Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to enter the debate and speak on the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Amendment Bill 2018, and strongly support the amendment moved a short time ago by the member for Scullin. For a long time, Australia's higher education has been world leading. Can I say at the outset that my Labor colleagues and I support this bill because it helps to keep Australia's higher education system as a world leader. Students come from all over the world to further their education on our shores with some of the best universities, professors, researchers, tutors, support staff and administrative staff anywhere in the world. Our universities support more than one million students, both international and domestic, and our universities directly employ 120,000 people and support another 40,000 jobs.

On this side of the House, Labor has a long record of standing up for our universities. I listened to the member for Melbourne prattle on about the Greens' achievements. He had the hide to talk about free education. It was a Whitlam Labor government that introduced free education. We know in Australia, when it comes to higher education, this side of the chamber has a proud record and, indeed, custodianship of supporting education at every level across our country—investing in students, courses and research so that Australia can become a world power when it comes to higher education. This is where we educate the next generation of doctors, engineers, teachers and entrepreneurs.

A strong, stable and future-focused higher education industry is what Australia needs. That's why, in 2011, the Gillard government established the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. It's Australia's independent national quality assurance and regulatory agency for higher education to safeguard student interests and the reputation of Australia's higher education sector. At the time, Prime Minister Gillard said that the TEQSA will be at the heart of bolstering our reputation by ensuring quality for all students, domestic and international students alike, because that is what good governments do.

Good governments support our higher education sector. Good governments back students, teachers and universities. This is in stark contrast, as we know, to what those opposite have delivered for our universities. The second reading amendment moved today by Labor's shadow assistant minister for schools, the member for Scullin, notes that we do, and should, recognise that:

… the government has damaged the quality of Australia's world-class higher education system, having cut billions from universities by effectively capping undergraduate places, and slashing research funding.

Make no mistake, this government has taken a wrecking ball to our universities and our higher education system, with $2.2 billion in cuts since they came to power. That's a simply staggering number that means our universities will be under-resourced and our students will miss out on the vital education they need to succeed in the fast-moving 21st century.

When Labor was last in office we lifted the caps on the number of uni places—which saw, in my electorate in Oxley, huge increases in the number of students going to university. But we've seen the complete opposite from this government. Their $2.2 billion axe to our universities means that 9½ thousand Australians missed out on an Australian university place in 2018 and another 9½ thousand will miss out again in 2019. This is just unacceptable. We must be supporting and investing in our universities, rather than gutting the institutions that will guide the next generation of scientists, doctors and teachers.

Here's what the cuts by this government and this Prime Minister mean for universities in my home state of Queensland: the University of Southern Queensland, who have a campus in my electorate, are facing $36 million in cuts; Griffith University is facing a cut of $92 million; the Queensland University of Technology is facing a cut of $100 million; and the university that I attended, the University of Queensland, is facing a $100 million cut as well. That is ironclad evidence that this government does not care about students in this country going to university and receiving a higher education. We know this because they have a track record of tearing down our universities. They have repeatedly attacked higher education, year after year.

When this government was first elected there was a 20 per cent cut and full fee deregulation, as we've heard, which would have seen $100,000 degrees. In the next iteration they wanted to hike up fees by 7½ per cent, have a commensurate cut in university funding, have a further cut to university funding and then drop the HECS repayment threshold down to as low as $42,000. This is barely more than the minimum wage. It would mean Australians on low incomes who have a HELP debt would be required to make huge repayments. This change would also have a greater impact on women, particularly those who return to the workforce part-time after taking parental leave.

I have to wonder if those opposite are aware of where Australia currently sits in public investment in universities in the OECD. Are we near the top? We're not even close. Are we about mid-range? Absolutely not. Australia has the second-lowest level of public investment in universities in the OECD, and this government only wants to make it worse. At MYEFO last year they went after research, ripping $328.5 million from university research, which will devastate our critically important research sector.

I might also add that this government's attacks on TAFEs and apprenticeships are appalling. We know that since the government came to power Australia has lost over 140,000 apprenticeships, a decline of over 35 per cent. I speak about this a lot when I move around chambers of commerce, high school graduations and even local businesses. Locally, the apprentices in my electorate have been hit even harder. Our community has seen a loss of almost 1,500 apprenticeships, which is equivalent to a 43 per cent decrease and the signs are that this will only continue to get worse. The 2017 budget cut a further $637 million from TAFE training and apprenticeships. And their proposed Skilling Australians Fund, supposed to deliver 300,000 apprenticeships, has been widely panned as unworkable.

