Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I could not feel more strongly that this legislation, the Higher Education Support Amendment (Job-Ready Graduates and Supporting Regional and Remote Students) Bill 2020, is the wrong direction for our country. It's a tax on students. It's a knowledge tax on Australia, and it says a lot about this government that this is its priority in the middle of a pandemic.

First they denied JobKeeper to universities, sending people to the unemployment queues because universities could not afford to keep their staff on the books. That was a decision of this government. Now they are proposing to increase fees for education and give less money to our higher education institutions—all in one piece of legislation. Fairness and opportunity should be the values that drive our work in this place—no-one held back, no-one left behind. This legislation does hold Australians back. It holds them back in the middle of the first recession in 30 years. It leaves behind people who find that university is too expensive. It is a war on our universities—a war that, in my view, the Liberal Party have been raging every time they are on the government benches.

I noticed the contribution from the member for Higgins—'no current students'. She was at pains to stress that no current student would pay these fees, because the government know that students are worried about the fee increases that will come as a result of this legislation. The reality is that, while they say 'no current students', from next year we'll have students sitting side by side in humanities classes who'll be paying different rates of fees. Some will be paying more than 100 per cent more than the student that they are sitting right next to.

As the member for Sydney really appropriately pointed out, this legislation is being debated in this place at the worst possible time for year 12 students across Australia. Year 12 students in my electorate, and indeed in every one of the 151 electorates in Australia, have had an incredibly stressful year. Already, they feel like they don't know what the opportunities are going to look like next year. They don't know what their world looks like next year. The government's solution to that is to say: 'Well, let's just pile uncertainty on top of uncertainty.' I also noticed the member for Higgins paid tribute to Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard for reducing university fees. If you want to copy the Rudd and Gillard governments for making it more affordable for people to go to university, be me guest; however, we will not let you get away with increasing fees for students at the worst possible time.

I'm pleased the Labor Party is opposing this bill. The University of Western Australia have publicly stated that this legislation will cut their revenue by three to four per cent—a three to four per cent reduction in their gross revenue. It does make it more difficult for students to go to university. It makes it more expensive for students to go to university. On average, students will pay seven per cent more for their degree. That's a pretty hefty tax to whack on higher education.

Some 40 per cent of students, however, will see their fees increase to $14,500 a year. That's doubling the cost for thousands of students. A law and a commerce degree will increase by 28 per cent, and the cost of a humanities course will go up 113 per cent. I studied humanities at Curtin University and business at the University of Western Australia. I am very happy to be standing up for students who are studying the courses that I studied a decade or more ago.

We know universities are already taking huge whacks to their operating revenue. Former UWA Vice-Chancellor Jane den Hollander—someone who I got to know when she was a deputy vice-chancellor at Curtin University, a great Australian—says they will face a funding shortfall this year of some $64 million. Curtin University Vice-Chancellor Deborah Terry says that their revenue will be down $60 million on what it's budgeted, and this legislation makes the challenge for them all the more hard. Today we saw the ABC, a great broadcasting institution, get information leaked out of Curtin University that they are going to cut $41 million worth of staff wages next year. They are looking at potential forced redundancies. These things are all happening while the government continues to press along with this legislation.

I was out at Curtin University a few weeks ago talking to Hana Arai, the Curtin Student Guild president. They were in the middle of their virtual O-Week. Most of us in this place probably got a pretty good in-person university experience. New students are having to start their courses and their education entirely online—and that's a legitimate choice for many people to make—so if they wanted a real university experience they're having a really tough time. They were saying one of the most stressful things for new students is the uncertainty around fees going forward. Indeed some students had brought forward their studies to get ahead of any changes that the government might make.

If you think about young people in Australia right now, they are having an absolutely terrible time. We criticise Senator Colbeck a lot in this place at the moment for his failures on aged care. The reality is: he is also the minister for youth. We have no youth strategy—we've had no youth strategy for seven years under this government. The things they've done for our young people are pretty rotten. We've got 140,000 fewer trainees and apprentices than when this government came into office. In July the ABS labour force figures show that we now have a million Australians unemployed and 345,000 of them are young Australians. We have the highest youth unemployment in decades because of this recession. We have young people starting out with the least secure financial footing in generations. They've been forced to raid their superannuation, what little superannuation they've been able to accumulate, and now the government's going to cut down the superannuation guarantee, giving them even less in their future.

We know we've got record youth unemployment. We know they've put a huge dent in their superannuation. We know that young people are going to be saddled with paying back government debt for decades. Again, I come back to this knowledge tax that the government has proposed. Most people in this place believe in an equitable education system. In the past I've been one of those people who've said I'd love education to be free. I recognise that that's probably out of reach, but to go in the direction we are now going at this time in Australia's economic situation is wrong.

