Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

Education is the great enabler, and, indeed, it is very much a component of society which enables people to be their best selves. Certainly, we want the very best outcomes for our regional students. At the outset, I want to pay tribute, as the member for Blair just did, to that new committee being set up and the work that Fiona Nash will do on that committee, as well as Jenny Macklin AC—congratulations to her on her recent award in the honours. I also want to pay special tribute to Samantha Beresford, Head of Government Relations and Regional Engagement at Charles Sturt University. Indeed, the work at Wagga Wagga and other campuses is making students, creating students and giving our best and brightest students wonderful opportunities that they would otherwise potentially and possibly not have.

I'm very pleased as well that the amendments, very important as they are, to the Higher Education Support Amendment (Response to the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report) Bill 2023 have been moved by two regional members—the member for Barker and the member for Parkes, both of whom have large electorates in South Australia and New South Wales, respectively, and both of whom know that young people—and some not so young—in their electorates deserve the very best and the very same opportunities that, indeed, are afforded to those who seek higher education in metropolitan areas.

I've said many times that the HECS loan, the Higher Education Contribution Scheme loan, is the best loan you'll ever get. Indeed, that is true. I know that the threshold in February 2021 was $46,620 before you started paying it back. I know also that this can be something that is like lead in the saddlebags for those people who are just entering the workforce, particularly in this time where there is difficulty with the cost of living and where there is difficulty, particularly, for those in regional areas in meeting the day-to-day costs of rent, accommodation, groceries, fuel and energy—and of everything else.

I know that more than three million Australians have a HECS debt or other type of student debt under the Higher Education Loan Program, the HELP scheme, which increased by a massive 7.1 per cent on 1 June 2023—the highest indexation rate in more than three decades. This, coupled with the cost-of-living crisis and the ever-increasing inflation rate, is making it difficult for young people in particular. By proposing to abolish the coalition's 50 per cent pass rule, the government has failed to protect students at high risk of not completing their course from accumulating debilitating HECS debts and then having acute financial hardship on top of that.

The government's reliance on a survey of 27 universities to justify the abolition of the 50 per cent pass rule indicates that the government hasn't been able to access the relevant data as to how many students are going to be impacted by this measure, reflecting what I believe, and what the opposition believes, is a poor adherence to evidence based policy. We want, as I said at the outset, the very best outcomes for our students.

In proposing to uncap Commonwealth supported places available to Indigenous students living in metropolitan areas, which extends the coalition's measure to uncap CSPs for Indigenous students living in regional and remote Australia, the government hasn't explained how it will hold universities to account for poor completion rates by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, which currently results in only 26 per cent of Indigenous students completing their undergraduate degree within four years; 37 per cent of students drop out during that period. I appreciate that the government wants to allow all Indigenous students who are living in metropolitan areas to be eligible for Commonwealth supported places in demand-driven higher education courses. But, as an aside, just as disadvantaged in some instances, in many circumstances, are non-indigenous students who live in remote areas. I know there is help available for them. I appreciate that. But we do need to consider some of those people and the options they don't have—the remoteness that causes difficulties for them when they want to complete courses.

That is why I also pay tribute to those non-sandstone universities, for the work they do in rural areas. By reason that the government is proposing to release the consultation paper on its proposed Support for Students policy, it becomes abundantly clear that the government has not done its homework—pardon the pun!—on this policy or determined the basis on which universities would be fined as proposed by the bill. This bill fails to impose on universities a strong accountability and transparency framework, including fair and just access to student refunds and the requirement that unis publish all relevant course information, including out-of-pocket costs, total costs, completion rates, modes of course delivery, and employment outcomes.

This government has come to office saying that it's going to be transparent. This government has come to office saying that it's going to be accountable. Well, let's see the government being transparent with taxpayers regarding how much its changes to the higher education system will cost and, furthermore, how it will pay for those changes. That would be a very, very good start. Given its deficiencies, the bill should be referred to the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee for inquiry. That should be a minimum. We do pay tribute to those young people who take on higher education opportunities. But, at the same time, I have always said that a certificate from TAFE—the piece of paper that you get from TAFE—is worth every bit as much as a diploma from a university. I say that; I've got a few certificates from TAFE, and I don't have a university degree.