The evidence continues to stack up that this government does not take higher education seriously, which brings me to the finer points of this bill and the government's incredibly slow response to implement the recommendations from the review into the TEQSA. I shouldn't be surprised. This slow response is in line with everything else that they've done to higher education in this country, and that is to cut it down. The review, undertaken by Deloitte Access Economics, was undertaken between July 2016 and March 2017 and was a substantial body of work. Thirty-six written submissions were received, 33 stakeholders were interviewed and the act was extensively analysed. Overall, the review was positive about the establishment of TEQSA as the national regulator noting that, 'Broadly… the Act is operating effectively and as intended.' Therefore, the review did not recommend changes that would significantly alter the regulatory framework or its role.

However, the review did recommend amendments to the act that are designed to improve the act's administration, strengthen the regulatory role and better reflect the role of the Higher Education Standards Panel as the statutory advisory body established under the act. I want to go through those recommendations now. They are to simplify the Higher Education Standards Framework by removing references from the act to specific categories of non-threshold standards that have never been made and are not needed and expanding the skill set that the minister must ensure is encompassed by panel members, so that the panel has contemporary experience in the provision of higher education by both university and non-university providers.

However, the general positive outlook from the review should not mask this government's lack of attention to it. We know where they have been focusing all attention lately, and of course you only need to pick up a newspaper to realise that the government is focused on themselves first, second and third. As we know, the chaos and dysfunction of this government is unrelenting and grows on an almost daily basis, whether it be in this chamber, outside in their party room or outside in the community. We know that they have basically given up on governing, but there are so many important pieces of legislation that this government has decide not to turn up for. We know that this important work must continue. The recommendations in this bill were given to them years ago, yet here we are debating them now. The only thing this government has been doing in that time is tearing down the higher education system in this country and, let's be honest, tearing down themselves. The fact is that when you look at the Notice Paper today not one member of the government is actually speaking on this legislation, on the government's bill.

We know that the Australian public deserve a lot better, but there is an alternative. We know that when it comes to higher education and general education this side of the chamber does believe in the best for our students. That's why in the time remaining I want to focus on the alternative positive plans that the Australian community are crying out for, including the announced National Inquiry into Post-Secondary Education. This is a once in a generation national inquiry that will look at every aspect of the vocational and higher education systems to ensure that they can best respond to the needs of the Australia's economy and society.

I want to place on record that this is the first time that a national inquiry has put TAFE and unis on an equal footing. It is about making sure that Australians have access to the best post-secondary opportunities in the world. We want our kids to get the education and skills they need to thrive and to make sure that all Australians have the opportunity of lifelong learning. If as a country we are to continue to be a wealthy and highly educated nation, we must boost participation in quality postsecondary education. It's clear when you look at the evidence—it's not a term that this government likes to use too much of the time. Experts have warned that, if we rest on our laurels or continue with the cuts from this Morrison government, Australia risks being left behind.

On this side of the House, we know that. Labor knows education at all levels is key to the future of prosperity and key to a stronger community. That's why we will properly fund our universities with three-year funding agreements, guaranteed; uncut university places so that 200,000 more Australians will have the opportunity of a university education over the next decade or so; invest in university research and infrastructure with our $300 million university future fund; and provide more support for disadvantaged and underrepresented students to get the confidence and skills they need to get into university with $174 million for equity and pathways funding.

One of the greatest joys that we have as members of parliament is to attend school graduations. One of the greatest joys we have is to participate in those school graduations. Being in parliament, you don't always get to visit every single school in your electorate. I have approximately 53 schools in and around the Oxley electorate. I visit high schools and I see kids from non-English-speaking backgrounds, from migrant families—kids who started perhaps at Inala State School in my electorate and had little English. I see those students go on, whether they be from Somalia, South Sudan, Vietnam or Malaysia. When I see those kids graduate—and they not only graduate but are dux of their schools and have done early entry university courses or will be going to post-trade or secondary education—they have a look of pride. They're the people who we need to always be remembering—those kids who perhaps have had it a little harder but who are just as smart and just as talented as any other student at that school.

Sadly we've seen this government not investing in those students. Sadly we've seen this government remove the access and equity to higher education, remove the pathways. That's why I'm such a strong supporter of what the Leader of the Opposition and the deputy leader have announced with $174 million to improve equity and pathways funding. We need to be lifting people up wherever we can. To all those students who I have witnessed and the tens if not hundreds of thousands across Australia who are doing it tough and perhaps have just gone back to school in the last week or so: I want you to be very clear that we on this side of parliament will support you, we will invest in you and, more importantly, we value you.

We know a Shorten Labor government will invest across the whole education sector, whether it be by universal accessibility to early childhood education for three- and four-year-olds or investing a vital $14.1 billion of extra funding in our schools. We'll waive up-front fees for 100,000 students to attend, we'll provide 20,000 adult apprenticeships and we'll provide 20,000 pre-apprenticeships for young people who want to learn a trade. This is how a government should support education. We will continue to invest in and support education because we know it is the right thing for our country, for our economy and for the future of our nation.

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