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

of having personally paid for some of it themselves.' Who could disagree with that? Who could disagree with Graeme Mitchell's stated remarks? He understands the transformative impact of higher education. Rather than whinge, moan and complain about being asked to contribute to his own higher education, he pulled himself up from the bootstraps, got himself the higher education qualifications he needed and massively increased his income and his self-worth.

The government is trying to reform higher education so that tens of thousands more Graeme Mitchells around Australia in places like Western Sydney in the member for Lindsay's electorate get the opportunity to do exactly what Graeme Mitchell did. Rather than caterwauling, interrupting and showing the crassness that the Labor Party exhibits, they should be thanking people like Graeme Mitchell because he is one of the salt-of-the-earth Australians that we want to hold up as heroes.

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