Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to condemn this government's unfair budget, which attacks both current and future Australian university students, condemning them to a debt sentence. This government's proposed changes to Australia's higher education sector is an ideological frolic from this Minister for Education to ensure that only those who can afford to attain a higher education can get one. Allowing universities to charge students whatever fees they like will take Australia down a path of American universities, where degrees cost students $100,000 or more. Going to university should depend on your ability, hard work and qualifications and not on your parents' bank account. Education is absolutely essential for Australia's opportunities and our economic growth and future. Higher university fees will put this at risk. Let me be clear, this government's higher education proposal is nothing more than a collection of broken promises—not just broken promises made before the election but broken promises made after the election.

I want to take the House through some of these broken promises that those opposite made during the lead-up to last year's election. First, we have the coalition's 'real solutions' pamphlet. Many of those on the other side should remember it—they held it up enough times. But they obviously forgot to read it because what it said is:

We will ensure the continuation of current arrangements of university funding.

The government has since slashed $5.8 billion from the higher education sector—a clear broken promise of their election commitment. Of course, we cannot forget the Prime Minister's pledge on election eve: no cuts to education. He promised the Australian people this. I am not sure what a $5.8 billion cut means to the Prime Minister, but it certainly looks like a broken promise to me. Then, of course, there is the famous media release published on pyneonline, the minister's website, saying the coalition will not cap places or raise HECS. This is yet another broken promise as the deregulation of fees and the compounding interest on HECS and HELP student loans will increase the average student debt by tens of thousands of dollars. No matter what the minister tries to spin, and no matter what the minister tries to say, the evidence is in. University fees are going up and they are going up not by a small amount but by a large amount.

Even after the election people were fed blatant mistruths by the government. The minister went on television on 17 November. It is a very interesting read if anyone would like to read that—it is still on Pyne Online. He said on Sky News a number of things. First, when he was asked about raising university fees, he said:

… we promised that we wouldn't and Tony Abbott made it very clear before the election that we would keep our promises.

As I said, I certainly recommend the 17 November interview to anyone who has not read it because he also stated very clearly, absolutely categorically, that they were not going to raise fees. The deregulation of uni fees and the introduction of $100,000 degrees is another broken promise. Then there was this pearler by the minister:

The days when governments get elected or political parties get elected and then junk their policies and promises, I'm hoping it's over for good.

Of course he forgot that interview. He forgot the assurances he made. He just kept lying to the Australian people. He also said in the same interview:

… the public want a period of stable government where … the government keeps its promises … And there's much I can do in universities and schools while keeping all my promises …

Why then is the minister not doing a whole lot in universities and not doing a whole lot in schools except breaking his promises?

While the government would like to pretend that they are not breaking their commitments and that they are not cutting $5.8 billion out of higher education, this is real. We know that allowing universities to charge what they want will lead to $100,000 degrees. The minister can say all he likes that this is not true, but that is not what the independent modelling has shown. Indeed, the National Tertiary Education Union's modelling has revealed that universities will lose more than $4.7 billion, the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling has revealed that degrees are likely to double or triple in cost and the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research has revealed that lifelong debt and loan defaults will be a reality under the government's changes.

The minister likes to paint these figures as alarmist propaganda put up by the Labor Party and say that all we are doing is running a fear campaign, but they have been confirmed today. The minister said clearly in question time that the government was not increasing fees. I would like to see him answer the question properly because we saw today that the University of Western Australia is introducing a 30 per cent increase in student fees. So while the minister has been in this House today saying that there will be no increase in fees we have seen on the ground today the announcement of a significant increase in fees. That is the reality. This is not based on research and modelling—and I think that modelling has been very credible—this is real.

We hear the minister often saying that $100,000 degrees are not real. If he looked at the details and took time to look at the announcement today, he would see that someone who wants to be a lawyer and go to the University of Western Australia will have $95,000 of debt and students undertaking medicine will be forced to shoulder well over $100,000 worth of debt. This minister is condemning Australian students to a debt sentence well in excess of $100,000. The Americanisation of Australian universities with $100,000 degrees will shut the door on young people.

See this speech in context