Fiona Scott (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have a question for the Minister for Education. Firstly, I would like to give some context for the minister. As the minister would be aware, Lindsay is home to the University of Western Sydney, consisting of 40,000 students across six campuses, with its chancellery housed within my electorate of Lindsay. This great university prides itself on its vision:

To be a university of international standing and outlook, achieving excellence through scholarship, teaching, learning, research and service to its regional, national and international communities, beginning with the people of Greater Western Sydney

I am sure you can see many parallels with what the minister is achieving in the budget.

UWS is a very responsible university. It wants to encourage people right across Western Sydney to learn and to enrol in tertiary education and has broadly welcomed the government's measures. As a response to the intense scare campaign conducted by those opposite, UWS has felt compelled to provide further confidence to their student community and has publicly come out to say that they will be freezing and grandfathering course costs to the student community. However, I would like to know how the minister's budget measures will overcome other potential barriers to accessing a tertiary education.

I would also like to advise the minister that Lindsay is the fourth youngest electorate in Australia. It is predominantly made up of many young, aspirational and hardworking families, working to provide a better future for their children, but there are elements of significant disparity in Lindsay. In Glenmore Park, for instance, in the south-west of the electorate, the median income for a couple with children is $2,474, which is higher than the New South Wales average. Further, 33.5 per cent of people are attending some form of educational institution, be it primary, secondary or tertiary, and 11.1 per cent currently enrolled in university or tertiary education. To the west of my electorate is North St Marys, about 13 kilometres from Glenmore Park. The average income there of a household with children is $1,935, which is $539 per week less than in Glenmore Park and lower than the New South Wales average. In North St Marys, 33.8 per cent of people are attending an academic institution. North St Marys is also home to a high school called Chifley College, which is the lowest SES school in the state: Chifley College Dunheven Campus has a lot of Aboriginal children and also refugee children and has many, many challenges. Only 5.1 per cent of this community go on to tertiary education. Let me repeat: in Glenmore Park, 11.1 per cent of people are currently enrolled in tertiary education; in North St Marys, 5.1 per cent. This is despite North St Marys being closer to the local university campus.

Minister, I understand that with a university education more opportunities become available and your earning potential is substantially higher. In fact, those students will go on to earn 75 per cent more on average than Australians who do not get a higher education qualification. I understand in low-socioeconomic regions there are a range of contributing factors and barriers to accessing education. However, with the disparity I have identified within my own electorate, I think there is a need to make a university education more accessible. Minister, the disparities between the two suburbs could not be clearer. My question is: how will the higher education reforms outlined in the budget increase opportunities for students in my electorate?

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