Ross Hart (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the amendments to the Higher Education Support Legislation Amendment (Student Loan Sustainability) Bill 2018. I thank the member for Brand for her contribution. She quite rightly paid particular attention to the fact that this Orwellian treatment—so-called sustainability—of higher education is in some way supporting the university sector and supporting the ability of people to go to university and advance themselves in life. We know, on this side of the chamber, that this represents the most grievous attack not just on the universities but also on young people and people in the regions.

I have the pleasure to represent—as does my friend the member for Braddon—Northern Tasmania, an area which historically has underperformed. There has been a lot of economic analysis as to what it is that holds back Northern Tasmania and Tasmania as a whole. Of course, the fact that the Tasmanian economy has significantly underperformed the equivalent economies even in regional Australia is something that has been the subject of economic analysis. One of the theories underpinning this is the fact that educational attainment, in particular higher educational attainment, is not keeping pace in Tasmania. So what we need is not less support for higher education and the higher education sector in areas like Northern Tasmania and other regional communities throughout Australia but more.

The important thesis is that average incomes in the regions are significantly below those in urban communities. We have better educational attainment in the urban communities, while the regional parts of states, particularly in a state like Tasmania, suffer from lower educational attainment. And in the cities we see a greater representation of people who have graduated with higher degrees. It is reasonable to suggest that investment in education—not denying investment in education—is the way this parliament should proceed. We know, on this side of the House, that investment in higher education and education generally is an investment in the economy in the long term. This government, as I've said previously, has a one-point plan for the economy in Australia—a one-point plan which involves shovelling $80 billion worth of money out the door, in particular to the big banks.

We know there's a better way to proceed. We know it's not coincidental that the amount of money that is being invested in the tax cuts for the big banks is roughly the same that is being denied to education.

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