Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today in support of the government's Higher Education and Research Reform Amendment Bill 2014. This is a major reform that will transform the landscape of educational opportunity for 80,000 additional Australian students who want to further their qualifications. It has the potential to create more choice and opportunities for higher education in regions like the Central Coast. And importantly, as the Minister for Education said in his second reading speech to the House, it will enable Australia to achieve the best higher education system in the world and have some of the best universities in the world. Some may say these are bold words,. But these reforms are not just bold words. These reforms and this bill are the articulation of a vision for more opportunity for Australian students; more choice for those who live in regional areas; the best possible future for our third largest export, the $15 billion international education market; and the best possible future for our Australian universities.

Many members on this side of the House have already spoken, with great eloquence, about the importance of these reforms. In rising to add my voice to this great and very important debate, I think back to my own experience as a 17-year-old girl growing up in Point Clare in my electorate and facing a choice about which university I should attend. Mine was not a wealthy family—far from it. I have spoken before about my own experiences growing up in a largely single income family. I was the eldest of five children, and the daughter of a school principal. My parents could not afford to support me financially through my university degree, but they did encourage me to pursue my dreams. For me, that was studying English and History at university, with maybe a bit of music thrown in for good measure, through a Bachelor of Arts degree.

I studied hard at my school in Narara. I got a good TER, as it was called back then. That TER enabled me to have a range of options in terms of university choice. But no TER could have given me the choice to study locally—because even though we had a university campus on the Central Coast, the Ourimbah Campus of the highly esteemed University of Newcastle, the degree that I wanted to pursue, a general humanities degree, was not an option. I could travel two hours each way to Sydney or about the same length of time to Newcastle to study, but there was not the opportunity or the choice to study that degree in my home town. So I chose to study at the University of Sydney, an outstanding university with a wonderful history and reputation, and I received an excellent education, graduating with honours in English literature. I remain grateful for that opportunity and education.

If I look back at that moment in my personal history through the prism of these reforms, what strikes me is that my ultimate choice to study at Sydney university was not actually informed by the cost of my degree. I knew I could repay my course fees once I was earning above the threshold wage because of the HECS system, now known as HECS-HELP. My choice of where to study was partly informed by the quality and reputation of the degree on offer, it was partly informed by family history, as my parents had both studied and met at Sydney university, and it was partly informed on the raw reality that, while the HECS system paved a way for my fees to be deferred until I could reasonably re-pay them, I still had to deal with the reality of supporting myself through university—paying for board or travel, for food and books and the compulsory student union fees that we paid annually at the time.

As I look at the reforms contained in this bill, what impresses me greatly is the freedom of opportunity and choice they afford for more students of today and tomorrow, regardless of socioeconomic demographic, and the possibility of more opportunities and more choice that may be created tomorrow and in the future for students in regional areas like the Central Coast. A highlight of these reforms is the development of the greatest Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme in Australia's history, which gives more opportunities to students who need it most and in a way that is flexible and allows greater choice. For example, there are students in my electorate who have dreams to go to university but share with me their concerns about the struggle with meeting their everyday costs of living, travel, accommodation, tutorial support and assistance in other critical points in their study.

Under our Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme, however, universities and other providers will spend $1 in every $5 of additional revenue on these scholarships for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Our Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme will enable universities and higher education institutions to offer tailored, individualised support to disadvantaged students, including for example a needs based scholarship to help meet costs of living or for fee exemptions, or tutorial or other support. I know this will be of enormous benefit to students from regional areas, including the Central Coast.

This package of reforms strengthens the HECS system that I knew as a student. It is still the case that no-one is forced to pay a cent up front. The government is not increasing fees. Students will be able to complete their course, look for work and only when they hit an income of $50,000 will they need to start repaying the loan. We are working to make sure that students are not disadvantaged by these changes. HECS loans will continue to be available to assist students with the costs of their education.

We are also determined to create an environment where universities can remain at the forefront of research. A few examples include $150 million in 2015-16 for the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy and there will be $139.5 million to deliver 100 new four-year research positions per year under the Future Fellowships scheme. We are accelerating research into dementia by committing $26 million to this important area of research. This is all part of our plan to make our universities more internationally competitive in teaching and research. Our reforms include reducing the Commonwealth Grants Scheme by 20 per cent. This is the fund that pays each university the subsidies for student fees. But the current debate about these reforms has led to some inflated and, dare I say, inflammatory claims about fees. Let us be clear: the government is not mandating a fee increase. We are actually freeing universities to set their fees based on what an individual institution may choose to charge and what students who wish to attend that institution choose and agree to pay.

