Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Labor is rightly opposing this bill. We oppose this bill because it is profoundly unfair to young people, especially those from disadvantaged or middle-class backgrounds. This bill will make it even harder for young people from everyday backgrounds to climb the ladder of opportunity through education.

When I doorknocked over 13,000 houses in the lead-up to the election, people told me that education was the single most important thing. Everyone said it: young people, parents and grandparents but most especially migrants, who come to this country to seek a better life with a laser-like focus on education being the key to a better life for their kids. But, rather than helping young people to fulfil their potential to climb that ladder of life and opportunity and secure a better future, unless they are lucky enough to be from a very wealthy family, this bill will weigh young people down with a lifetime of debt accrued through higher fees as they struggle to climb just a rung or two while being expected to repay these higher debts even earlier.

As has been said, Australian students already pay the sixth-highest fees in the OECD. This bill jacks them up by another 7½ per cent. Repaying debts when you earn $42,000 will make it harder—for many people, impossible—to buy a house or provide for a family. I've heard those opposite prattle on with, 'Oh, it's only 10 bucks a week here and 20 bucks there,' and, 'What's another 50 bucks?' The point is that it's in the wrong direction. It makes it more unfair and more unequal, and it is the wrong way to go, especially with stagnating wages, poor graduate employment outcomes and spiralling house prices fuelled by regressive tax concessions.

We oppose this bill because it will worsen inequality in this country—although the Treasurer says that's not a real thing. LOL! The Bill's Digest states clearly that, when compared to the existing arrangements, the new proposal has a disproportionate impact on lower-income earners. It's a particular problem when you consider it against the backdrop of the broader Liberal budget as a whole. Lower repayment thresholds plus tax rises like the Medicare levy and changes to other transfer payments will mean that some Australians will face effective marginal tax rates of 100 per cent. Using one example, Australians with a HELP debt who earn $51,000—most of whom are women—will have less disposable income than someone earning $32,000 when you take it all into account. This may sound fanciful for out-of-touch Liberal members, but the average graduate salary in Australia is under $55,000. Good luck with saving for a house, repaying a uni debt, saving for or paying off a car, paying rent, paying utilities, paying for food and paying for electricity. God help you if you start a family on that income, and you better hope you don't get sick. What on earth have young people done to deserve this?

If we as a nation want to ensure that Australia really is the land of the fair go, we need to do more to address all forms of inequality, especially those that are entrenched or intergenerational in nature. Education is the best tool governments have to encourage social mobility. People in my electorate get this. We oppose this bill because it sells out our country's future and takes us in the wrong direction.

In considering these proposals, everyone in this House must have it fixed in their mind just how critical higher education is to Australia's future successes. This is not the kind of thing we're supposed to say, but Australia's best years are not necessarily in front of us. I'm optimistic that they can be, but it's not certain they will be. We are at risk now—and the signs are not good—of being the first generation in modern Australia to leave a worse standard of living for the next generation. That is shameful. It doesn't have to be that way, but it depends on the choices we make today. That is why I and other Labor members feel so strongly that this bill takes our country and our society in the wrong direction. It doesn't just hit student fees; it also locks in large and ongoing cuts to universities.

Education, as has been said, is a critical enabler of our future economic prosperity and security. Modelling by Deloitte shows that university education added an estimated $140 billion to Australia's GDP in 2014 alone. Our region of the world is the fastest growing. This century holds enormous opportunities, but the world does not owe us a living. We can choose to innovate and compete, or we will get left behind. Australia now has the second-lowest level of public investment in universities of any country in the OECD. While our neighbours and competitors and partners in Asia are investing more in education research and creating wealth from that knowledge, our government spends time thinking up new ways to cut school funding, cut universities, threaten research funding, raise fees, burden young people with a lifetime of debt and slug disadvantaged Australians a fee of $3,223 for bridging courses that don't even give them a qualification. That's a real little gem. Nice one, government; well done! These enabling courses are run by some universities to help some of the most disadvantaged students in the country just to have a crack at getting into uni. There are currently no fees. Yet this bill proposes to charge fees, which is particularly harsh for students from a disadvantaged background. They don't get a formal qualification. There is no stakeholder support. It is a brain fart of the minister.

Australia needs an equitable higher education system if our best future is to be realised. Our smartest and brightest minds get the same access to learning opportunities. That's the goal, and we don't deter or punish young people from poor families. This access must not be conditional on the postcode you were born in, the school you went to or your parents' capacity to pay for a house.

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