Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

Facing a Dennis Lillee bouncer, spending an hour at the track with Bart Cummings and having a beer with Bob Hawke are all things that I would have loved to have done as a young man growing up. From everything we've heard from these speeches today and everything else that has been said, Bob Hawke had a unique ability. He could be equally at home at Oxford, getting his Rhodes Scholarship, and equally at home at a pub anywhere across the nation. He could be at home in a boardroom, he could be at home in a classroom, he could be at home around a cabinet table and he could be equally at home around a kitchen table. This is a uniquely Australian quality, and one that he obviously had in enormous quantities. I would like to think that a lot of it has to do with the first 10 years of his life, growing up in country Australia. That's where you do have to ensure that you can walk and talk with all types of people. That was a capability that Bob had in spades. I've loved the stories about his passion for horseracing, for always wanting to make sure that he had the guide with him and that he was able to get his bets on. If I ever had that chance to have that beer I would have loved to have been able to talk about the great Australian horses, because it's a passion which many people still hold across this nation and the racetrack is one of the great levellers of Australian society. In my view, that's why Bob was probably so at home on the racetrack.

In terms of what the Hawke government did in setting this nation up for the future, many have also spoken about the reforms and important microeconomic reforms that were undertaken. I think the title of Paul Kelly's book, The End of Certainty, captures a lot of it. Up until that stage, we were a protected nation. We were a certain nation in the way that restrictions were put, especially on our economy. But Hawke and Keating had the ability and the will to change that—to create an uncertain economy. That brought with it uncertainty, pressures and challenges, but also—and there is no question about this—it set our nation up for the prosperity that it enjoys today.

I think there's an important message in how it was done: the consensus in which it was undertaken and also the way that cabinet government worked in the Hawke era. He knew that he wasn't the font of all wisdom, although, as many of the anecdotes have shown, he had a very high opinion of himself. But he still understood the importance of cabinet government and ensuring that there were proper processes in place. That meant that all the people that sat around that table were able to use their intellects, their experiences and their know-how to contribute to the important reforms that took place.

When it came to education, there were also significant achievements by the Hawke government. It's perhaps no surprise that this is the case because, as has been detailed, Bob Hawke's mother was a schoolteacher. The late Hazel Hawke noted that his mother had been frustrated at not being able to pursue further education because of the demands of marriage and family, so perhaps this was also one of the things that drove him when it came to education.

Increasing participation in the length and the breadth of our education system was something that the Hawke government achieved. There were big increases in the retention rates for school students to year 12—an important development, because that then meant they were able to access our higher education system. There were important reforms to the structure of the higher education system that led to a significant increase in participation. There was also the introduction of an income-contingent student loan scheme—HECS—which once again became transformational for our higher education system. Many will also be familiar with another memorable achievement that he had in higher education: sculling a yard of ale—two and a half pints, or 1.4 litres—in 11 seconds, a then world record at Oxford.

While at Oxford, Hawke wrote his thesis on the history of wage fixing in Australia for his Bachelor of Letters degree. It was entitled 'An appraisal of the role of the Australian Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration with special reference to the development of the concept of a basic wage'. In her memoirs, Hazel Hawke recounts Bob returning from this final oral exam on his research for his thesis. When asked how it had gone, he replied, 'Those Pommy blokes'—and I'm sure he used another phrase—'told me I knew more about it than they did.'

Hawke's widow, Blanche d'Alpuget, listed the large increase in the proportion of children finishing high school as one of Hawke's proudest achievements. Between 1985 and 1992, the retention of school students to year 12 increased from 46 per cent to 77 per cent. In 1988, the year before the Dawkins reforms were implemented, almost 169,000 students commenced higher education in Australia. By the end of 1996, this had increased to over 261,000—growth of almost 55 per cent. By contrast, Australia's population had grown by about 10 per cent in the same period. It was another remarkable achievement. Prior to those reforms, Australia had a binary system of higher education, with universities and with colleges of advanced education that were often quite small and that focused primarily on teaching.

The Dawkins reforms saw the end of this two-tier system, with the amalgamation of the colleges of advanced education, either with each other or with existing universities, to form one unified national system. Between 1983 and 1996, 18 universities were established. That's a near-doubling in the number of 19 universities that existed when Hawke came to power in 1983, and, as we in this space all know, being able to access higher education can have life-changing impacts. There is no question that the broadening of our university sector brought education closer to home for many Australians. Many of those universities have gone on to great things and contribute not only to the education of Australians but to one of our nation's largest exports, our $35 billion international education sector.

With such growth, of course, came the need to ensure that higher education in Australia was sustainable, and the introduction by the Hawke government of the HECS system, with which many of us are familiar, in 1989 laid the groundwork for long-term sustainability. It's incredibly important to note that countries in Latin America and, to our north, in South-East Asia are now looking to introduce schemes of exactly this type so they can broaden participation in higher education. That is the true mark of long-lasting reform.

Many of us who were alive and studying in 1989 will remember the tragic loss of life at Tiananmen Square at the time and Hawke's decision to allow Chinese nationals who were studying in Australia to remain here. At that time, there were more than 10,000 Chinese nationals studying in Australia. Another important legacy as a result of that compassionate decision is that currently there are 150,000 Chinese nationals studying in Australia today. I have no doubt that the decision taken after Tiananmen Square in 1989 has led to the continued use by Chinese nationals of our higher education system. It is wonderful that the government has been able to announce today the scholarship program that will bear Bob Hawke's name. There is no question that education was one of the things that he was incredibly proud of, not only of his own but of what he was able to do to increase Australians' participation in our education system. It is a legacy that is not only still being felt in Australia today but across the world.

Can I take this moment to pass on my sympathies to Bob Hawke's family. He obviously had a life and a family that had its trials, tribulations and joys like all Australian families. But there is no question that we have lost a great Australian. I wish to pass on my sympathies and my condolences to the Hawke family.

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