The reality is that in order for Australian universities to be some of the best in the world, in order for the higher education system to be financially sustainable and in order for high-quality teaching and learning to be delivered for decades to come, we need these changes to happen. Members opposite need to accept the reality that the coalition government is dealing with the mess that was left to us by the former Labor government, who, in their six years in government, cut $6.6 billion in funding to higher education, including more than $3 billion in their last year in office alone. They need to accept the reality that our reforms will help make our university sector more sustainable, by reducing the cost to the taxpayer of student education from an average of 60 per cent contribution from the public purse to around 50 per cent and they need to accept the reality that we are making the system fairer by asking students, who, on graduation, will on average earn 75 per cent more over their lifetime than non-graduates and who typically earn around $1 million more over their working lives than non-graduates, to make a fair contribution to the cost of their education.

A large and important part of our reforms is about creating more choice, for universities to respond to the market and to their own centres of excellence and expertise, and for students. I say for students because the government's reforms will extend the opportunity for study to another 80,000 higher education students every year supported by government subsidies by 2018. This includes an estimated 48,000 students in diploma, advanced diploma and associate degree courses and 35,000 additional students undertaking bachelor courses. Importantly, these students will include more people from disadvantaged backgrounds, rural and regional communities, people who require extra support to succeed at university and workers who want to update their skills and qualifications. This reform of extending the demand-driving Commonwealth funding system for students studying for higher education diplomas, advanced diplomas and associate degrees will cost $371.5 million over three years and was derived through consultation with the education sector.

In relation to my electorate of Robertson, at present 4,447 people are attending a university and 2,920 people attending a technical institution. Five point four per cent of my electorate attend a tertiary institution at present. We rank 90th out of 150 electorates in terms of tertiary institution attendance. Ten point nine per cent of my electorate have already obtained a bachelor degree, which is 3.17 percentage points below the national average and 3.87 below the New South Wales average. But my great hope—and I have no doubt that this will happen—is that these reforms will provide more opportunity for people in electorates like Robertson to pursue higher education. And the dream of so many people on the Central Coast is that our region, while not known as a region of educational advancement and career opportunity in the manner that cities such as Newcastle and Sydney perhaps are today, may become such a region tomorrow.

We know today that the workforce in my electorate has a lower proportion of people with tertiary qualifications than the New South Wales average. In saying that, it should also be noted that universities are not for everyone and that there are many people in my electorate of Robertson who have made a tremendous contribution to our community and who have achieved a strong technical education. In Robertson we have 22.88 per cent of people with a certificate level education, which is around four per cent above the national average and 4.42 per cent above the New South Wales average. I am proud of the fact that the coalition government values technical education and has a strong record of ensuring support for education opportunities right across the spectrum. But these higher education and research reforms make for a better tomorrow for regions like the Central Coast, because we are giving tertiary institutions greater freedom to respond to the demands of students, the market and, dare I say it, regional areas as well. Regional education providers will have the opportunity to set their own tuition fees and offer more courses. In doing so, they will be in a better position to successfully differentiate themselves from and compete against well-established city based institutions for student enrolments.

Competition is not a bad or a frightening thing for the future of world-class education in Australia, particularly for regional areas like the Central Coast. I only have to look at the interest that is being shown in my home town of Gosford by overseas university institutions who are talking with Gosford City Council about the possibility of establishing a university campus in the heart of the Gosford CBD, or the intention expressed by the University of Newcastle to establish a research hub, again in the Gosford CBD, or the statement made by the Group of Eight Australia in their response to the government's budget of 13 May 2014 titled 'Micro-economic reform of the Australian higher education industry', where they outline the increasing requirement for higher qualifications in the Australian workforce in the future. Their prediction is that in the next five years around 100,000 new jobs in Australia will require a diploma or associate degree, and around 300,000 new jobs will require a bachelor or higher qualification. In fact, their response goes further and outlines the possibilities of greater choice that these reforms may bring. In their submission, they say that some universities:

… may focus at the elite end. Prestigious universities from North America, Britain, Europe, Scandinavia and Asia might consider a presence in Australia, perhaps in joint ventures with Australian institutions or with other partners or independently. They may seek a share of Australia’s domestic and international student markets.

Imagine the possibilities borne by the choice and opportunity these reforms provide. Imagine the possibility for the future of regional cities like Gosford, with student accommodation, business opportunities and local employment being created hand in hand with any new or expanded university campus opportunity. In fact, our growth plan for the Central Coast encapsulates this, and it is precisely because we understand the crucial role that universities play in driving development in regional areas, through job creation and educating the community, that we committed before the election to work in partnership with the Central Coast community to identify further training and education opportunities for our region. Part of our commitment was to work with local governments on the Central Coast to progress necessary approvals to facilitate universities developing campuses on local government owned land. I know that both Wyong and Gosford city councils are currently working on such projects.

I believe these reforms will help to enable the realisation of the dream of people on the Central Coast to be known as a region of world-class excellence, particularly in educational opportunity. I am convinced that the legislation we are debating today will help to realise the dreams and aspirations of so many more people on the Central Coast. I commend the bill to the House. (Time expired)

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