Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, like many on this side of the House, rise tonight to speak in opposition to the government's Higher Education and Research Reform Amendment Bill 2014. Listening to the previous speaker, the member for Dobell, outlining her support for this bill was truly amazing. I challenge her to go to the people of Dobell and read that speech to young families who are concerned about their children's future and how they will ever be able to access university. This bill will be detrimental to the families of Dobell and it will mean that people from regional areas like Dobell will not be able to attend university, and she should tell them that.

This bill is another broken promise. It is an unfair plan which will result in an increase in the cost of degrees—up to $100,000. It will also result in crippling debt and vicious cuts to university course funding. The bill is a fundamental attack on one of the most basic rights, and that is the right to access a decent education. It is particularly hard for those people who live in regional and rural areas. In terms of regional areas, such as my electorate of Richmond, I have pointed out many times in this House that there are vast differences between members of the Labor Party and members of the National Party, who often represent other regional areas. The difference in relation to this issue is a massive one. It really goes to the core of what value you place on education. Whilst Labor is absolutely committed to making sure that everyone is able to access a decent education, wherever they may live, it is the National Party who are selling out regional Australia by supporting this legislation. It is an absolute disgrace and it is an issue that we will fight the Nationals on, every day up until the next election.

Locals on the North Coast in my electorate are already under attack by this government's cruel and unfair budget. We have already seen the government's plans for bringing in the $7 doctor tax, for cutting pensions, for the petrol tax, and now they want to bring in extreme university fees. Make no mistake: the families on the North Coast will hold the National Party responsible for their plans to take away the ability of regional students to access university. Make absolutely no mistake about that. The Nationals will be taking away the opportunity for students from our rural and regional areas to access the skills and the education to advance their careers and to have opportunities into the future.

It is the Nationals who will be held responsible for the fact that young people will not be able to go to university and mature age students will not be able to get into university. Those from struggling families will not be able to get in, women will not be able to get in, and all those people from rural and regional areas will not be able to get in to university, and they will hold the National Party to account.

My message tonight is very specific to the National Party. You cannot hide out on this one. When you come into the chamber and you vote in support of this unfair legislation, you are abandoning the people of regional and rural Australia and you will be held to account. Not only do these measures make it more difficult for those from regional areas to attend university; they also make it more difficult for regional universities to compete with larger, city-based institutions and to remain viable in the face of some of these changes.

This bill has a range of harsh measures which will result in increases in university fees—including, firstly, the unrestrained student fees or the fee deregulation. This essentially removes the price controls for students' contributions to the cost of their degrees and allows universities to set much higher fees. Labor totally opposes this measure, as the removal of price controls means that university degrees will in fact dramatically increase—in some cases to $100,000. Currently the fees are capped on what the student is studying. By removing the cap the prices will soar. That is the reality and it is the reality we have seen in many examples overseas when similar deregulation has occurred. People are very much aware of this. Many locals have told me that this is one of their primary concerns.

Secondly, the bill also includes cuts to public funding for university courses by up to 37 per cent. This part of the legislation cuts 20 per cent from Commonwealth Grant Scheme funding. An average reduction of 20 per cent in funding for Commonwealth-supported places means that universities will be forced to increase their fees by as much as 60 per cent for some degrees, just to cover the funding cut. The government's own figures reveal that the cuts to the subsidy the Commonwealth offers for the teaching of courses will rip $1.9 billion from universities. That is a huge amount. Thirdly, the bill also includes changes to the HECS repayment indexation rate and thresholds, which will place huge financial burdens on students.

This government has broken so many promises to the Australian people and this is certainly the case when it comes to education. I would like to remind the House of the Prime Minister's promise to the Australian people and to Australian students a little over a year ago. On 28 August 2013, in the last week before the election, the Prime Minister told the Australian people that there would be 'no cuts to education'. Indeed, in my area we had all the National Party candidates running around saying, 'No cuts to education, none of that will be happening here—no cuts at all'. Look what has happened. The Prime Minister has broken his promise, the Liberal Party have broken their promise and the National Party have broken their promise yet again.

Have no doubt: this bill before the House represents the single biggest assault on students and their families by any government. It is appalling. This attack represents a plan by this government to essentially make massive cuts to higher education funding and to shift the shortfall of debt onto students. The attack on students and families involves an unfair move to deregulate university fees and to heighten in real terms the interest rate payable on student loans by changes to the indexation and the 20 per cent cut to overall Commonwealth funding.

The changes to the indexation in HECS debts is particularly cruel. This change will effectively mean that university students and graduates with existing HECS debts—currently is about 1.2 million people—will be hit by thousands of dollars extra in interest on their loans. This is fundamentally unfair as the goal posts have now changed for those who do have HECS debts. Those who are planning and organising their lives will now have a massive increase in those.

Both existing and new HECS debts will feel the impact of this Liberal-National Party government's changes to interest rates from the current rate of CPI indexation, presently at two per cent, to what they are putting it to—the government bond rate, which is capped at six per cent. That will make a huge difference. We are talking about a massive amount of debt. The current outstanding HECS debt was estimated at $26 billion in the 2013-14 budget papers. By the end of the current forward estimates, the debt is projected to grow to $42 billion. That is without factoring in the Abbott government's changes. It is not a stretch to calculate how compound interest on these sums will run into the billions—all of which the Prime Minister and his government will impose on students. It creates a very unfair burden for young adults starting out in their lives to have these massive debts burdening them, particularly for people from regional and rural areas. They sometimes might go away to study but they want to come back the regional areas. It will be a lot more difficult for them if they are carrying these massive debts.

