Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

We have a modern day example that the member for Fraser would have studied. In the United Kingdom there is free education in Scotland and there is a deregulated education market in England. As the member for Fraser knows, since deregulation in England the number of students from low-SES backgrounds is at record levels. The number of students from low-SES backgrounds has ballooned in England; in Scotland there was been no change whatsoever since free education was introduced.

So we are absolutely committed to our higher education reforms, because to us it is an equity measure; it is an equity reform. It will give more young people from low-SES backgrounds the opportunity that I had, and that so many members of this House had, to go to university and get the chance to increase their earning capacity over a lifetime. I am not going to slam the door behind me after I got a great university education, and nobody in the Labor Party should either. Get off your Green-Left agenda and start standing up for students from low-SES backgrounds, like I am.

Opposition members interjecting—

See this speech in context