Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia has a world-class university sector. From providing high-quality education to top-tier research which revolutionises the world in which we live, there is much to be proud of in our higher education sector. The minister has already stated that Australia was ranked fifth in the world for our human capital and research in the 2022 World Intellectual Property Organization's global innovation index. That is a great achievement for this country.

University staff and students across Australia do amazing and inspiring work, which, frankly, they aren't credited for nearly enough. However, there is still more work to be done and improvements to be made, not least in employment practices at our universities, with far too much university work casualised and that must change.

On the same global innovation index where we are leading on research, we are ranked just 37th for knowledge and technology outputs. We are not currently realising our full potential in university research but that is about to change. This bill will allow Australia to realise its full potential in the university research sector by providing much-needed support to bring research into the translation and commercialisation stage. The former government's university research commercialisation panel considered this problem and it recommended that a dedicated funding program was required to help higher education providers bridge the gap. This bill acts on that recommendation and makes it real. It is no good just talking about it; you've actually got to do it.

At its core, this bill establishes Australia's Economic Accelerator Program under the Higher Education Support Act. This new funding program will be targeted at supporting research translation and commercialisation within our universities, enabling our universities across Australia to apply for project funding to progress their projects to a commercial investor readiness state. This funding won't just focus on shovel-ready research projects but will also fill the gap in funding and support for projects that have high commercialisation, or are at proof-of-concept or proof-of-scale stage. This will open up research potential in ways that have never been done before and provide the ability for worthwhile projects to proceed on merit rather than being blocked at the gate due to an inability to find funding support.

This bill also provides legislative authority to establish a National Industry PhD Program. This will ensure that PhD candidates are equipped with the skills they need to better turn research at university into a range of commercialisation outcomes. This measure will be the bedrock of a new industry-led postgraduate program that will create a clear and structured pathway in innovation and research that is focused on commercialisation. This bill and these measures ensure that our world-leading researchers and our world-leading higher education sector can be better supported in the realisation of Australia's great innovative potential.

With this amendment to the act, universities listed on tables A and B will be eligible for the funding support described in this bill, including the University of Tasmania, which provides high-quality and world-renowned education. UTAS has three main campuses across Tasmania: Burnie in the north-west, Newnham in the north and Sandy Bay in the south—although that's a matter of conjecture now that Sandy Bay could be shifting into central Hobart, but that's probably an argument for another time. UTAS has a wide remit but is particularly well known for its focus on marine science and, increasingly, space science.

Last month I attended the launch of the upgraded space antenna at the UTAS Greenhill Observatory in my electorate. This $2 million communications antenna upgrade, supported by the Australian government and the Australian Space Agency's Space Infrastructure Fund, addresses the gap in national space infrastructure. It will speed up Australia's delivery of space based services and will increase our contribution to space science globally. I was very pleased to address the launch on behalf of the Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic. I spoke of the increasing importance of space science both commercially and strategically. UTAS, as part of its Southern Skies Network, provides radio and optical astronomy, as well as radio communications and geospatial modelling, via its network of space telescopes and antenna infrastructure across Australia, including in Western Australia and the Northern Territory. This shows the breadth and significance of university research in this area, which is of critical importance to Australia's future and to which UTAS, down there in Tasmania, is a leading contributor.

UTAS already has a highly respected research component, and now, under the Albanese government, it will be further supported so it can continue to provide world-leading research. Supporting UTAS benefits the people in my electorate, better enabling them to pursue careers in research and jobs that come with the commercialisation of such research. This government is offering Australians more education and career opportunities in higher education, and I am proud to play my part in that.

Labor has a proud history of supporting Australians to achieve higher education. It was Gough Whitlam who first made university education accessible to so many more Australians, a reform which gave so many working-class kids across our country the opportunity for higher education, something they had previously been denied due to the wealth bracket in which they were born. You've got to see what you can become, and, for the first time in Australia's history, more working-class kids could see that a pathway to higher education was open to them. They took that opportunity, and the country has been transformed as a result.

In 2009, the Rudd government ensured fair funding for universities by providing funding for every eligible student they teach, rather than through a system of rationed places. This provided a significant shift in funding, which led to a more student centred funding system. Julia Gillard, as Minister for Education, set a strong target in 2008: to increase the proportion of young people with a degree to 40 per cent by 2020. This target has been met, but it is now up to us, this generation, to ensure that the secondary target—that 20 per cent of people from disadvantaged backgrounds, including First Nations people, receive a higher education—is also achieved.

We don't support higher education just for the sake of it. Higher education leads to better-paying jobs and entryways into corporate and public leadership. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has reported that having qualifications relevant to a person's current job makes a significant difference to people's rates of underemployment. People who have not attained higher education are twice to be underemployed as those with a relevant qualification. They are also more likely to have lower weekly personal incomes than those with qualifications relevant to their jobs.

