Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As I indicated earlier this afternoon with respect to this bill, the Education Legislation Amendment (2020 Measures No. 1) Bill 2020, Labor has indicated that it won't oppose the bill. There are a lot of straightforward measures contained within it, particularly around full-fee-paying university students having a 25 per cent loans fee waived for six months due to coronavirus. The bill also includes a range of other provisions that are largely technical in nature, extending the unique student identifier regime to all higher education students by requiring students commencing from 1 January 2021—and all students from 1 January 2023—to have a USI in order to be eligible for Commonwealth assistance under the HESA scheme, and all VET student loan recipients from 1 January 2021. We've also welcomed the fee relief that the bill provides for—such as it is—for that small proportion of full-fee paying undergraduate students that a six-month waiver in loan fees will provide. There are a number of different things in this bill that we've been quite happy with.

But, as I said in the contribution that I made earlier, we are concerned that, at a time where we need to be building up the range of skills of Australian students, both younger and older, we need to see more of an investment in those skills—be it through the tertiary pathway or through the VET vocational pathway. This is particularly true—and a number of contributors from this side of the House have focused on this—of the major skills shortages that exist within the tech sector, where we do not have enough skills and where we import a lot of skill simply because there aren't Australians with the skill set that is required by the tech sector in this country. While it's noted that we don't have enough people going through the tertiary sector to gain those skills in areas of high demand, particularly right now in the artificial intelligence area, we should be looking at what other countries are doing—for example, in the UK, where they are quite open about funding more PhDs in the artificial intelligence arena to ensure that they've got the skills to compete in that space. I notice that Professor Toby Walsh of UNSW has been saying publicly that we should be doing that. It's something that I've argued in recent weeks that we should be doing. We're losing a lot of talent to either China or the US because people feel that they don't have any options here—that their skills aren't being valued and aren't being put to use, in an area where we need to do that. We do need to see more of that happen. I absolutely agree that we should be funding more there, not just in the tertiary arena but in VET, where we should be encouraging more skills development in the information, communications and technology arenas, and we're simply not doing that. It is stunning to me that, at a time when businesses are crying out for skills, they can't get them. We're not investing enough here and, with the borders being shut, we've got a lot of firms that are unable to access talent that can come in from overseas now as well. It's a big issue.

I also notice that in this bill there is provision for some consequential or some straightforward procedural changes to allow for the University of Western Sydney to rename itself Western Sydney University. I am the first graduate of what is now Western Sydney University who has been able to serve in the House of Reps. I'm very proud of my old university. I'm proud of the fact that the Hawke reforms of the late eighties allowed for the emergence of the then University of Western Sydney. The then minister, John Dawkins, pioneered and argued for a lot of the colleges of advanced education to be converted into universities so that we would have an increase in school retention rates. That is something that people on this side of the House are very proud of. Bob Hawke championed those retention rates going up so that, instead of three out of 10 kids, we would have seven out of 10 finishing year 12. If you have that lift in retention rates you will hopefully see that extend into tertiary education, and you need to have the institutions of learning in those areas where you see greater growth, so the Hawke government championed that occurring in my part of the world. We saw retention rates increase, and then we saw more kids going on to university. The old Nepean College of Advanced Education was converted in part into the University of Western Sydney. I first attended the Kingswood campus, and then they opened Werrington and brought in Hawkesbury. These were important moves. We saw a big investment in tertiary education in my part of Western Sydney, which was fantastic.

The University of Western Sydney, now Western Sydney University, has grown, but I have to say that I am concerned that it is not growing in accordance with the growth that we've seen in our part of the world. It is a matter of deep concern to me that Western Sydney University did not take up the opportunity to set up a stronger presence within the local government area of Blacktown, which is one of the biggest LGAs in the country. More students leave this local government area to go to campuses outside of the Blacktown area. Western Sydney University has spectacularly failed to provide a campus in our area. I note the presence of the member for Berowra because of his connection to the university I'm about to mention. I have to say that it was quite stunning, though welcome, that the Australian Catholic University, to its great credit, has agreed to open a campus in Blacktown. I am impressed by that. Given that the member for Berowra has an association with that university, I speak very highly of ACU for their commitment to making an investment in the future of the young people of Blacktown and to doing that. But, to their great credit, they're not just limiting themselves to the central business district of Blacktown. They are, for example, committed to doing outreach in parts of the Chifley electorate such as Mount Druitt to ensure that kids in Mount Druitt are encouraged to take on tertiary education. ACU is making the commitment to do that in our part of Western Sydney, and it is simply staggering to me that Western Sydney University does not do that and did not have that faith.

