Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

It is my great pleasure to sum up the debate on the Higher Education and Research Reform Bill 2014. I would like to thank all of my colleagues, particularly on this side of the House, who have given passionate and informed speeches about this reform bill over the course of the last week and a half of sittings. I thank those members of the opposition who have also participated, although I would not say their speeches were nearly as well informed as the ones from the side of the House, because they are not supporting the higher education reform bill. They are putting their head deeply in the sand and refusing to acknowledge the need for reform in higher education. It has been a very long debate. Most members of the government have participated in it. I thank my colleagues for doing this process a second time, for the second reform bill. It is because the government believes so fervently in these reforms that it has brought the bill back.

The reform bill amends the Higher Education Support Act 2003 and the Australian Research Council Act 2001 to implement a fair, balanced and essential set of reforms to Australia's higher education and research system. The reform bill represents the boldest ambitions for Australian higher education in generations. It aims to make it possible for Australia to develop the best higher education system in the world. Above all, this will enable our students to get an education of the quality they need and deserve in this world of intensifying international competition. It will do so while making Australian higher education more equitable, affordable and accessible than ever before. This is the right package at the right time for Australian universities and colleges. More importantly, it is the best package for students. It has been designed thoughtfully and deliberately following careful review, consideration and consultation. All the higher education peak bodies around Australia support the core elements of these reforms. They know how necessary these reforms are. It is something of an achievement that we have been able to unite the entire higher education sector around these reforms.

This bill maintains the thrust of the reforms announced as part of the 2014-15 budget, paving the way for the highest quality education, a more level playing field for students and greater autonomy for universities. Firstly, the government is ensuring that students have vastly expanded choices in what they study and where they study it. For the first time ever, every Australian students studying at a registered higher education institution in an accredited undergraduate course will receive Commonwealth support. This means that all students studying bachelor and subbachelor level courses in Australia will receive support. As a result, an additional 80,000 students a year by 2018 will receive government support. Many of these people will be the first in their families to experience the benefits of higher education. Secondly, the reform bill does what the shadow assistant Treasurer has long advocated as a necessary reform for higher education in this country—that is, deregulate student fees. The member for Fraser has also written: 'There is no reason to think that fee deregulation will adversely affect poorer students.' The reason is that HECS means that no one needs to pay one cent up-front.

The reform bill has always been about improving the quality of the education our students get, making the system fairer, increasing opportunity and diversity and ensuring that Australia has a strong, competitive higher education and research system. We cannot allow the quality of our degrees and our higher education system to be left behind amid intensifying global competition.

The Higher Education and Research Reform Bill includes important changes from the original package. These are been introduced following broad consultation with universities, higher education peak bodies, the crossbenchers and, most importantly, my colleagues, who have taken a keen interest in the amendments since the first reform bill and who have been responsible for driving change in the second. They are retaining indexation on HECS debt by the same consumer price index that was applied previously; freezing the indexation of outstanding HECS debts for primary carers of a newborn child for up to five years while they are earning under the minimum repayment threshold; creating a structural adjustment fund of $100 million over three years to assist universities to transition to a more competitive market, including those in regional areas; and providing an unprecedented package of scholarships, including a dedicated scholarship fund within the Higher Education Participation Programme. This will ensure that the assistance is focused on regional, remote and low-SES students. The reform bill guarantees that no domestic student can be charged more for a course than an international student can.

As a further safeguard, the government will direct the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to monitor prices in higher education. Like the previous bill, this reform bill will also remove the unfair VET-FEE-HELP and FEE-HELP loan fees, benefiting 130,000 students. It will extend the Commonwealth subsidies to all Australian students studying accredited bachelor level courses at all registered higher education providers for the first time. It will extend funding to an uncapped number of diploma, advanced diploma and associate degree level courses for the first time. So this government is extending the demand driven system, whereas the shadow minister for education, on the other side of the house, is talking about recapping positions for undergraduate courses and driving the system backwards rather than driving it forwards. In fact, he wants more regulation, more socialism at universities, which is exactly what the previous government—

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