Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Higher Education and Research Reform Amendment Bill 2014. We can all identify with the story of the old farm axe: it is as good as new—it has just had six handles and two new heads in its life. I come off a farm and I have seen a lot of axes in my time which did not actually get the new handle. In fact, I have seen axe handles held together with duct tape, bailing string, hose clamps and, even in desperate times, the farmer's friend—a bit of fencing wire. Unfortunately, that is the state of our higher education system at the moment in Australia. It has just sort of evolved as local and specialised programs are being formed to counter trouble and new challenges. Duct tape, string, hose clamps and wire are being applied to keep the show on the road. But the final product is no longer fit for purpose in the modern world to deal with the quickly evolving challenges that face our higher education sector and, in fact, our nation as a whole.

We have taken it for granted for so long that Australia has some of the best universities in the world and that the world will progressively beat a path to our door. But we are being challenged by other countries in our region. We currently have eight universities in the top 200 in the world. China has five and soon will have more along with India, Korea, Japan and the other growing economies of Asia.

The world as we know it is changing quickly. The growth in Asia is not just confined to manufacturing industries. In the higher education and school sectors, these countries are quickly expanding their capacity and the quality of their institutions. However, there are some in Australia—unfortunately quite a few on the opposition benches—who just wish the world would go back to normal, that change would leave us alone, that the things that we have done for the last 20 or 40 years will be good enough to keep delivering for the future. But unfortunately they are not because our neighbours will not continue to view Australia as one of the small number of countries that will provide a top-class tertiary education. It is not a given and it is seriously under challenge now.

Tertiary education and access to quality tertiary education for country students was one of the things which really sharpened my interest in politics. I had always been interested but trying to find the resources to allow my own children to gain good quality degrees presented a number of challenges. There are some side issues here about the accessibility of quality education for country students. For most of us that put our kids through school and then universities far off, we have to face a large cost of living penalty that those that live in the city do not. It is not the time to explore all those problems at the moment but I will flag that that was the thing that really got me going and thinking, 'We must do better. We must deliver better for country students.'

I was pleased in the previous parliament—the one before—to sit on the relevant House standing committees on education and, in the last parliament, on education and employment. Last year, I was asked to sit on the coalition's task force examining the role of online degrees and opening up the university sector to new customers, competition, innovation and opportunity. That task force proved to me that nothing will remain the same; that our education process is constantly changing and that every institution will be affected.

The key to success will be the ability for the institutions we have to adapt and to adapt quickly. Those who choose to invest in and to defend the status quo will be the losers. And that is not a result of government policy; that is as inevitable the tide coming in. There is change all around us and we must adapt. So this government is faced with a tertiary education sector that has learnt to adapt to a decline in government support on a per capita basis over a long period. There has been increasing total funding on the tertiary education sector, but on a per capita basis it has been decreasing for 30 or 40 years.

The previous government, for instance, despite its protestations at the moment about the treatment of this sector, removed $6.6 billion over the time they were in office. The uncapping of places in the sector has prompted universities to chase numbers, to bulk up courses and to increase income, and that puts downward pressure on the resulting quality of the courses on offer. Most universities are trying to be everything to everyone just to chase numbers, and that is not a good place for our premium institutions to be, it is not a good place for any of our universities to be and it is not a good place for our higher education sector generally to be. We need our higher education institutions to concentrate on what they do best. It is no different to any other industry in Australia. We have to concentrate on our natural advantages—we have to concentrate on what we do best—and universities are exactly the same.

The higher education reform bill will be seen in the future as a marker: the time when government recognised the problems and challenges of the sector and decided to act before the world came crashing down. Under the reforms, the higher education sector will be opened up to much more competition. The Commonwealth will provide support where it has not previously existed; diploma, advanced diploma and associate degrees students will be able to access a higher education loans program for the first time. The government will invest an extra $371 million over the forward estimates. Students will be asked for no up-front fees and will instead be able to borrow the entire contribution to their degree and that will rise to around 50 per cent of the actual cost of delivering that degree from 40 per cent, where it currently sits.