I am genuinely concerned that what has happened is that Western Sydney University has focused principally on Parramatta, which is now at the edge of where the bulk of growth is happening in Western Sydney. They've had some focus in south-west Sydney, but other universities are now coming in and recognising the potential of the region and are investing in it. I have to question why the leadership of Western Sydney University is letting the grass grow under its feet in such spectacular fashion.

We have 200,000 people that are moving into north-west Sydney. While the Hawkesbury campus, which is largely focused, importantly, on agriculture, is doing tremendously and has had a legacy and proud tradition of a lot of work in this area, I don't think Western Sydney University has flagged any intent to expand or provide an additional campus in the north-west growth sector where 200,000 people, as I said before, are moving in. I don't think there's any real plan—and I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong—to expand vocational education within that part of Western Sydney. Specifically, I'm talking about Marsden Park through to Schofields and Riverstone. I actually think this is the Bermuda Triangle of Sydney development. You've got 200,000 people moving into that part of Western Sydney, and yet there's very little focus on providing the supporting infrastructure or services in that area.

I note the presence of the shadow infrastructure minister, who I've spoken with about improving infrastructure in that part of Western Sydney, but we also need to see hospitals built. The New South Wales government has said that it'll build a hospital in north-west Sydney around Rouse Hill. We'll be interested to see when that actually occurs. We need to see additional services—for example, the building of further schools so that we have educational support for those 200,000 people that are moving into north-west Sydney so that their kids can go on to secondary schools that also need to be built. We need to have TAFEs or vocational education providers, plus a university campus in that part of north-western Sydney to make sure that we've got education and training happening right there on the ground. I'm genuinely concerned Western Sydney uni will be absent from all that. They will just focus on Parramatta and south-west Sydney, and they'll completely neglect north-west Sydney.

We can have some consequential amendments, as are delivered in this bill, sure, and we can facilitate the name change getting recognised, terrific. But Western Sydney University has to be more than a name. It cannot just say it's Western Sydney in name and not fulfil the ambition that drove its creation in the first place, which is to ensure that young people in our part of the world can defy the low expectations that are set because there's this belief that the socioeconomics won't justify the investment. That is just patent garbage. There are a lot of young people in our part of the world that have a lot of talent and need to have that talent twinned with a serious investment by governments at federal and state level—and, in particular, institutions like Western Sydney University—to make that a reality. And I would call on Barney Glover, who heads up Western Sydney University, to demonstrate his commitment to growth in our part of Western Sydney and to show us what his plans are.

Western Sydney does have a presence at the old Nirimba site, but it's largely administrative. Again, if that has changed and I haven't kept track of it, I'm more than happy to be corrected. I'm happy to be wrong but, if I'm right and it's not there, that has to be fixed. Certainly, Western Sydney uni can do that and should do that. Because at the moment, all I see is a lot of focus on Parramatta, a lot of focus, potentially, on Bankstown and a lot of focus on south-west Sydney. But, again, this whole group of people, this huge residential growth in north-west Sydney, is being neglected.

It's not good enough, and I'm absolutely committed to standing up for people within the Chifley electorate but also in the surrounding areas, joining up with people, to make sure that young people's ambitions are not neglected and that we do make the proper investment in their future and in our area to ensure that we've got the talent there. It needs to be backed up by economic opportunity, if we get the infrastructure right, and the bringing of businesses into that part of the world so that we have local jobs for local people and the local jobs are actually filled with people who've been trained up either through TAFEs or universities in that part of the world. There is absolutely no excuse for that not to happen now. I would rather us make the investment at this point in time instead of playing catch-up down the track. The test is whether or not Western Sydney will continue to have other universities—like the Australian Catholic University, like the University of Wollongong, which is nipping at their heels, or the University of New South Wales or the University of Sydney—coming into Western Sydney to do the job that Western Sydney University won't do. It's an absolute tragedy that that's occurring, but that's competition, and if it spurs Western Sydney to do better, than I'm all for it.

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