Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I can understand why the member for Cowper has previously never spoken on higher education—because he has absolutely no understanding of it. He actually did not talk about higher education once in that speech over the last 10 minutes. He did not mention a university; he did not mention a program; nor did he outline what the government's policy currently is. All we know is that it has been delayed. He has not told us anything except that it is important. We all agree it is important, but what are you actually going to do about it? On the record at the moment, you have a disastrous policy—a policy that is terrifying people, a policy that is seeing students who are about to go into their VCE exams at this moment determining that they will not apply for university because they do not know if they will be able to afford it into the future. So frightened are students from all backgrounds that they are saying, 'Well, there's no hope.' There is no hope of their going to university and actually being able to pay their fees.

It is not just because of any old campaign that you may accuse Labor of. The students look at the UK and the US and see the debt that those students are burdened with for the rest of their lives. The greatest debt carried by people in the US is not a Visa card debt, credit debt or mortgage debt; it is university debt, which they live with for the rest of their lives. That is what you want to impose here in Australia—a country in which we need to diversify and find other job opportunities because this government has crucified the manufacturing industry. We now need to look at other sectors, and all of those sectors will need a university degree. It is predicted that, in the future, two out of every three jobs in Australia will require a degree. How are those kids going to get a job if they cannot afford to get a degree?

We used to be the country of equity. This policy that the government has is not a policy of equity and opportunity. It is a policy of the past, where getting to university depends on your parents' salary and your postcode. People like me would never have got there. My parents certainly never got to university. But they sent five of their children to university because of their ability to pay. I am so old that I got my first degree free. My younger brother and sister had to pay HECS, but it was a system that was manageable.

This system that this government wants to introduce will not be manageable and it will be disastrous for my electorate, which is home to two of the largest universities in the country, Monash University and the city campus of Deakin—which the majority of Deakin students attend. There are over 100,000 students who reside in my electorate, and a massive proportion of them are overseas students. They are already paying a huge price for their degrees. We understand how important the higher education sector is to our export market and to the working of our economy.

I have seen in the last 12 months the highest increase in unemployment in my electorate in the 17 years I have been in this parliament. Why? Because of actual job losses in the higher education sector—mainly in TAFE at this point in time. The member for Cowper wants to cry about TAFE, but you have denuded TAFE—$200 million has been taken out of that sector. You have not cared for that sector; it is dying. It is as important in the higher education space as university is. Do not be fooled by this new Prime Minister. Everybody is excited: 'We have a change; it's not Tony Abbott.' Well, so what? It is sound and fury signifying nothing, because the policy has not changed. The policy has not changed; it is just fury. Deregulation and $100,000 degrees will return under Malcolm Turnbull and his new Minister for Education. Do not be fooled. Extreme ideologies are there, and those degrees at $100,000 come from NATSEM modelling. It is a reality that will be forced onto the community. Malcolm Turnbull is on the record as wholeheartedly supporting the changes. He said:

I support unreservedly and wholeheartedly every element in the budget. Every single one. … I support the reforms to higher education.

That was Malcolm Turnbull on 2GB, June 2014. He has not changed; he is only delaying.

Why is he delaying? In the last budget there was still a 20 per cent cut to higher education that has been put on hold. There is still mass uncertainty out there. The Liberal Party still has a plan for deregulation. There is a mess out there created by the former minister, the member for Sturt, and it will burden Australians for their lifetime—(Time expired)

See this speech in context