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

I am delighted to get a question from the member for Kingston about higher education because it gives me the opportunity to refute both of the statements she made. Firstly, we are actually expanding the demand-driven system in the reform bill to sub-bachelor courses, diplomas and associate degrees so that tens of thousands more young people will get the opportunity to do those pathways courses into undergraduate degrees. They are mostly used by low-socioeconomic-status young people, mature-age students and first generation university goers to get to university. It is a reform that I would have thought Labor would have supported—expanding opportunity to more students.

The second thing, of course, is that the shadow minister repeats the calumny she raised in the previous question, which is that we are planning to increase fees. We are doing no such thing. We are deregulating. And thank you for promoting my website, Pyne Online. The more people who are looking at it the better. It has some very good information, and if only you looked at it more often you would have a much better idea about policy and good policy at that from this government. We are not, of course, increasing HECS. What will happen is that universities will reduce fees in some courses. They will make decisions about other courses and will add a value to the services they are providing to students. They will earn that revenue and they will build the biggest Commonwealth scholarships fund in Australia's history, because somebody has to pay for universities. We are asking students to pay fifty-fifty. Labor wants it to be free. I would remind her of the former leader of her party, Paul Keating. He said in 1995:

There is no such thing, of course, as “free” education. Somebody has to pay … the majority of whom haven’t had the privilege of a university education. Ask yourself if you think that is a fair thing.

More than 60 per cent of Australians do not have a university education, and you are currently asking to pay more than 60 per cent because you want free education. We recognise that those people deserve a fifty-fifty split and that is what we will give them.

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