The Albanese government's Future Made in Australia Skills Plan, which we took to the 2022 federal election, will see up to 20,000 new university places delivered across Australia, mainly in the regions. In doing so, this government is tackling areas of skill shortage and securing future skills needs by training Australian students in jobs including engineering, nursing, tech and teaching. It's a plan that encapsulates the needs of today with the needs of tomorrow and ensures that Australia is on a strong footing for a productive and needs based workforce.

Of course, in providing this investment to universities and this focus on research, we are not leaving TAFE behind. The university places measure is part of the Australian government's $1.2 billion investment under the skills plan, of which the funding will also provide more than 465,000 free TAFE places, including 45,000 new places, particularly in areas of critical skill shortage. This will help to rebuild the industries hit hardest by COVID and meet future needs for multiple industries, including aged care, child care and nursing.

In stark contrast to the Labor Party's proud history in supporting and advocating for higher education, those opposite, I'm sorry to say, leave a history of deriding universities, of demeaning graduates and of dismissing the vital role that higher education plays in our society. Deputy Speaker, we all remember the Abbott government wanted young people in my electorate and yours, and everybody else's, to pay more than $100,000 for a university education. In the last parliament, they jacked up the price of many, many courses. The Liberals' continual attempted Americanisation of Australia's higher education sector has led to more debt for students, less job security for academics and a hollowed-out experience of university life.

In 2020, the Morrison government refused to offer support to the higher education sector during the COVID-19 pandemic by not expanding JobSeeker to include university staff. It was a terrible decision. As a result, the university sector was hit hard, particularly the people in it, and more than 17,000 people lost their jobs; 17,000 people whose jobs were teaching young people were given nothing by way of support—just a terrible, terrible waste. That's 13 per cent of Australia's pre-COVID university workforce. And now, of course, we want them back, and what a job it is getting them back into those jobs.

At the time, the president of the National Tertiary Education Union, Dr Alison Barnes, said:

The parents of Australia should be frankly really alarmed. You have got these figures of job losses coupled with the incredible reductions of courses, and that harms future generations of Australia. It harms anybody who is a school leaver, or who wants to retrain if they lose their job.

Despite those alarm bells and warnings from the sector, the former government never strayed from their agenda of taking a wrecking ball to higher education. They have an appalling history on higher education, for both universities and TAFE, not more towards the culture of higher education and what it can bring, what it means to have a higher education.

Before us today is a bill that will ensure the future capability and capacity of the university sector so that it can be realised in full. It will provide much-needed funding support that will commercialise research and ensure the future of higher education, innovation and research is upheld and entrenched in government policy. I go to the minister's second reading speech and note, very importantly, that 'funding will be targeted at projects which align with the priority areas identified in the government's National Reconstruction Fund'. I couldn't believe it when I read that those opposite are actually going to oppose this government's National Reconstruction Fund. It was a major plank of our election commitment. There's no surprise that we were going to do it. It's just unbelievable, frankly, that those opposite are opposing a national reconstruction fund that is going to do so much for our economy and our manufacturing sector.

My friend and colleague the Minister for Industry and Science introduced legislation to enable the establishment of a $15 billion fund, and he's described it as one of the largest peacetime investments in our country's manufacturing capability. If we are going to be serious about jobs and manufacturing in this country, we've got to get serious about this National Reconstruction Fund. I urge those opposite: rethink your position and get with the program.

The projects under the AEA program, which falls under this bill, will align with the priority areas of the National Reconstruction Fund. Things that will be included are value adding in resources, value adding in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, transport, medical science, renewables and low-emission technologies, defence capabilities and enabling capabilities across sectors like fintech, robotics, AI and quantum technologies.

I have no doubt that in the months and years ahead we're going to have members of the opposition getting up to say, 'Why isn't the government doing something about resources?' or 'Why isn't the government doing something about agriculture?' or 'Why isn't the government doing something about forestry and fisheries?' It's all here, a $15 billion fund to rebuild these industries, to rebuild manufacturing and capability in this country. Yet the Liberal and National parties are opposing it. I just cannot believe it. It must be politics that's driving their opposition, and frankly I don't even see the politics in it other than just opposing for opposition's sake. I urge those opposite to rethink their opposition to the National Reconstruction Fund. It's a great policy for the country going forward and for our economy.

I said at the beginning of the speech that we are currently ranked fifth in the world for our human capital and research, and that's a great outcome for a middle-tier country globally. But we lag badly behind, at 37th in the world for knowledge and technology outputs. Frankly, you can see why that's happened after a decade in which higher education and research were put on the backburner by the former government. This bill will ensure that we are able to bridge this gap and drive up our nation's capability to where it should be. Australia has been before and should be now a world leader in knowledge and technology outputs in the higher education sector, and the passage of this legislation will help us to do just that.

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