Russell Broadbent (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This morning, in the Federation Chamber, I spoke about opportunity in adversity, and this bill reflects exactly what I was talking about. This nation is in an adverse position because of COVID, and we have many issues confronting us. I outlined some of those issues today, as to how Australia should respond and take the opportunities that may present themselves in the adversity that the nation faces.

The Education Legislation Amendment (2021 Measures No. 1) Bill 2021 amends the Australian Research Council Act 2001 to ensure the Australian Research Council, the ARC, can continue to support and serve Australia's vibrant research community. The Australian Research Council is fundamental to the support of both blue-sky and applied research, and its peer-reviewed competitive funding schemes are the essence of many of the most significant research endeavours in the country. This appropriation bill increases the Australian Research Council's funding caps in line with inflation and ensures that government support for thousands of research projects does not weaken. If we are to address the great challenges of our time to improve the quality of people's lives, to support the development of new industries and to remain competitive in the global knowledge economy, then we need a strong research community. This bill is underwriting that strength.

Although routine in nature, the Australian Research Council Act is updated annually. In the past, the ARC amendment bill has proven non-controversial and forms part of the standard budget process. There has been continued and repeated bipartisan support and recognition for all schemes under the National Competitive Grants Program, which will support the Australian higher education system and strengthen Australia's research workforce. The bill makes funding adjustments to the Australian Research Council Act in order to: (1) facilitate the ongoing operation of the Australian Research Council; (2) update the special appropriation funding cap administered by the ARC to include policy approvals and indexation adjustments; and (3) extend the forward estimates through to June 2024 for existing schemes within the National Competitive Grants Program to allow continued funding of quality research in Australia.

This routine update to the Australian Research Council funding caps provides inflationary growth so that the government can continue to support thousands of individual research projects. These projects represent the cutting edge of Australia's research effort undertaken in universities and research institutes across the country. These efforts have also been part of the Australian response to the COVID virus. In July last year, a research team from Monash University and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology developed a test to detect positive COVID cases in about 20 minutes and identify whether someone has contracted the virus. As early as March last year, research teams at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research developed the first wide-ranging global assessment of the effects of the COVID virus to help policymakers prepare a coordinated response to the economic costs of a pandemic as the virus evolves. These Australian Research Council funded research examples are helping us to qualify and understand the transformative effect that COVID is having on people's lives and workplaces, not to mention the thousands of other projects funded by the ARC. Any delay in passing this bill will negatively impact on the ARC's available funding envelope and will influence new grant payments moving forward.

This is an important legislative bid which will advance our efforts to build a more prosperous Australia through innovation. Excellent researchers across all areas of the university system rely on the ongoing nature of ARC funding and must be able to compete, with some certainty, for funding if we are to keep world-class academics in Australia working in our universities and teaching the next generation of researchers.

The Education Legislation Amendment (2021 Measures No. 1) Bill 2021 also amends the Higher Education Support Act 2003 to swiftly implement the government's 2020-21 MYEFO decision to recategorise the University of Notre Dame as a table A provider. Providers listed in table A of the act are eligible for all Australian government grants, and their students can receive all forms of assistance under the act. This recategorisation will allow UNDA—the University of Notre Dame—to better serve its students, as they currently perform on a par with table A providers: (1) the UNDA's domestic bachelor student load has been similar to or greater than that of other table A providers; and (2) according to a 2018 to 2020 graduate outcomes survey, 88.7 per cent of the University of Notre Dame's graduates found employment within four months of graduation, exceeding the national average of 86.3 per cent. In a 2019-20 course experience questionnaire, the University of Notre Dame also rated significantly higher for graduate satisfaction, at 91 per cent, versus the national average of 80.4 per cent.

With the UNDA as a table A provider, all non-medical domestic undergraduate students at the UNDA will have access to Commonwealth supported places. The University of Notre Dame will also have access to the Job-Ready Graduates package; to reforms such as the National Priorities and Industry Linkage Fund, which will support better university-industry engagement; to demand-driven funding for its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students; and to Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program funding. This funding helps to improve access for people from regional and remote Australia, people with low-SES backgrounds and Indigenous students—all of whom, of course, are close to my heart. HEPPP also helps to improve the retention and completion rates of those students. These changes will be in place from 2021. In the MYEFO 2020-21, the government committed to investing $27.2 million over the four years from 2020-21 and $133.3 million over the 10 years to 2029-30, to support the University of Notre Dame 's current and future students.

The university and its community fully support the recategorisation of this university as a table A provider. Until this legislation passes, I'm putting transitional arrangements in place to ensure that UNDA students have access to Commonwealth-supported places in time for semester 1 of 2021. However, this bill needs to be introduced in autumn 2021's sitting period to give the University of Notre Dame access to the full Job-Ready Graduates reforms as soon as possible in 2021. This will better position the university to serve its community and meet the challenges of the future.

On that last line—meeting the challenges of the future—for the last 25 years Australia's had a pretty good run. Our universities have had a good run. Our economy has been a powerhouse that has led the world in many aspects of what we're doing, and this government has been able to capitalise, on behalf of the Australian people, on that general benefit that came to this nation. However, we hit a T-intersection last year and it was called COVID-19. The government acted quickly to move on every front it possibly could for the benefit, wholly, of the Australian people, of the nation. But now we have a challenge before us, and part of this legislation that outlines research capacity means that these researchers are on the front line for our recovery. They're on the frontline for our future. We need every researcher working for us, on behalf of us.

There were times when we as a nation found ourselves not able to deliver for our people the way we should have been able to because of our reliance on international supply chain deliveries. I just name drugs for one. For the common drugs that we need—for instance, blood pressure drugs and all sorts of normal-activity drugs that make life better for older Australians and some younger Australians—we found that all those generic drugs were being produced somewhere else. These researchers can take us to a place where we as a nation will become far more resilient, with the supply chains that we need within the nation so we can deliver to other countries in times of stress, such as now.

It flows on even to other things. We found that we were relying on other nations for our merchant shipping. It is time for us to have our own fleet. It is time for us to look to ourselves through these research programs and through lots of other measures and activities. I'm sure the innovative and inventive nature of Australians and the research that we undertake will make a huge difference to how we recover and where we find ourselves in five, 10, 20 and 30 years. We as a nation have the responsibility as people with our backs to the wall to do what our forefathers did. Our forefathers were innovative and creative and they gave us this amazing nation we have today which is more resilient because of these researchers than we would otherwise be. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this very important bill.

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