Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is astonishing to sit here, on this side of the House, and listen to members opposite—some of whom, like the member for Cowper, represent regional communities like my own, and I see that the member for Braddon in Tasmania is about to jump up—try to defend their track record in higher education: 'Here we are, the masters of announcing same-same-but-different policy in this area.' It is like: 'Well, we've got this dirty little policy that we just want to keep secret for another 12 months now, so let's just let slip it down in the bottom drawer and pretend that we've got nothing to see here. Labor—you guys—are all out there on a scare campaign.' It is just like when you accused us of scaring people on a GP tax that was never going to happen—remember?—but we had to defeat you four times on that one until you learnt your lesson. It is going to be the same again now; Labor will have to stand up here and defend higher education again and again until you guys opposite learn the lesson that you cannot out-price education in Australia.

It is a line in the sand, not only for Labor but also for the Australian people. They understand the need to ensure that our universities are places where people go who have a capacity to learn that is not based in any way, shape or form on their capacity to earn, or that of their parents.

Australians take little comfort from the recent announcement that the Liberals have decided to hit the pause button on their unfair plan for $100,000 university degrees. We did not get to hear the new ministers talking about how the previous minister—ironically named 'the fixer'—could never actually quite get it past anybody in the Senate. He could not actually fix anything up there—he could not even get his foot through the front door. So, now, far from being 'the fixer', he leaves the mess behind for the new minister to clean up. The new minister jumps up and says, 'Oops, we are just going to hit the pause button; this is all a little bit too hot to handle,' rather than fess up to the Australian people: 'You know what? We got it wrong. We got this really, really wrong.'

We know that deregulation is going to hit universities, like mine at Newcastle. I know there are members of the Liberal Party who have got campuses in their seats on the Central Coast and members of the National Party who have got Newcastle campuses sitting in their seats. It is going to absolutely decimate regional universities, like Newcastle, that offer quality education—both quality and excellence—without prejudice. More than one-third of the students in intakes at the University of Newcastle come from low socioeconomic backgrounds. They are the students coming out of the National Party seats—like the students from the member for Cowper's seat who come down to the University of Newcastle to study. I met them there at O-week, Member. They are there because that is the university that has always reached out. Never once has it compromised on quality and excellence, but its door is open to students who should be there, who have a capacity to learn. It is the university with the largest number of Indigenous students enrolled in this country: there are 1,000 Aboriginal students at the University of Newcastle. What a tremendous track record. It has also graduated more than 33,000 students through alternative pathways to education. These are kids—and, frequently, mature age students—who were unable to come up to university through the ordinary channels, through going through high school.

The women, in particular, that I met that are coming through those open foundation courses now, wanting to take up a university course—and I have been on at least three visits to the university this year to discuss this issue—have said to me, 'Sharon, I don't know that I can enrol in university next year. I've already got a mortgage on my house. I cannot take it on, whether it is $30,000, $50,000 or $100,000; I cannot afford that debt.' Labor wants students to graduate with a quality higher education degree, not a lifelong sentence to debt. That is what our policies are focused on, and members opposite could do well to come on board and adopt Labor's policies. (Time expired)

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