My parents went to university for free. In fact, if they hadn't gone to university for free, I don't know if they'd ever have met, so I'm very grateful to the Whitlam government and Kim Beazley Sr, who made that possible. They studied education. They spent their lives as primary schoolteachers; they spent their lives educating others. And I take this opportunity to give a shout out to Ron and Wendy, aka Mum and Dad, and to all teachers in Australia who do a great job and, in particular, have done an immensely difficult job this year in dealing with the challenges of delivering learning via remote and other mechanisms. So you don't need to tell me that education is an investment—an investment in the next generation.

The first time I ever walked into this building, in fact, was to campaign against the Howard government's 25 per cent fee increase. That was a long, long time ago, back when an arts degree cost only $12,000. Under this legislation, that same arts degree could cost $45,000.

When I spoke to a bunch of university students in Western Australia about this tax and this legislation, I talked to them about the history of education in Australia. I said, 'There's a great, proud Western Australian story about making higher education more accessible to Australians.' Kim Beazley Sr was 27 years old when he entered the federal parliament. As we in this place know, he was able to enter the federal parliament because of the tragic death of John Curtin, a great Western Australian and a great Australian. Kim Beazley Sr entered the parliament at 27 years old. It was another 27 years until he became Minister for Education in the Whitlam government. It was Kim Beazley Sr who delivered the education package. I will never forget that it was a Western Australian who made that possible, and I credit the Beazley family in no small part with my parents meeting at university in Western Australia.

This government has missed the opportunity, time and time again, to step in and help universities save jobs. The university sector itself estimates that some 21,000 staff will lose their jobs because of falling international student revenue and the lack of support through JobKeeper—21,000 staff ripped out of our higher education institutions. The knowledge that leaves those institutions when those staff walk out the door—we will probably only recognise the full impact of that in the years and decades to come. We know that the Group of Eight universities have actually stood up to this government and criticised this government's 'knowledge tax', saying:

… the legislation will force universities to teach more students with less funding.

The legislation will force universities to teach more students with less funding. Modelling by the group shows that, in 2024, universities will be expected to teach an additional 5,000 full-time students, with a decrease in base funding of $92 million—that is, ripping out $92 million and pumping 5,000 more students into the system. Even the chancellor of the Australian National University, someone whom we used to know in this place as the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Julie Bishop, has raised concerns about the legislation. I would be interested to know if the current member for Curtin will be speaking on the legislation, given her well-regarded work as a former vice chancellor at the University of Notre Dame. But I wish it were just universities this government cut when it came to education—child care, TAFE, apprenticeships. It's all part of a pattern, a 20-year long agenda of trying to privatise universities. And, if this legislation goes through, who knows what this government will then do to our TAFEs and our vocational sector over time.

My community is very worried about this legislation. More than 800 people in Perth have signed my petition against the knowledge tax. It says:

We call on the Morrison Government to Stop the Knowledge Tax, cancel its increase fees for humanities, law and commerce degrees, and properly fund our universities.

In the Perth electorate, there is strong support for our universities. We've received messages in response to that petition, and I'm just going to share a few pieces of commentary that have come through to my office. Maia says:

Australia will benefit from building a country that understands diversity; is able to think critically; and has skilled, knowledgeable and diverse communication skills. The Humanities contribute to a better future.

Sky wrote:

These changes will not only discourage low-income students from studying important areas, they will undermine the quality of education across the tertiary sector.

Helen wrote to me:

We should be keeping educational horizons open and free from political interference. We need creative, critical thinkers at this time more than ever. Give youth choice so they can be contributors to the future.

Liz said:

The message these fees send is not the one we want our young people to receive. Valuing one area of education should not lead to devaluing of another. All strengths with individuals should be valued. Every individual should be valued.

I thought: '"Every individual should be valued"—where have I heard that before? Isn't it the foundational principle of the Liberal Party of Australia that every individual should be valued?' Yet they are now saying that some individuals and the things that they choose to study and apply their life to are not as important as others, and that is wrong. I have had a total so far of 800 signatures, and the number keeps climbing. I was going to read in the names of all the people that signed the petition, because I published them in the Perth Voice, a great local independent newspaper in my electorate, but I will spare people on both sides of the chamber from that 800-person list of names.

I'll finish by just reminding people that Labor has a proud history of investing in university education. We invested so that an additional 190,000 Australians could get a place at university when we changed to demand-driven funding. We boosted investment in universities from $8 billion when Labor last came to office, in 2007, to $14 billion when Labor left office in 2013. As a result of those changes, financially disadvantaged student enrolments increased by 66 per cent. Those opposite can never claim that they did some sort of transformation like this. Indeed, we will see those sorts of numbers go backwards under the Liberal Party's knowledge tax. This is bad legislation, and this House should not pass it.

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