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

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. The Nationals are obviously of the view that regional communities do not deserve access to tertiary education. This week the Liberal member for Dobell, who represents a regional area, with a straight face accused Labor members of discouraging engagement in higher education. She obviously does not see the hypocrisy of this claim. How does slugging young Australians, Australians from Wyong or Tuggerah, with $100,000 degrees encourage engagement with higher education? The member for Dobell also stated that the sector requires ongoing support from the government. Labor agrees with that. But how cutting $2 billion from the university sector help students in Wyong? How does it help students at the Entrance?

Labor has a very different view to the coalition. In government we boosted funding for regional universities by 56 per cent and boosted regional student numbers by 30 per cent. Under the Labor government, investment in universities was increased from $8 billion in $2007 to $14 billion in 2013. Current and prospective students at the University of Newcastle—recently ranked as the best university in Australia under 50 years of age—will be hit hardest by these proposed changes.

The bill provides $100 million over three years for a regional transition fund. The minister has previously said this fund would be $300 million. This is how out to sea these guys are. One day the fund will be $300 million; the next day it is $100 million. Their higher ed policy has the same consistency and strength of thought as their submarine policy. The very fact that there needs to be a transition fund highlights how clearly this bill is unfair.

Deregulation will have a devastating impact on regional universities and communities and every coalition member, especially those who pretend to represent regional communities, should be ashamed to be supporting this bill. And that is why 39 members of the Liberal Party room tried to kill the Prime Minister on Monday.

Madam Speaker, I understand it is the pleasure of the House to defer debate on this—so I can come back and have another go.

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