Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The contribution that we are seeing from those opposite is pretty much the contribution we see generally in relation to their policy issues in this place or anywhere else—that is, we will have a whine, we will have a bit of a whinge, we will oppose what the government wants to do because we do not really have any policies ourselves. This is important legislation because it is about making sure that there are more opportunities for students who want to get into higher education and making sure that they have other means of meeting the fees.

I would like to spend a few minutes talking about the university campus I have in my electorate, which is the Central Coast campus of the University of Newcastle. This legislation is particularly important to it because it is a campus that incorporates a community college, a TAFE and a university. It was a Labor government that made sure that we had a campus there. If it were not for the good work of my predecessor Michael Lee and the very strong representation he put, we would not have seen that university campus on the Central Coast at all.

Whilst the national average for people having a bachelor degree or more is 20 per cent, we have less than half that on the Central Coast. By having that university we are giving the opportunity to local kids to go to university. This government has been particularly supportive of the University of Newcastle's Central Coast campus in terms of capital funding for a new library and library extensions and for the health sciences and places in nursing. The sorts of jobs that we have on the Central Coast are the sorts of investments both in human capital and in physical capital that have been made at the Central Coast campus of the University of Newcastle.

It is important that we see the sorts of investments made by this government across the board. As a result of those investments, we are seeing local kids going to a local university and not having to travel down to Sydney—a round trip of four hours which often sees local kids dropping out of university or TAFE because it is simply too much to expect with the pressure of university. We have seen much higher levels of young people going to our campus, finishing their degrees and being available to meet the requirements that modern employers are seeking from their workforce now: a more educated workforce and a more technically savvy workforce. That is why this legislation and this government's program in relation to education, investment in early childhood right through to higher education, is so important.

We are at 4.9 per cent unemployment at the moment, and predicted to go to 4.5 per cent. If we do not have this investment in higher education and education generally, the effect will be that our economy will face impediments in labour supply but also, more importantly, in productivity. This is not news, because this is what the Reserve Bank governor was telling those opposite for years and years. But they just did the lazy thing; they watched the money roll in from the mining boom mark 1 and did nothing. They did nothing in terms of the structural reform that was required in higher education and did nothing to make sure the labour market was going to be skilled properly to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The previous government chose to do nothing on those issues.

This government is about making sure we make that investment in education. We are making the investment for a number of reasons: firstly, because making sure people get opportunities equally around Australia—and this bill will make sure there are opportunities to get into a university and VET—is the right thing to do; and, secondly, because of the economy. By investing in human capital in this area we are providing the leverages for the economy to continue to grow in the areas that we will be most competitive in in the future.

That is just one part of the legislation. It is part of this government's suite of reforms. It is fixing up the 11 years of neglect and making sure that higher education and education generally get a fair go. I commend this bill to the House.

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