Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to rise and speak on the Education Legislation Amendment (2021 Measures No. 2) Bill 2021. These measures seek to ensure or to extend Higher Education Loan Program, or HELP, eligibility to former permanent humanitarian visa holders. We all recognise in this place the value and importance of higher education, and particularly university education. This measure in particular allows those former permanent humanitarian visa holders who transition to a different visa, due to travelling outside of Australia, to retain their HELP eligibility.

I think the Higher Education Loan Program is a program that has been of enormous benefit and value to many, many people over many, many years in that it has given them the opportunity, particularly people on low to middle incomes or lower socioeconomic means, to have the capacity to go to university and study. I know in my electorate of Forde there are parts of my electorate where people, through their socioeconomic circumstances, wouldn't ordinarily be able to go to university, if they had to pay to do so. The HELP scheme has been so valuable to them.

For many of those who have come to Australia through our humanitarian program—in my electorate of Forde and, I would suggest, in that of the member for Moreton there are many people who have come to this country through our humanitarian program—the opportunity to take the step on that ladder of higher education is something that they had been would probably never have dreamt of in their home countries. To be given that opportunity here in Australia is of tremendous value, I think.

Logan City is home to people of some 217 different cultural backgrounds. I know we have a very significant number of people who have come here through the humanitarian program. The problem has been that if they go overseas and travel, the travel component of the permanent humanitarian visa ceases after a five-year period. If that permanent humanitarian visa holder travels outside of Australia after that time, they would lose eligibility or access to their HELP eligibility when they apply for a resident return visa to retain their permanent residency status. In this bill, we want to ensure that those HELP eligibility requirements are able to be maintained for those students to ensure they can continue to study and take advantage of the great education systems we have through our higher education institutions.

I'd like to use the opportunity to thank the team at Griffith University. I know the member for Moreton has the original campus of Griffith University at Nathan, but I also have their Logan campus. Also, many of those who live in the southern part of my electorate, in Upper Coomera or on the northern Gold Coast, would go to the Gold Coast campus of Griffith University. I know from my regular meetings with both campuses of the university about the wonderful work that they do in helping students from a wide range of backgrounds across our community to follow their dreams of obtaining a degree and going on to follow their dreams of a career in health, in medicine, in business and also in the science fields. Griffith University is a great example of what our higher education facilities provide across Australia.

For those who have come from overseas, we know that some 4,300 or more permanent humanitarian visa holders accessed the HELP loan scheme in 2019 alone, and I'm sure that there are many more outside of that. This measure ensures that this cohort continues to hold its HELP eligibility and that it aligns with the eligibility of other Australian residents.

In addition, the bill also makes minor technical amendments to the Higher Education Support Act, requiring higher education providers to refund upfront payments made by students and associated payments that are received from the Commonwealth in relation to a student's HELP loan where that loan has been re-credited under the Higher Education Support Act. It amends the definition of 'grandfathered student' to clarify that an ongoing course includes courses that have been restructured by a higher education provider and to ensure that students do not lose their status as grandfathered students as a result of the default by a provider. It also removes the requirement of conditions in part 2-3 that grant funding cannot be outlined in both the Other Grants Guidelines and ministerial determinations, and it also allows unspent grant amounts under parts 2-3 and 2-4 of the Higher Education Support Act to be rolled over automatically into the next calendar year unless otherwise determined by the secretary of the Department of Education, Skills and Employment. It also makes a technical correction to clarify that certain student protection provisions under the Higher Education Support Act refer to all assistance payable under chapter 3 of the Higher Education Support Act, rather than only FEE-HELP assistance, ensuring that these measures are extended to all providers, and it makes a series of other technical amendments, including to the Education Services for Overseas Students Act. It makes some minor amendments there.

More importantly, these amendments, helping out students and clarifying those measures, are a reflection more generally of the work that we are doing in the higher education space. If we look at our job-ready guarantee package, which is also looking to generate 30,000 additional university places in 2021 and up to 100,000 places by 2030, the most important part of that is the fact that this government is bringing down the cost of degrees in key areas. Under the job-ready guarantee package, we've already seen the cost of agriculture courses go down 59 per cent, the cost of maths degrees go down 59 per cent, the cost of nursing and teaching degrees go down 42 per cent, and the cost of science, engineering and IT degrees go down some 18 per cent. When I look at the Logan campus, which has a very heavy focus on nursing training, given its proximity to Logan Hospital, I am sure that the students at the Logan campus of Griffith University are particularly pleased to see the reduction in costs for them to do their degrees.

One of the things that I have spoken to the universities about is the importance of their relationship in engaging with the business community to ensure that their courses and their material are fit for purpose for the students when they leave study and enter the workforce.

I'm pleased to say there is an increasing amount of work being done by higher education facilities in engaging with the business community to ensure that there's a better link between what students are doing in their courses at university—from an academic point of view, but, equally, understanding and working in the business sector in which they're studying to get that practical experience at the same time as they're studying for their academic qualifications. Speaking recently to somebody who is doing exactly that, they found that the benefit of doing that helps them to not only better understand and apply the academic knowledge that they're learning, but it also gives them the opportunity to take back to the classroom that practical knowledge. They feel it gives them a more rounded view of their potential occupation after finishing study, and it's clarified for them that it's actually something they want to do and pursue long term.

That is a great benefit of those relationships and links, because we do know that there are numbers of students who get into their first year of their degree and discover that it is something they don't want to do. Even worse, there are some students who do a whole degree and then go into the workforce and don't wish to follow that career. If we can continue to see the universities and the business sector build those relationships, and ensure that students, when they come out of university, are satisfied that is the career that they want to pursue, there is far greater value to all concerned.

I commend this bill in its original form to the House. More importantly, I commend the work that this government continues to do with the higher education sector to ensure that students right around this country get the benefit of higher education, can pursue their goals and dreams and the careers that they wish to pursue for the future.

See this speech in context