Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a pathetic effort—a pathetic effort to talk about the Hawke and Keating legacy. Over on this side of parliament, we are proud of the Hawke-Keating legacy, and we are the beneficiaries of it. We are the beneficiaries of going to university under an affordable HECS scheme—a HECS scheme that did not bog us down and drag us down with hundred-grand university fees. We are proud of it. On the other side they want to close the door on that generation. They want to close the door on the next generation of working-class kids having a chance to go to university.

That is not a surprise because it comes from the worst education minister we have seen since Senator Amanda Vanstone. It is no coincidence that his mentor was Senator Amanda Vanstone in the other place. At least Amanda got three years in Rome out of her effort. He got three days in Rome for his duplicity—three days at a cost of $30,000. I can imagine him there on the Vespa going down the boulevards, maybe having a pasta and a bit of chianti, proud of his efforts to destroy a fair and equitable education system in this country. What a shadow of a man he is. What a disgrace he is. He has gone a long way from being the Liberal wets' attack dog to being the lap-dog for Prime Minister Abbott. What a disgrace.

The truth is that everyone in this place talks about education. Everyone in this place talks about why education is a great enabler and a great economic tool to improve society. But the key test is not what you say; it is what you do—it is what you do; not what you say. I am proud of Labor's record. I am proud that, between 2007 and 2013, we nearly doubled education funding. Higher education funding went from $8 billion to $14 billion, student admissions to universities increased by a third, funding for regional universities increased by 56 per cent and there was a 30 per cent boost in regional student numbers—all under the last government, a Labor government committed to education, just like the Hawke and Keating governments.

On the other hand, we have this pale, pathetic government over here that is trying to close the door, a government that has cut funding by $5.8 billion, a government that has cut funding for undergraduate places by 20 per cent, a government that is jacking up interest rates not just on prospective student loans but on current student loans. So people who are paying student debts from 10 years ago will be facing much higher interest rates because of this government. As the member for Gellibrand said, there is no mention of that in Real Solutions. What are the results of this? As we saw with the University of Western Australia today, the result is an increase in fees. They are increasing their fees by 30 per cent.

We are going to see an explosion in debt. This is not some scare campaign. We are quoting facts and figures from organisations those opposite are quoting. Why is it fine to quote Belinda Robinson from Universities Australia but not mention the modelling they commissioned—modelling that found that a female engineer will have a debt of $203,000 and will take 32 years to pay it off? A female registered nurse will have a debt of $100,000 and will have that debt until the age of 46. They will have to pay it off until then. What a disgrace. Unlike what the Minister for Education says, a registered nurse will not earn $1 million more than an average worker over the life of their career. Look at what NATSEM modelling says. NATSEM, the organisation the Prime Minister said in opposition was the premier modelling organisation in this country, found that the cost of an education degree will be $87,000. This is a disgrace. Those opposite are attacking the classic first degrees for working-class families—teaching and nursing. These are degrees where people do not earn $1 million more than average people. They are closing the door on the next generation of working-class kids to get into uni. This is their legacy.

It is not a surprise, because we have got an education minister who is more interested in anything but talking about education. We have an education minister who is more interested in flying to Europe than talking about education. We have got an education minister who is more interested in conspiring against the former member for Fisher than talking about education policy. We have an education minister who is more interested in masterminding the loss of the unlosable state election in South Australia than talking about education policy. This guy is as much a campaign mastermind as a political mastermind. This is an absolute disgrace and this government will stand condemned in history.

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