Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Morrison government is firmly committed to ensuring all Australians who are seeking higher education receive the full benefits of such an undertaking. An essential aspect of that is the development of critical, evaluative and independent thinking. I know this through my experience as a university professor who has supervised dozens of PhD, masters and honours students and taught hundreds of advanced medical trainees. It's not just important but essential to the maturation of a student to be a curious and critical thinker. It is important to be able to inquire and discover new ideas, without limitations on that free exchange of ideas. We need to ensure that our universities are free and engaging places where freedom of speech is not limited but celebrated, as it is within the broader Australian community. Universities are important institutions where ideas are debated and challenged. We must ensure our universities are places that protect free speech, even when what is being said may be unpopular or challenging. The best university education is one where students are taught to think for themselves, and protecting freedom of speech is how to guarantee that.

This bill will provide stronger protections for academic freedom and freedom of speech in Australia. It builds on the recommendations from the Report of the Independent Review of Freedom of Speech in Australian Higher Education Providers, conducted by former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia the Hon. Robert French AC. Professor Sally Walker AM, former Vice-Chancellor of Deakin University and former Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, was recently asked to report on adoption of the model code. Her report found that only nine of Australia's 45 universities are fully aligned with French's code. Eighteen are mostly or partly aligned, six have policies that fail entirely to meet the model code and another eight may or may not be working to meet the code. One simply didn't respond. Noting her disappointment, Professor Walker highlighted that we need to create a culture of freedom of expression in universities, not just tell them about the policy. She put it well when she said in her report to government in December:

Everyone knows that sometimes they're going to write something that is controversial, and sounds like a heresy, although we know that today's heresies are tomorrow's orthodoxy—at least sometimes.

Professor Walker also said:

Some universities' leaders think that academic freedom and freedom of speech are so axiomatic in their institutions that there's no need to have a policy … they probably think that it's a problem for other universities, not theirs.

As a former university CEO, Professor Walker believes that a code or policy on freedom of expression is important and gives confidence to both staff and students. The code is a first step, but, of course, the institutions responsible for delivering the code themselves need to embrace its values. Places of higher education need to understand that, in order to educate our students about academic freedom and freedom of expression, they need to do more than just have a policy. They need to provide a culture of freedom of expression.

Professor Walker agrees with French's findings that freedom of expression on Australian campuses is a matter of public concern. I repeat that: it's a matter of public concern. That is why the Morrison government is endeavouring to create, as a first and necessary step, this bill. A robust education that provides resilient learners is the best way to create opportunity. Our education system needs to continue to respond to the increased challenges of the 21st century. Work is rapidly being automated and digitised; it's changing faster than ever. Graduating students will need to be able to continue lifelong, self-directed learning. That is why free and independent thinking is so critical to a higher education.

This bill is built on a long and engaged consultative process undertaken by the Hon. Robert French, who led the review on a cooperative and consultative basis, respecting the long-held and valued institutional autonomy of Australia's universities. The focus of the review was to assess the effectiveness of university policies and practices to address the requirements of the Higher Education Standards Framework to promote and protect freedom of expression and intellectual inquiry on Australian campuses. Between November 2018 and March 2019, Mr French undertook a two-stage stakeholder consultation process seeking stakeholder views on the review terms of reference and a draft model code. These stakeholders included all universities, student representative groups, higher education provider peak bodies and the national higher education regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, or TEQSA.

The French model code sets out a framework for universities that protects freedom of speech and academic freedom as paramount values of Australian universities. The amendments contained in this legislation are one of three key elements in the government's commitment to strengthening protections for academic freedom and freedom of speech in Australian higher education.

This bill will provide a new definition of 'academic freedom' that enshrines in law principles of freedom of expression that are an essential part of the life of our universities, both for academic staff and students. Firstly, the bill will substitute the existing term 'free intellectual inquiry' in relevant provisions with the terms 'freedom of speech' and 'academic freedom', to align the language with Mr French's proposed model code. The second element involves working with and supporting universities to align their policy frameworks with Mr French's model code. All universities have undertaken to adopt the model code—even though some have not yet—in a way that is consistent with their individual legislative frameworks. Professor Walker's findings demonstrate why this cannot be a voluntary adoption.

A third element is focused on supporting the work of institutions and TEQSA to monitor compliance with relevant quality standards. Work to implement this model needs to continue across our university sector. These amendments are necessary to ensure consistency between the legislation and university statutes, and to support regulators and universities alike in promoting academic freedom and freedom of speech in higher education campuses across Australia. In my first speech, I said the following:

But learning doesn't stop when you finish school, or TAFE or university, and we need to support a system of continuous learning. As our third-highest export, our higher education system needs support and investment to capitalise on its excellence. I will fight to defend academic freedoms.

Empowering individuals through education and ensuring our health ensures our society itself is healthy and prosperous. More than that, the health of our institutions is essential to the health of a good society.

The Morrison government considers that adoption of the French model code is the first and most effective means to ensure Australia's higher education providers are supported to uphold freedom of speech and academic freedom, protecting Australia's reputation for quality higher education. We need the higher education sector to lean into these concepts. We are respected internationally as honest brokers, whether academically or diplomatically. This authenticity is part of brand Australia. Academic freedom provides an essential yet almost indefinable quality of brand Australia.

The Morrison government wants to ensure that, while Australia's higher education providers are supported to uphold freedom of speech and academic freedom and to protect Australia's reputation for quality higher education, we are also backing them financially to deliver support to ensure we have job-ready Australians. Funding to universities is at a record high, with over $18 billion invested in 2020, increasing to around $20 billion in 2024 under our Job-ready Graduates Package. This is big business. The Job-ready Graduates Package will create up to 30,000 new Commonwealth supported places in 2021 and 100,000 by 2030. This is necessary, because, as we know, when there is an economic crisis there's a countercyclical response in the education sector. This is particularly important to our economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, so we're ensuring that Australians are ready for 21st century jobs of the future, where, essentially, critical thinking and independent thinking will be valued in the work sector. We know, for instance, that modern manufacturing will rely more and more on different ways of doing things, more innovative ways of doing things and smarter way of doing things, and we need our job-ready graduates to be ready to embrace the work of the future.

Every Australian has a right to a great education. It should be acknowledged it is a collective as well as an individual undertaking which is underpinned by open discussion and critical debate. This bill expressly recognises that academic staff need freedom to teach, test and challenge the body of knowledge and to promulgate ideas. That is what academic expression is about. Academic freedom is a necessary corollary of the exercise of the right to education by facilitating the free flow of information, ensuring academics can exchange ideas to challenge, provoke and interrogate accepted positions. That is what science has always been about. That is what academic endeavour has always been about. It's about challenging, pushing forward and questioning. As many of us know in this House, debate is vital. It is sometimes heated, but ultimately discussion generally leads to better outcomes and more insightful findings.

As a scientist, I've always championed scientific solutions to the challenges we face, and never has that been more clear than in the COVID-19 pandemic. Australians and, indeed, people around the world recognise the way challenging the orthodoxies, challenging to push into the future, has come up with solutions such as the COVID vaccine which just yesterday commenced its rollout here in Australia. These ideas and the willingness of scientists to challenge, question and seek to do the impossible have delivered the most amazing outcomes for humans and for humanity. Science is a contest of ideas, just like politics, and in both cases we are the servants of the taxpayer. Disagreement is part of being a scientist, as is it for politics. As our Prime Minister is apt to say, we don't need to disagree less as a parliament; we just need to disagree better. So too, in the universities, people need to be able to disagree respectfully. Limiting freedom of speech is essentially limiting debate, and if we limit debate we limit progress. I commend this bill to the House.

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