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

The member for Lindsay has identified a very excellent part of the higher education reforms that we are proposing, and that is to give more young people from areas like Western Sydney the opportunity to use different pathways into higher education. The Commonwealth Grant Scheme has been applied to the 39 universities for many decades. The government's decision has been that we want to expand that to the non-university higher education providers, many of which are very high quality and are offering as good if not better courses and career opportunities for young people. When we come to decide the amount should be funded to those different institutions that are non-university, the percentage that we pay them might well be lower than what universities are paid. That is why we have a working group advising us on what, for example, that percentage should be, because universities do research. Being a university, one of the definitions is that they do research as well as teaching, whereas a lot of the non-university higher education providers, like TAFEs, do not do research but do teaching and do it very well.

The ones in Western Sydney, like the TAFE that the member for Lindsay talked about, will be big winners in the government's higher education reforms. They will be big winners because some of their courses will be funded under the new demand-driven system for diplomas and sub-bachelor courses, so there will be an injection of funds to TAFEs through that method. They will also be winners because, for the first time, they will be able to access the Commonwealth Grant Scheme, and that will give them an opportunity to get an injection of funds that way. Around Australia—certainly in my state of South Australia—state governments have been cutting TAFE funding. So they have very much welcomed the decision by the government to expand that.

I was very pleased to see in The Australian Financial Review on Monday an article by Tim Dodd about this very subject that the member for Lindsay raises, headed 'SA Labor backs coalition on higher education funding'. The article reads:

SA Higher Education Minister Gail Gago said on Saturday the federal government's plan to recognise and fund sub-bachelor degrees delivered by the SA TAFE system was welcome.

Of course, the same thing would apply to the TAFEs in Greater Western Sydney. The article goes on:

"The extension of funding of sub-bachelor program's to TAFE SA and other registered higher education providers provides an opportunity for TAFE SA to access Commonwealth funding for its diploma and advanced diploma courses on an equal footing with universities," she said.

"TAFE SA already works closely with a number of universities in terms of providing opportunities for students to transfer to university and have recognition for their studies in TAFE SA and the recognition and funding of these sub-bachelor programs delivered by TAFE SA is welcome."

This is not a Liberal minister. This is a minister in a Labor state government, in the state from which the member for Adelaide, the shadow minister, comes. I do not think they are from the same faction, though. I think Gail Gago is in the left and the member for Adelaide is in the right. I am not sure. They do not tend to talk closely in South Australia, but I am sure the member for Adelaide can inform us. In any event, this is a minister in a state Labor government who is supporting the federal government's proposals. Why is she doing that? Because they are good proposals. They are very good, and Gail Gago has worked out that what the government is doing is expanding opportunity to a great deal more students around Australia to get a higher education qualification. This will mean that students in Greater Western Sydney will have the chance to go to university, get a degree or a diploma or do a course, and then go on to earn 75 per cent more, $1 million more, over their lifetime than people without a higher education qualification.

In the time available to me, I will not try and start a new subject, but I might get a chance to comment on it in a minute. There are many, many Australians who are pleased to support students at university by subsidising their education. At the moment, they subsidise it 60 per cent. As only 40 per cent of Australians have a university degree, that means that a great majority of the population are subsidising students to get the chance to earn 75 per cent more than them over a lifetime. It is a generous act on behalf of the Australian taxpayer. Rather than whingeing about it, the member for Adelaide should be thanking the taxpayers of Australia for the subsidies that they provide to students around the country.

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