Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My grandparents and parents are smart, talented and good people, yet I have had vastly more opportunities available to me in my life. That is because I had the good fortune to be born at a time when people like me, kids like me, had higher education available to us. In a time when inequality is increasing and when the opportunities open to people are beginning to depend more and more on the circumstances of their birth, it is imperative that we in this parliament take seriously our obligation to act. Education policy made in this place, therefore, should be aimed at setting the right conditions for opportunity and optimism.

One of the greatest forces there is for dignity and a better life for all is education. If people in this parliament want to act on worsening inequality—and we should—then we should work to make sure that more people have access to education and we should take action to create, in the minds of all kids, aspiration for education and the opportunities that follow. This means education from the cradle to the grave, whether it is parents as first teachers, like when I read Octopus's Garden to my kidsI know there are many people who are much bigger Beatles fans than I am, but I do—or whether it is early childhood, school, vocational or university education throughout our long and changing lives. That is why I am so grateful to the education sector for the work that they do.

I have visited many universities in the past two months and seen their work firsthand. It makes me even more concerned that this Turnbull government is planning measures that will undermine higher education in this country and its competitiveness internationally: cuts to the Commonwealth Grant Scheme that are still in the budget, cuts to the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program and the proposal to allow some course fees to be deregulated. Accordingly, I am grateful for the opportunity to ask some questions of the minister.

Minister, firstly: cutting public funding for universities is bad for Australian students and will make it harder for universities to compete in international markets, so will the government drop its plan to cut the Commonwealth Grant Scheme by 20 per cent? Secondly, how will the government's cuts to the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program of $152 million in the 2016-17 budget affect the enrolment and participation of lower socioeconomic status students, Indigenous students, and regional and remote students? In passing, I note in that regard that I met with some students in Western Australia recently who had had their aspiration to go to university effectively created through outreach programs from universities—kids who lived two days drive or more from a capital city.

Minister, I would also like to ask you when we can expect to see the legislative package for the changes that the government intends to introduce to take effect in 2018. I understand it has been announced that those bills will be introduced in 2017. Can the minister confirm whether that package will be introduced in or before the autumn sitting? Of course, universities, students and others need certainty and, if measures are intended to commence in 2018, there needs to be ample time in advance of that period for the package to be tabled, considered and debated in this parliament so that students, prospective students, universities and others who are stakeholders in the sector will have appropriate opportunities to have input.

Minister, a panel has been established to assess the some 1,200 submissions that your government has received in relation to your higher education options paper. What are the parameters, if any, for that panel? How will that panel's consideration of those submissions be informed? How will that panel report to the minister and on what basis will that panel make recommendations to the minister?

What will be the considerations that are relevant to that panel in assessing those 1,200 submissions, summarising and reporting them to the minister?

The shadow minister for education earlier touched on the fact that there have been some 25 reviews affecting higher education since this government came to office. That is 25 reviews, option papers, discussion papers and the like. How many more reviews, options papers, discussion papers and the like are we to expect before we see some action from this government in relation to higher education?

Finally, in the 2016-17 budget the government announced it will not proceed with its planned fee deregulation program in full, though of course the flagship courses are still in the options paper. The 2016-17 budget estimates this will give rise to savings of $2 billion. The 2014-15 budget did not contain any specific expenses associated with fee deregulation. How is the $2 billion sum calculated in respect of the savings that are intended to be made?

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