Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tony Abbott continues to be an absolute nightmare for my constituents. Having won an election promising no cuts to education, the Prime Minister is determined to hit my local students and their families with $100,000 tertiary degrees. Just like the rest of the Australian public that have been repeatedly and comprehensively dudded by this Prime Minister on a whole raft of issues, my electorate is rightfully outraged.

Calwell is one of the most disadvantaged electorates in the country. It traditionally has one of the lowest rates of participation in tertiary education. By substantially increasing university fees, the participation rate will deteriorate further. The government's $100,000-degree fiasco is happening at a time when my local school and parent communities as well as myself as the federal member, the state members and the local council have been working very hard to encourage our young people to stay in school and to give them the confidence to believe that they can go on to higher learning. A lot of this work is now at risk, and it is work that comes on the back of massive investments in my electorate from previous state and federal Labor governments.

With the progressive and social justice policies of past Labor governments, we have built an education infrastructure in Calwell that we are very proud of. We have created an environment where our kids love learning and have the confidence to remain in school and aspire to realise their full potential. In fact, we encourage them to do so at all levels.

I often talk to parents about their children and see the pride that parents have in their children's achievements and the hopes they have for their education future. In my electorate there are many young people who have the necessary skills, intelligence and determination to contribute to society in great and various ways by becoming doctors, lawyers, scientists and educators, to name but a few. I visit my schools and talk to my local students, who tell me about their plans and what they hope to become some day, and a large number of them want to go to university. Yet I believe that the government, with its proposed university cuts, is stealing their dreams.

When I think of how $100,000 degrees are going to affect my community, I think of a new and emerging community, the Iraqi community. They came here as refugees, and a great number of them are tertiary qualified. In fact, I had the pleasure of attending the 80th birthday party of the first female dentist in Iraq, who resides in my electorate. She is just one example of the many members of this community who took every opportunity available to them in their home country of Iraq to complete higher education and become successful members of society. This community place a high premium on education and they want the same opportunities they had in Iraq for their children here in their new home, Australia. But $100,000 degrees will make this very difficult if not impossible, because these are not wealthy people. They are people who are trying to establish themselves in Australia by finding a job, and their priority is to provide for their families in addition to their children's education. In fact, most families in my electorate are struggling to make ends meet. So imagine what the additional burden of $100,000 degrees will do, not just to the family budget, but to their aspirations for their children.

During the Rudd-Gillard years, we significantly increased the number of Commonwealth supported places at universities for students from low socio-economic backgrounds. The university in my electorate that is attended by a large number of students is La Trobe University. As a result of the previous Labor government increasing the number of Commonwealth supported places, a number of my local students were given the opportunity to attend this university; many were the first in their families to do so.

This government's budget proposes to cut over $136 million to La Trobe University's Commonwealth Grant Scheme over the next four years. I can only imagine what this will do to the opportunity for my young people to attend La Trobe University, and other universities, for that matter. In the process of slashing funds to universities, Minister Pyne claims that the government's higher education changes will benefit students from low socio-economic backgrounds because, as he says, they will create more places for brighter kids from these backgrounds. This is a con job, because the proposed Commonwealth Scholarships Program will not receive Commonwealth funding. Instead, this program will be funded entirely by student fees. So, whilst indeed the program may be of benefit to a limited number of students who meet the criteria, it is not an answer for those who miss out because of capping or eligibility criteria. My community will still be left with students who will not be able to access higher education, because they will miss out.

This is truly an extraordinary and heartbreaking waste of potential, not just for— (Time expired)

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