Yes, there is a real rate of interest. But the government will lend to students at exactly the same rate that the Commonwealth is able to borrow the money in order to lend it to the students and that is currently less than four per cent. In any case, it will be capped at six per cent. This will be the cheapest loan that a person will ever take out in their life. I understand that the Group of Eight universities at least, while generally supportive of the reforms, are not supportive of that particular move by the government. It may well be that we will look at reconsidering the way that interest rate is charged. But it is not as those who would decry these changes would put it. In fact, that is the best loan that anyone is ever likely to take out in their life.

If we could get a housing loan or, from my point of view, a farm loan, or a loan to buy a prawn trawler on the same kind of basis, I would be there with my ears back. Why on earth would someone not borrow money on that basis to fund what would be the best investment of their life? We know that someone who attains a university education is likely to earn 75 per cent more in their working life than those who do not. It is the best investment they can make.

Having said that, they will not start paying back that loan until they reach an income level of $50,000 a year and then, should they earn $50,000 a year, only two per cent—that is $1,000—is paid per year. That can rise to eight per cent when they reach $100,000. Of course, if they go over $100,000 that is a flat rate at that stage. It is a pretty good deal. And to those who say that students will not take those loans out, that they will be scared of taking those loans out: students have been facing loans for the last 30 years in higher education in Australia. From time to time they have been adjusted—the student contribution has always been adjusted upwards. At no time have we ever seen significant market resistance from students taking that higher role and a little bit more of the strain of their education costs. So those who try to run the scare campaign at the moment are really just doing that: they are running a scare campaign for political purposes.

Of course, as the member who represents a large slice of regional South Australia—my electorate covers over 90 per cent of the state—I am particularly interested in how these changes to higher education may affect country students. South Australia, unfortunately, has no regional universities as such, but we do have some regional campuses. The biggest are two regional campuses run by the University of South Australia, which have linkages between Mt Gambier and Whyalla. I state an interest in this in that I am currently chair of the Whyalla UniSA centre for regional engagement. We consider many things about the way that particular university campus engages with country students and how we attract people onto the campus. It is pretty hard work, I must say! At the moment we have been facing some reorganisation issues by UniSA, which have seen some of the power of management withdrawn back into Adelaide. UniSA are telling us that they are very interested in expanding the campus and expanding the number of courses on offer there.

One of the things the reforms in this bill will do is establish the biggest Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme that Australia has ever seen. It will be funded by a portion of the increase in fees should universities be able to obtain them. Really importantly, I do not think there is a lot of scope to lift university fees in a campus like Whyalla; but I do believe that UniSA will be able to lift their fees in other places and then they can make a decision about where they want to attract students. There are good reasons for attracting students to country campuses. Even more importantly, what they will be able to do is fashion Commonwealth scholarships to suit the environment and the people who live in that area. Remember, there will be regulations around these scholarships to make sure that they are targeted at the lowest socioeconomic groups, those who need the assistance the most and they will be aimed at the best and brightest students in that category. That is absolutely a good thing. That will allow a campus like Whyalla to say, 'Rather than reducing university fees here, because of course you can borrow to fund fees, you can get HELP loan assistance to do that, we will provide an accommodation package. We will provide a transport package. We will meet some of the costs of your investment in books and literature that you need. We might be able to help you fund a laptop computer, for instance.' That is the kind of flexibility that universities will be given.

Another university, the University of Adelaide, for instance—one of the 'sandstones', one of the Group of Eight around Australia—may well decide to use it as a way of reducing their fees for those best and brightest students from wherever to bring them to the best courses that Australia has to offer. Both of those things are good outcomes for education. We should not be shy about this. This is enabling universities to compete in the modern world.

Another one of the big winners, as far as I can see, are TAFEs, which play a very important role in rural living and their ability to deliver courses. They have been squeezed right around Australia. Unfortunately, in the last parliament we only had the chance to just begin the investigation, but we were looking at the role of TAFE and other providers of education into rural and regional areas and for industry. Students who attend a TAFE and in the case of diplomas, advanced diplomas et cetera, courses that will enable them to enter into a university where in fact they might not have the qualifications at this stage, will now be able to borrow that money. People coming from a lower socioeconomic group might say, 'I'm a bit concerned about borrowing money.' They need to remember that unless they earn $50,000, they will never be asked for it. (Time expired)

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