Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak on this matter of public importance. Accessing education, particularly higher education, is so vitally important. Those of us on this side of the House in the Labor Party are committed to making sure that our younger Australians can access universities and can access them without having $100,000 degrees. The fact is that, regardless of who leads the Liberal-National government, the savage attacks on our young people just keep coming. They just do not stop. Under Prime Minister Turnbull, we have a Prime Minister who is out of touch. He is particularly out of touch when it comes to regional and rural Australia. This is especially true when it comes to looking at our younger people in regional areas being able to access university education. This government is still committed to $100,000 university degrees. In country areas, in regional and rural Australia, we blame the National Party for this. I see that the member for Cowper is still here and he spoke earlier. We blame people like the member for Cowper for these unfair increases and the fact that there will be $100,000 university degrees.

This MPI goes right to the heart of this cruel government's cuts and how that impacts on training opportunities and subsequent future employment opportunities for our young people. Compounding this situation is the fact that this government has no new ideas at all for education or training for our young people. One of the most ruthless attacks is the deregulation of university fees, the proposed 20 per cent cut in funding, and, of course, we will end up with $100,000 degrees.

At the moment, the government have put their plans aside for 12 months. That is all they have done. They are absolutely committed to deregulation, but the fact is that this plan should be scrapped—not delayed but totally scrapped, totally forgotten, totally dumped. That is exactly what should happen with it. This legislation has been rejected twice by the Senate and the reality is that its implementation in 2016 is virtually impossible. So the government has done no more than admit the obvious, but they have to end all the uncertainty. For once and for all, drop these unfair plans. The fact is we know how committed those on the other side are to these plans. We have heard speakers today talk about how good it is. They are absolutely committed to pursuing it. We also know that the Prime Minister is committed to it. He is on the record supporting the changes. On 2GB on 5 June 2014, he said:

I support unreservedly and wholeheartedly every element in the Budget. Every single one.

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I support every element ...

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I support the reforms to higher education.

And he still supports that.

It should be noted that, since they recently announced the one-year delay, we have had a lot of members supporting it. Indeed, today we have heard so much support for it as well. Families from rural and regional areas such as mine, in the electorate of Richmond on the North Coast of New South Wales, know that these really harsh cuts mean that kids from the country will not be able to get to university. It is as simple as that. They will not be able to afford it. It will compound so many costs associated with being able to access university and many families tell me that uni is off the radar for their kids.

I would like to talk about the wonderful university in my electorate, Southern Cross University, which, I might add, has a campus in the member for Cowper's area. He knows how good they are, so why is he supporting cuts to that university? Over the four-year period, until 2019, real cuts in funding for Southern Cross University will be more than $64 million. Southern Cross University services the North Coast of New South Wales and also has a Gold Coast campus on the border. It is outstanding. But the cuts over the four-year period of more than $64 million mean that fees will increase and all the kids who access our great regional universities will not be able to do that. It is a shameful disgrace that the National Party are pursuing this.

Also, they are pursuing it at a time of record youth unemployment. In areas like ours on the North Coast of New South Wales, we have incredibly high youth unemployment and the kids need to be able to access training or educational services such as higher education. We have seen so many cuts in youth training programs and also cuts to TAFE, so, no matter which way young people look, this government is making so many cuts. Labor is absolutely committed to making sure that our young people can access university. We released our plan which will provide security and certainty to students by increasing the number of students completing their study by 20,000 graduates a year from 2020. We know how important it is to do that. We are investing $31 million to boost the quality of teaching and resources in our universities.

But the fact is today that this plan the Liberals and Nationals have for their $100,000 degrees must be dumped. The community wants it. They have spoken loud and clear about it. I condemn this government, and particularly condemn the National Party, for their ongoing cuts to rural and regional Australia. It shows yet again that the Nationals just cannot be trusted. They are so out of touch. In this case they cannot be trusted with our young people's future educational needs.

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