Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I stand here to speak on the Higher Education and Research Reform Bill 2014 this afternoon.

It was interesting, listening to the member for Hunter's contribution. It is like much that Labor has done since they have been on the opposition benches, and that is to whitewash history and fail to talk about the $6 billion-odd that they pulled out of the higher education sector when they were in government. But I will get to that a little bit later.

This bill represents the most significant reform to Australia's higher education sector in a generation. It has major benefits for students. The reason is because we see that it is our job to widen opportunity and to give everyone a chance at university, despite those opposite and the Green cohorts, who are looking to stick to the old outdated model that everybody in higher education knows is no longer working.

Some of the benefits for students in these higher education reforms are that the bill makes possible the world-class education that Australian students need and deserve; it creates the largest Commonwealth Scholarships scheme ever; it provides Commonwealth support for tens of thousands of students who currently do not get it; and it provides pathways into higher education for tens of thousands of students who would otherwise miss out. In addition, this bill abolishes the unfair loan fees for FEE-HELP and VET FEE-HELP students.

As I touched on in my opening remarks, I think it is always constructive to consider for a moment how we got into this position in the first place. The reason we are in this position is because those opposite, who like to whitewash history, cut $6.6 billion from the higher education sector. And, as usual, they offer no alternative but a scare campaign. We have not seen a single credible alternative from those opposite—Labor, who left funding cliffs for research fellowships and university infrastructure. And no-one seriously believes that they have the ability to provide our universities with the resources they need to compete in a global education marketplace. The simple fact of the matter is that they actually have no plan for the higher education sector.

In April 2013, Labor cut some $2.8 billion of funding to universities and students, and capped self-education expenses, which risked leaving thousands of Australian nurses, teachers and other professionals out of pocket for their professional development costs.    Labor's cuts to universities were a desperate grab for funds to help their ballooning deficit and their mirage of budget surpluses that never existed. I am sure the member for Moreton, now at the table—good friend that he is!—put a flyer out in his electorate to say that they had returned to surplus when, in fact they had not.

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