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

that all 'free education' meant in the seventies was a redistribution of wealth from the poorest Australians to advantaged and privileged Australians who were going to university anyway or who would go to university and were happy to pay for it. In fact, Bob Hawke said, 'You've got to get rid of the idea—it's absolute BS—that there is, ever has been, or ever could be free education'. He said, 'I see no problem with the concept of paying back this investment when they are in a financial position to do so.' He said, 'There is no such thing as free education; it's a question of who pays and how it is paid for.'

What the government are doing through our reforms is spreading opportunity to 80,000 more students from low-SES backgrounds to take up a place in university, first-generation university-goers, disadvantaged Australians. Remarkably, Labor is opposing that reform.

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