Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

One of the great divides in Australian politics is attitude towards education. We see education as being about creating opportunity; those opposite see it as entrenching privilege. That's what we're voting on here today, because it isn't rich kids who'll be discouraged from going to university. It's not my son or the sons or daughters of other politicians. They can afford to go to university. It is those young people out there today who might be the first in their family to finish school and who are thinking about whether they will take up that opportunity—not whether they're smart enough, because they've got the marks to get into university, but whether they will go or not. For a working-class young person out there in the suburbs and the regional cities, a $58,000 debt at the end of that process is a real penalty to them.

The member for Bradfield, who I was on Sydney uni SRC with—he had the same personality then as he has now—used to speak in those days about the importance of access to education, but he doesn't anymore. All the children who get the opportunity—and good luck to them—to go to those GPS schools will be okay. It's the kids in the local high school or the local systemic Catholic school who will be disadvantaged and discouraged from going to university.

We on this side of the House support university education. We support TAFE. We support schools. And—guess what, folks?—we support early childhood education too. That's why that was at the centre of the budget reply just a week ago. We understand that, with education, you can begin at the beginning. What those opposite have done in ignoring child care and entrenching privilege in university is a double whammy at both ends of the spectrum. They've said, 'We're not going to give you the best start in life and we'll keep you down later on in life as well.'

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