Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Higher Education and Research Reform Bill 2014. I want to declare up-front, in case there is any perceived conflict of interest, that I have been to university. I did not pay any HECS on my Diploma of Teaching, which I completed when I was 19 at what you would probably call a red brick university. I did my arts degree—my honours degree in literature—at a sandstone university, and my law degree at another red brick university. I should also mention that I have what you might call a 'gum leaf university' in my electorate—Griffith University.

This bill before the House today is the biggest proposed transformation to higher education that Australia has seen since the Whitlam Labor government gave us access to a free university education when it abolished university fees in 1974.

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