Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am really pleased to speak on this bill, the Higher Education and Research Reform Amendment Bill 2014. The member for Eden-Monaro described those lip-licking universities. However, I was going to describe it as being more like the glass half full. You can look at the world in two different ways and at the opportunities that are presented in these reforms, with a glass half empty or a glass half full. These are perhaps the only true reforms that we have seen in the 2014 budget. They are indeed challenging.

The Australian National University vice-chancellor, Ian Young, and chancellor Gareth Evans, in an article in The Australian in April this year, said:

It is time to change our one size fits all funding system and let diversity develop. Changes to the system will be controversial, but real change is required if Australia is to offer its young people a real choice in education and produce graduates to match the best in the world.

And I reckon that we as a nation are up for it and that our universities are up for it. The scare campaign that we see from the other side simply diminishes the capacity of students, whether they be students from metropolitan Melbourne or from central Tasmania. True reform is indeed difficult and sometimes controversial, but I say in the case of higher education it is needed.

Some of my comments are directed at Tasmanian senators. I will name them because some may not be aware of the Labor Party senators for the state of Tasmania. They include: Senator Polley, Senator Bilyk, Senator Singh, Senator Brown and Senator Urquhart. My comments also go to our two Tasmania Green senators: Senator Milne and Senator Whish-Wilson. Indeed, we had high hopes for Senator Whish-Wilson. We really did and how he has let us down! But this is an opportunity for you to deal yourself back into the game. It is an opportunity, because I know you truly understand that students in Tasmania and the University of Tasmania are up for competition. It has enormous capacity.

My comments are also directed at one of the new senators, Senator Lambie. Playing popular politics is short term. Here is a chance to grow a set of principles based on what is right: good policy. Why do we need reform in education? We need to make the case. Of course we do. I absolutely compliment the Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne. He has truly consulted widely. He has the support of industry, Universities Australia and indeed many on the other side who have, in the past, been reformist. The case for reform is truly compelling. For those of us who believe in markets, competition, reform and deregulation can bring enormous opportunity not only to our institutions but, most importantly, to the students who attend those institutions. Again, Ian Young and Gareth Evans, in their article on higher education, said:

… every university in the country is funded in exactly the same way for its Australian undergraduate students, regardless of the quality or type of educational experience the students receive. This fixed funding model means little diversity in the type of education offered. It means disciplines are disappearing as institutions decide they can no longer afford to offer them, creates a perverse incentive for universities to cram hundreds of students into lecture theatres, and constrains innovation. It badly needs rethinking.

It has no consideration for those courses that are in demand in respect of the employment opportunities that lie for the students undertaking those courses. Labor only did half the job of reform. In office, Labor deregulated student numbers to create a demand model, but it declined to deregulate fees to enable universities to finance the new model and drive it forward. Again, to quote Australian journalist and Editor-at-Large at TheAustralian, Paul Kelly: 'The case for reform has been made.'

The government believes in the transforming power of higher education. There is $37 billion in funding over the next four financial years. Our institutions are not just competing domestically but internationally, and they are competing online as well. (Time expired)

See this speech in context