Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that the Government's Job-ready Graduates Package is getting more Australians into the degrees that will get them the skills and qualifications to get a job;

(2) further notes that the latest data shows there are more Australians studying at university than ever before;

(3) recognises that the largest increases in new enrolments are for courses made cheaper by the Job-ready Graduates Package; and

(4) notes that the Government is providing a record $20 billion investment in the higher education sector in 2021.

When that final school bell rings and our high-school years come to an end, we make what is possibly one of the hardest decisions of our lives. At school we all had much the same subjects to choose from—English, maths, science, physical education and so on. It was a daily routine we all stuck to. But, when we leave school, our lives are our own and we must forge our own paths. Some people might decide to take up a trade and some might decide to go straight to university while others might hold off on university and travel the world. Whatever you choose to do in this country is okay.

These days there are many pathways towards your ultimate career goal. For those people who choose to attend university and get a degree, the Morrison government is creating more opportunities and programs that will provide the best opportunity of getting a job upon graduation. The Job-ready Graduates Package is creating up to 30,000 additional university places in 2021 and bringing down the cost of degrees in key areas. This is just the first step in our plan to create up to 100,000 extra university places by 2030, which will pave the way for even more opportunities for our school leavers and job-ready graduates.

Degrees are expensive, and we understand that it's not easy to pay for your university degree straight out of school, particularly for those people who are unable to be supported by their parents. Even if a student chooses to take out a HECS-HELP loan, that money has to be paid back eventually. The last thing we as a government want is for a young person to rack up a three- to four-year university debt and graduate with a degree that has very little likelihood of helping them find work. That debt can follow a person around for years or even decades.

We also want to reduce the chances of having skills shortages now and in the future, particularly in emerging industries. We want our university graduates to have the best chance of getting work once their studies have been completed, and the way to do that is to steer them towards studying for industries that need workers.

One way to entice people into these programs is by lowering their cost. Under the Job-ready Graduates Package the cost of an agriculture degree is down by 59 per cent. The cost of a maths degree is also down by 59 per cent. The cost of a nursing or teaching degree has gone down by 42 per cent. The cost of a science, engineering or IT degree has gone down by 18 per cent. Importantly, we are already seeing evidence that the Job-ready Graduates Package is getting more Australians into the degree that will get them the skills and qualifications they require in order to get a job. In fact, the data from our universities has shown that the largest increases in new university enrolments are for courses in these in-demand fields. The University of Queensland has offered double the number of places in its agriculture program.

In my electorate of Longman, the University of the Sunshine Coast, with campuses at Caboolture and Petrie, offers a wide range of these key programs right on our doorstep. In fact, more Australians are now studying the courses that will give them the best chance of getting into a job. Commencements are up 14 per cent in science, 13 per cent in IT, 10 per cent in engineering, 14 per cent in agriculture, 11 per cent in education and eight per cent in health.

We are providing a record $20.4 billion investment in higher education in 2021, while funding is up more than 37 per cent since we came to government. We are now seeing the results of our policies. Australia's unemployment rate has fallen to 4.9 per cent under the Morrison government, which is the lowest it has been in a decade. Youth unemployment is at its lowest rate in 12 years. I am so pleased that a commonsense approach has been used and that university funding is now demand driven, rather than the old model where students were graduating and in some cases were never able to use the degree they worked so hard for, as there were no jobs in that field. This government will continue to back Australians to get into a job now and into the future.

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