The fact is that the fee deregulation will mean that students and families in my electorate will pay so much more for the degrees they have to get. It means that the reality for families and young people is that they just cannot go to university. Families have told me that it is just not on their radar. They cannot afford it. It will not be an option for their families. Quite honestly, I find it sickening and appalling that this government would so harshly slug Australia's youth with such huge prices for degrees and such massive debts.

In terms of these changes to the funding of our universities, there has been widespread criticism. In fact, many respected academics and, indeed, former government advisors have criticised the Liberal and National Party's attempt to Americanise our university sector. One in particular is Professor Kwong Lee Dow, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, who said:

In poorer communities, including regional and rural communities, families will not be able to meet these higher fees, so the institutions will have less funding and so become less competitive over time.

This totally refutes the claims we have heard from across the chamber that the government's regulatory framework will bring freedom, lower fees and competiveness. In reality, their changes will harm regional universities. Another academic, Professor Linda Kristjanson, said that 'deregulation will inevitably lead to much higher fees for our students'. That is a reality. It is a plain fact that, in particular, women, students from low-income backgrounds and students from regional Australia will be hardest hit by the higher fees and higher interest rates on student loans. These are the people who will be impacted most. I know many people in Richmond who already struggle enough under current fee and repayment arrangements. So to impose increased unfair changes will simply mean that fewer people from regional communities will get a chance to get a higher education. It is fundamentally cruel to deny those from regional and rural areas the opportunity to attain greater skills and greater employment prospects.

These reforms are also going to hurt regional universities and their students. Southern Cross University is a great university on the north coast of New South Wales. They do an outstanding job. Many students live and work in the Richmond electorate. Following the government's planned cuts and deregulation the Vice-Chancellor of Southern Cross University, Professor Peter Lee, expressed concern for the higher education sector and, in particular, regional universities. He said: 'Southern Cross University, as a smaller regional university, has no capacity to absorb this 20 per cent cut without fee deregulation. Indeed, the thin markets and student demographics of many regional universities mean it may be harder for us to break even, given the market dominance of many larger city based universities.'

However, the government wrongly claims it can overcome this blatant regional disadvantage by requiring universities to establish a scholarship fund from 20 per cent of additional revenue. This appears in schedule 2 of this bill. The government argues this will protect regional students from the negative effects of fee increases. I totally dispute that claim by the government. Firstly, no Commonwealth money is allocated to these funds. These funds will be on the basis of additional fees charged to students. Secondly, as Professor Lee said, regional universities are concerned that the capacity of major universities to charge higher fees will mean regional universities are disadvantaged by comparison. It is so unfair to regional universities. In other words, the scholarship funds will be used to entrench market position and market power. The modelling suggests that the big universities will have the capacity to raise millions of dollars in the first year of operation. On the other hand, Labor has been told by one regional university that they will raise perhaps only $200,000 in the first year. You can see the massive difference.

These cuts to universities and higher education, through changing the indexation of loan repayments and fee deregulation, will hurt regional universities and the people in my electorate who rely on them. We on this side of the House will fight to protect future students and their families. We do not want students to carry around a 'debt sentence' their whole life. We think that is incredibly unfair.

Labor believes in the benefits of an accessible and affordable education regardless of where you live or how much your family earns. We think people should have the right to access a decent education and have all the opportunities in life to follow the career paths they have the capacity for. We have always believed in that, and we always will. We will always fight for it. Indeed, that is why we are opposing this legislation today. At the heart of it, we believe that a person's intellectual capacity and commitment should be the basis for determining their ability to get into university, not how much money they have to buy their way in. That is what Labor has always believed.

The fact is that Australian students cannot afford these degrees—in particular, they cannot afford $100,000 degrees. It is quite simply unfair. It is more than unfair. It is cruel, heartless and nasty. I find it very difficult to understand how members opposite, particularly those from regional areas, will be able to explain to their electorates exactly what they are supporting and voting for. Members from the National Party represent some of the most disadvantaged areas of this country in terms of the struggling nature of many of the lower socioeconomic areas in our regional and rural areas. They will have to go back and face people there and explain to them that they are essentially voting to stop their children from ever going to university, to stop people from entering university as mature-age students and to stop disadvantaged people from going to university. That is what they are doing. We will certainly be making sure that we are telling everyone that. That is precisely what the National Party is doing in those regional areas, and it is truly shameful. People should be able to access universities.

This bill is another bad policy from a bad government. We have seen it on so many occasions, particularly in terms of broken promises. Before the election, everyone from Prime Minister to candidate was running around saying, 'There'll be no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no cuts to pensions.' Well, we have seen all of that in place—all equally cruel and equally harsh. In terms of some of those long-term propositions, the education cuts are incredibly harsh. In my community, people are very much aware of it. They are very angry. They know that the opportunities for their children and their grandchildren are being severely limited because this government has broken its promise when it comes to education.

This bill is bad policy from a bad government. We will be opposing this legislation in the strongest possible terms. I am very proud to be opposing this legislation. I stand with my community and with the Labor Party in opposing this legislation and fighting for the right of young people from regional areas to access university as they rightly should be able to do.

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