without vital funding the universities they elect to go to cannot provide the fundamental support services that these students will need to survive in a place unknown to them. Moving away from home to the city is already a very daunting prospect for many 17- and 18-year-olds from regional and rural areas such as those that my electorate encompasses.

If we fail to grasp this opportunity to reinject funding into the services that support these young adults, then we are failing as their elected representatives and failing as their government. These students need the support to make it possible for them to survive. Without it, higher education for many of them will become impossible. I cannot and will not stand by and let these students be neglected and left to fend for themselves. It is wrong and I ask, today, that the National Party stand up for their own beliefs and prove to everyone, especially themselves, that they are capable of not only making a decision but delivering on it. The National Party need to put their beliefs where their mouth is and follow with their support for our universities and students.

The cost is already too great and every delay pushes our once great institutions further towards the brink. The current legislation is crippling universities around the country by depriving higher education providers of the vital funding they need to maintain adequate student services and amenities. They are the very same services and amenities which students have been without, and will continue to suffer without, purely because of the Liberal Party’s outdated and ideological obsession with this issue. With respect, they went too far with their approach to university services and amenities, and students are being forced to pay the consequences. Under their scheme close to $170 million was ripped out of university funding resulting in the decline and in some instances the complete closure of vital health, counselling, employment, child care, sporting and fitness services. Without the provision of these services and amenities by higher education providers many students have been forced to pay higher prices for things such as child care, parking, books, computer labs, sport and food. This of course has resulted in higher costs for students.

How is it rational that we remove a fee on students that then results in an increase to their costs? Some universities have highlighted incredible price hikes for services and amenities such as parking, food and child care, which, in one case, has seen an increase of approximately 500 per cent annually. Surely commonsense and logic would dictate that we should implement a strategy that will enable universities to provide many of these services without drawing the funding from somewhere else, as numerous universities have been forced to do. Some universities, in attempting to combat the rising costs of amenities and services, have reported having to redirect funding out of research and teaching budgets.

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