I remember, when Warren Truss was Deputy Prime Minister and he was making his farewell speech, that he indicated he would probably be the last deputy prime minister of this nation to never hold a university degree. Lo and behold, not that much later, along came yours truly. But I do admire those people who knuckle down and do the work, do the study and get their diploma—but, moreover, then pay for it. It is a struggle. It is hard. And it's even harder now than it was before. I do appreciate that. And we do need, as a Commonwealth—and the government, as a government that said it will place education as one of the key pillars to its governance, needs—to do everything possible to support our students, be they at university or at TAFE, and also those young people who go to neither, who decide they are going to just go and work, and well done to them, too.

The government recently released the accord's interim report. It outlines five priority actions that the panel believes require urgent responses. Given those, it is important that the outcomes are met by transparency and accountability. That is why the members for Barker and Parkes have put forward their very worthwhile amendments.

Under the Job-ready Graduates Package in 2020, the coalition introduced a provision which required students to maintain a pass rate of 50 per cent or above for units of study they undertake. Of course there are always going to be provisions and circumstances, and if those pass rates are not met then individual students will be looked at and their explanations examined. But students who have a low completion rate and who do not meet this requirement lose eligibility for Commonwealth assistance and must either pay for their course upfront, transfer to another course or withdraw from their studies. The rule commenced on 1 January 2022. As I said, there is a waiver for special circumstances, and you can understand that there will always be special circumstances—hardship, health and all manner of reasons. That is understood. But Labor's abolition of the rule increases the risk of financial hardship.

The cost of living is skyrocketing, and we hear so much in this place about things which, quite frankly, out there in the real world are not being discussed at barbecues. They are not being discussed at weekend social and sporting events. Yet we seem to just go back and forward across this chamber, and our friends in the media seem to think these are the most important things of all, but they are not. Sometimes—other members must get this too—when you go back to your electorate, they say 'What was discussed in federal parliament this week?' I must admit that sometimes I scratch my head and think to myself 'Yes, what really was discussed that had merit?' This does have merit.

Higher education is important, and I say that as someone who is very proud of his three children. My wife, Catherine, and I and our three children all went to CSU and graduated from very different courses: teaching, accounting and policing. Charles Sturt University is one of those regional providers that this nation should be very proud of. I pay tribute to the former Liberal member representing Wagga Wagga at both state and federal levels of government for 36 years, the late, great Wal Fife. He and Cliff Blake helped transform what was the Wagga Wagga Teachers College into the Riverina-Murray Institute of Higher Education and eventually into Charles Sturt University. It has campuses at Wagga Wagga, Albury and elsewhere. Renee Leon is now doing a great job heading up that university. I am also very pleased that Charles Sturt University is one of the regional universities which is providing, as well as UNSW, the rural medical school network throughout the Murray-Darling. It is providing doctors for the future.

Whether you go to university to study to be a doctor or an accountant or a teacher or a police officer, it matters not. You are going there, and you are going to give of your best self. You want to be sure that the government which is running this country is going to have your back. That is why I commend very much the amendments that have been put forward by two outstanding regional members, because they will strengthen this bill. They will add clarity to this bill and make sure that its shortfalls are met with good, solid policy. That is why I commend these amendments. I say to the government that it needs to do everything in its power to combat the cost-of-living crisis. Stop talking about things that don't matter. Stop talking about things which, quite frankly, do not relate to average, ordinary, everyday Australians. Get back to what you promised before the election and make sure that students, when they start having to pay off the threshold cost of their HECS debts, are protected, get the very best opportunity and that they can make the most of their courses. With that, I do commend the amendments put forward by the members for Barker and Parkes, and I look forward to those being passed.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the resumption of the debate be made an order of the day for a later hour.

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