Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm grateful to the member for Fisher for proposing this motion as it gives us another opportunity to show up Labor's dishonesty and remind the people of Australia of the truth about university funding in Fisher and, indeed, all over the country. When I was at university, I studied law, and one of the things I learnt is how important it is to understand the words you are using and to use them with care. It's particularly important in our work here making the laws that govern Australians. A party that doesn't use words carefully is a party that doesn't deserve the people's trust.

Members opposite talk about cuts. They use the word 'cut's a lot. They throw it around. In fact, we have seen recently that repeating the word 'cuts' again and again is really all they have. Yet they seem, at best, to have no idea what that word means. This motion, and the whole of Labor's argument on education and health, is false, empty, meaningless, because it relies on a totally dishonest representation of this government's policy.

Let me offer members opposite some help. A quick look at a dictionary tells us that 'to cut' means 'to lower, reduce, diminish or curtail'. Perhaps they can begin to see how wrong they have been—because the Turnbull government is not lowering university funding; it is, in fact, raising it. We are not reducing university funding, but increasing it. We are not diminishing or curtailing or lessening or decreasing university funding. We are growing it by 23 per cent over the next four years. An increase of billions of dollars is not a cut, not by anyone's honest definition, and the Australian people know it.

The Turnbull government is growing federal funding to universities to a record $17 billion this year. We will spend more on universities in each of the next four years than any federal government before, but we will contain that growth to responsible levels.

In my own electorate of Fisher, we have a fantastic regional university—the University of the Sunshine Coast. The USC is a dynamic, growing institution under the exceptional leadership of Vice-Chancellor Professor Greg Hill. I'm passionate about making the Sunshine Coast the place to be for education, and I've advocated strongly on behalf of USC in Canberra. I've worked closely with them since my election on projects like the federally funded Mind and Neuroscience Thompson Institute and on my Fisher defence industry initiative.

Through its rapid growth and it's well-earned success, USC has had the third largest increase in base funding for Commonwealth supported places of any university in the country since 2009. This funding continues to grow. Last year, funding for teaching and learning came to $165 million. This year it is $172 million, and it will keep growing to $182.8 million in 2021. This substantial federal support helped USC to a net operating result of $28.8 million in 2016 and to cash and investments of $79.9 million.

Under Vice-Chancellor Hill's leadership, USC is continuing to grow, with new campuses in Moreton Bay and Fraser Coast in Hervey Bay. For the new Moreton Bay campus, which I was delighted to be part of launching earlier this year, funding will increase by $69.4 million. Next year, this campus will get $7.5 million more. In 2020-21 it will receive $22.9 million in extra funding and in 2021-22 it will see an extra $39 million. We will also increase the number of Commonwealth supported places available to USC to fill that campus with new Australian students. USC's Moreton Bay campus will have 1,200 places in 2020, 2,400 places in 2021 and 3,600 places in 2022. We are further supporting this campus with a $35 million grant to the Moreton Bay Regional Council to build infrastructure.

There are no cuts here. The federal government is absolutely powering and empowering the university sector, particularly in— (Time expired)

See this speech in context