Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Deputy Leader of the Opposition's private members' motion, which allows members on this side of the chamber—members of the Turnbull government—to highlight the inroads this government has made in higher education, particularly with respect to regional, rural and remote Australia, since we were elected three years ago.

As all of us in this place know only too well, higher education plays a vital role in opening up doors and opportunities for all Australians, and it greatly enhances people's career prospects and their lifelong enjoyment. Madam Deputy Speaker, as you may know, I presented my own private members' motion on this exact subject earlier this year. Higher education provides the skills and knowledge that the economy requires if we are to strive to build our entrepreneurial skill base and international competitiveness. Like all of us on this side of the chamber, I believe higher education will be pivotal to the successful transition into an economy focused on the creativity of all Australians.

We have heard a lot about how terrible those opposite think the Turnbull government is, but let us start to focus on what our record is. Firstly, the Turnbull government is investing the record sum of more than $16 billion in universities in 2016. If you say the number quickly, it does not sound like very much, but $16 billion in 2016 is a significant investment in education. More funding than ever before is being invested in Australian universities, with a focus on funding more student places at universities, and this will continue at an increase of more than seven per cent over the forward estimates. I am particularly pleased that students in rural, regional and remote Australia have never had better access to higher education following the government's $152 million regional student's access to education package. This package will help more kids from the bush gain access to tertiary education.

For some time, I have been lobbying the Minister for Social Services and the Minister for Education to implement a policy which will assist students wanting to undertake post-secondary education, and I am very pleased that we made these key announcements last June. This package includes 1,200 new rural and regional enterprise scholarships, up to $20,000 each, for undergraduate, postgraduate and vocational education students to undertake STEM studies, to the tune of $24 million—a significant investment. In addition to these new rural, regional and remote scholarships, the Turnbull government is investing $45 million in isolated children's education. This includes funding for assistance for isolated children's additional boarding allowance, which is a means tested supplementary payment to provide additional support to low-income families whose child boards away from the family home.

As promised, the government will increase the rate of the additional boarding allowance by 50 per cent, bringing it into line with the costs of education for isolated families. This will be of tremendous benefit to my electorate of Durack, which has over 300 towns and communities and is home to some of the most isolated towns in the world. For them, this is fantastic news. Part of the regional student access to education package is also the reduction of time that students need to be employed under the self-supporting criteria in order to receive the youth allowance and ABSTUDY living allowance, reducing the criteria from 18 months to 14 months. This measure will mean that a student will be able to qualify for assistance such as youth allowance within one gap year, not over two, instead of having to work for longer and delay their university commencement.

This all sounds very technical and very detailed, but I think that, if those on the other side really paid attention, they would see that we are focused on rural and remote students in Australia. These are our efforts to ensure that they do not get left behind and that we have got equity of education for them with respect to their city cousins.

In the time I have left I want to focus on the new VET Students Loans program that this government announced recently, which is going to lead to a more affordable, sustainable and student focused education sector. Our announcement is going to hit 'reset' on Labor's woeful, badly designed VET-FEE HELP scheme. Now Australia can start to rebuild its trust in vocational education, and taxpayers will not have their money wasted. As I said at the time, the VET Student Loans scheme is a win-win. (Time expired)

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