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

I rise to speak on the Higher Education Support Legislation Amendment (2016 Measures No. 1) Bill 2016. I would like to speak on an issue that is very close to my heart—the representation of Indigenous Australians at university. The desire to further Indigenous career prospects is a passion of mine, and I believe it has to be one of the few real, tangible ways to bridge the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. I am pleased to hear that Labor supports this bill.

The legislation we are debating here today aims to streamline the confusing and convoluted support system currently available to Indigenous students wanting to further their education post high school. Any improvement in this area is welcome, as the current system has far too many conflicting and overlapping guidelines to be practical and workable for young people attempting to study full time.

The Higher Education Support Legislation Amendment (2016 Measures No. 1) Bill 2016 serves two functions. Firstly, it creates a new section in the Higher Education Support Act 2003 so that existing Indigenous student assistance can be combined into a single division and managed under simpler and more consistent guidelines. It will also allow the Minister for Education and Training to allow his department to collect tax file numbers for the purposes of administering student assistance and managing information collected under the scheme. The purpose of these changes is to encourage Indigenous Australians currently attending university to maintain their studies and to complete their degrees. This will greatly improve their employment prospects and will allow them to advance themselves in the ever-changing Australian job market.

As our economy changes, so will the requirements needed for entering it. As our economy moves towards a more combined resources economy and a skills economy, our workforce will need to be highly educated and upwardly mobile to meet the challenges facing it in the years to come. It is expected that young people in today's world will move through at least five different industries and take up some 17 different jobs over the course of their working lives. I believe it is vitally important that we are equipping young Indigenous Australians with the skills and qualifications to function in this new economic climate. That is why it is imperative that, as our job market changes, our policy towards furthering the opportunities for Indigenous students changes with it. Indeed, we cannot allow the disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students to continue into the future. This is why we have to change policy now—to beat these challenges before they become too difficult to overcome.

The Higher Education Support Legislation Amendment Bill is intended to reduce the red tape and overlap that currently exist between the many different programs available to assist Indigenous students. The collection of tax file numbers is a good example of this, as it allows refunds and deposits to be paid directly back into students' accounts when rebates are available. Tax file numbers are currently collected for all other loans under the Higher Education Loan Program except for VET FEE-HELP. This incompatible Labor policy will now be brought into line with the other higher education support programs, providing clarity for prospective Indigenous students.

This current practice, unfortunately, exposes vulnerable students to predatory loan services, coerces students to take out loans when they are neither required nor necessary, and leaves them without an avenue for compensation for their student loans. This legislation will bring VET FEE-HELP into line with all other current university FEE-HELPs, simplifying the process for application for both the applicant and the governing department. The intention is that this will streamline the process of accessing government assistance and will improve Indigenous education outcomes.

Undoubtedly, we as a nation have been successful in engaging Indigenous students in university and higher education. We have seen a 70 per cent rise in Indigenous student enrolments in university in the last decade, which is a credit to our higher education institutions around the country and the hard work of the Department of Education and Training—not forgetting, of course, the Indigenous students for taking the first step. But we must now do more. Rather than simply getting Indigenous students through the door, we now need to work on bridging the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous completion rates for post high school study. We want to ensure every dollar we are putting into Indigenous student assistance programs is working as hard as possible to improve the outcomes for Indigenous Australians. We can no longer be simply content with creating Indigenous students; we need to be producing Indigenous graduates and leaders.

This is a core facet of this government's election commitment to change the way our economy functions and views itself. With a dynamic, skilled and engaged young Indigenous workforce, we will take incredible steps towards bridging the gap between the quality of life currently experienced by Indigenous Australians and that experienced by non-Indigenous Australians. This is an issue that I am particularly passionate about as chair of the House Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs and as the member for a very large electorate with the third largest Indigenous population in Australia. I am pleased that the aim of this legislation is to simplify the guidelines, making the variety of supplementary programs available for Indigenous students more workable and more accessible.

Currently, because these supplementary programs are drawn from different sections of the Higher Education Support Act, as well as several other appropriations outside of the Higher Education Support Act, a number of Indigenous students are unaware of or unable to claim the support services they need because of the complexity required in obtaining services. This is an issue that this bill seeks to address. The bill will consolidate the Commonwealth Scholarships Program, the Indigenous Support Program and the Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme into one single body administered under a single set of guidelines. This will make the application process far more streamlined and far easier to understand for potential Indigenous applicants. Funding will be distributed to universities based on their full-time enrolment, progression and completion rates of Indigenous students, as well as their share of regional and remote students. This is part of our election commitment to eliminate red tape and to allow services for Indigenous Australians.

It is imperative that this legislation be introduced now and be passed quickly through the House, thereby allowing universities to present Indigenous students who are thinking of studying in 2017 with a clear indication of what government programs are available to assist them. It is therefore a matter of urgency. These measures are critical to allowing Indigenous Australians who want to further their education the best possible chance to do so at the earliest possible date, starting with the very next semester and the next round of university admissions.

When we improve the lives of Indigenous Australians, we lift up and improve all of Australia. Education is the key to closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. I commend the bill to the House.

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