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

Thank you to the member for Bowman. He should know a conspiracy when he looks at it. The important thing is that the Labor Party, this side of politics, has recognised that investment in education is important, particularly for regional Tasmania. That's why, during the 2016 federal election campaign, we committed to the university transformation project in Northern Tasmania. We committed to the fact that we need to improve educational attainment in Northern Tasmania. We want to see higher education with better numbers of students graduating from university, higher incomes and higher productivity, particularly within the Tasmanian economy. Every small business in Northern Tasmania should aspire to the fact that they will have better productivity by paying their highly educated workforce more and, of course, improving the economic performance of their business.

Now, there is no doubt that people recognise that universities represent a significant opportunity for economic growth. Recent studies suggest that the mere presence of higher numbers of university graduates in an economy significantly drives employment not just within the graduate cohort but within the wider workforce. What's the response of this government? The response of this government is to make it more difficult for people to attend university or, if they do attend university, they'll have a higher education debt, which they'll pay off earlier, because this government simply don't see our young people or our people in regional Australia having the opportunity to get ahead. We know that regional Australia, regional economies and the other states throughout Australia need this investment in higher education. It's vitally important that we push back, that we reject these amendments and that we reject this legislation. Thank you.

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