Matt Williams (Hindmarsh, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As the member for Kingston leaves the chamber, I want to add my adulation. She is one of my favourite Labor members. I do enjoy the chat on the way back on the plane with the member for Kingston. So good luck, Amanda, and all the best. Would you believe there are a couple of my other favourite Labor MPs over the other side?

Fairness has been a principle mentioned in this debate this afternoon. I want to pick up on a comment that Paul Keating, the former Labor Prime Minister, made in 1995 about fairness when talking about higher education and the necessity to pay for the benefit that we receive from education. He said:

… a 'free' higher education system is one paid for by the taxes of all, the majority of whom haven’t had the privilege of a university education. Ask yourself if you think that is a fair thing.

So often we hear the point made of the remuneration of university students, not only the benefits they receive through the investment by the taxpayer but also their personal benefit. I think that should be not lost going forward in this debate. They do receive, over the period of their life, around $1 million more than those who do not go to university, the many millions of Australians who do not have the chance to go to university.

Other Labor members have come out publicly supporting the deregulation. I can see the member for Chifley motioning 'yes'. We heard from John Dawkins and Gareth Evans. If they are making these statements, if they are supporting deregulation why are we not? I know others have made the same point. Let's go back to what John Dawkins said. He talked about the difference being small and unremarkable reform. He also said that he had to negotiate with the Democrats to make this change. It often happens when we have to make reforms that we have to negotiate with the Senate. Finally, he made the pertinent point that it is a great pity that Labor is sitting on its hands this time. He knows there are tough decisions to be made for reform for the benefit of our nation. If only we had the same vision, the same determination to improve the tertiary education system as we had many years ago with previous Labor ministers.

We also heard today of the scare campaign being destroyed by a number of institutions. The University of Western Australia said that fees for all its undergraduate degrees would be set at $16,000 a year. The University of Technology in Queensland said degrees such as science about nursing would cost just over $30,000. How different is that to the $100,000-degree scare campaign?

Let's move forward a little to what our universities are saying. We know that they want the reform. We know that this is backed by the universities. They want to manage their own operations. They want to set their own fees so they can invest in their universities, so they can invest in their research capability. They can give their universities the best opportunity be world-leading universities, to attract the students from Asia, who are now weighing up where they go more than ever. The Chinese, in particular, are weighing up whether they will come to Australia. The Singaporeans and those from Hong Kong are all weighing up their options much more than they did before because of the increasing competitiveness of universities around the world. And that is why we need these reforms, so we can improve the quality of our universities even further.

We heard the statements made by the various supporters in the education sector of the reforms. But I just wanted to reiterate a couple of the points made for the public record. We heard the peak body saying that the reforms are a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape a higher education system that is sustainable, affordable and equitable. This is important because everyone has the chance to go to university and they will not have to pay fees back until they earn a decent wage, over $50,000. There is equity, there is fairness in this and these are the right reforms. The Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne, is doing a great job, a visionary job leading these reforms.

See this speech in context