Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like the previous speaker, I too am very passionate about education. I was a high school English teacher for 11 years and left that sector for law, still loving education. Teaching a lesson in that democracy unit in the schools in my electorate is one of the best parts of this job, getting back in front of kids. I believe in the opportunities that flow from the pursuit of education after high school. Australian universities and vocational education providers, especially TAFE, are some of the best in the world.

Education can transform lives. It is the great hope of this nation and a wonderful export product. Therefore, I particularly welcome the fact that a key milestone in the Australian Universities Accord was reached last month. That milestone was the release of the accord panel's interim report outlining a vision for the future of Australia's higher education system. The process undertaken by the panel will culminate in a final report due for release this year. Nevertheless, this interim report is an important first step for us.

The report says that in the decades ahead more jobs will require the minimum of a university qualification. Right now, around 36 per cent of the current Australian workforce has a university qualification—that's just over one in three. The interim report estimates that that could jump to as high as 55 per cent by the middle of this century, a mere 27 years away. To put that 27 years in context, 27 years ago was when John Howard was elected PM or when the current PM was elected to the parliament for the first time. Both occurred on the same day. Fifty-five per cent in 27 years is only a bit of a rough guesstimate, but it gives the country an idea of the skills challenge we face now in the years and decades to come.

What the accord team argues in this report is that the only way to significantly boost the percentage of the workforce with a university qualification is to significantly increase the number of students who are currently under-represented in our universities—our smartest people that aren't getting into a lecture hall. They're students from the outer suburbs and the regions, students from poor backgrounds, students with a disability and Indigenous students.

Today almost one in two Australians in their late 20s and early 30s has a university degree, but this is not consistent across the nation. In the outer suburbs of our major cities, only 23 per cent of young adults have a university degree. However, in the regions, in the areas traditionally represented by the National Party, the rate is lower at just 13 per cent, and, sadly, only 15 per cent of young adults from poor families have a degree. If you're a young Indigenous Australian, it's even lower, again, at only seven per cent. I'm ashamed to say that, after around 21 of the last 27 years of having coalition governments in control of this nation, we're left with the fact that, if you're a young Indigenous man today, you're more likely to go to jail than to go to university. To quote from that magnificent one-page document, the Uluru Statement from the Heart:

Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people.

Clearly, all sensible Australians, all proud Australians, all patriotic Australians and all caring Australians know that this is a fact that we need to fix and a situation that we need to change. What we're currently doing is not working. We need to do it not just because it's the right thing to do but because it's what we must do. If we don't significantly boost the number of students from the outer suburbs and regions and the underrepresented groups at university, this nation won't have the skills it needs and the workforce it needs for the decades ahead.

This interim report is in two parts. The first part sets priorities for immediate action. It makes five recommendations and says the government should act on these now ahead of the more detailed final report. The Albanese government is committed to act on these recommendations as a priority. Two of these will require legislative amendments, which is what this bill will do. One of these amendments will be to extend demand driven funding to metropolitan First Nations students. This amendment will allow all First Nations students, including students living in metropolitan areas, such as Moreton in Brisbane, to be eligible for demand driven Commonwealth supported places in eligible higher education courses.

Currently, all First Nations students living in regional and remote areas are eligible for these demand driven Commonwealth supported places, where they meet the academic entry requirements. The amendments for the demand driven measure will expand eligibility for these places to all First Nations students, regardless of where they live, if enrolling in bachelor and bachelor honours level courses other than a designated higher education course such as medicine. This means there will be no cap on the number of First Nations students who can enrol in CSPs and that table A providers will receive Commonwealth funding for all First Nations students they welcome to their university. It is hoped that this measure could double the number of Indigenous students at universities within a decade. So we want to flip on its head the current situation where a First Nations man is more likely to go to jail than to university.

The other component of this bill will amend the Higher Education Support Act 2003 to cease the 50 per cent pass rule. This amendment will remove the requirement that students must pass 50 per cent of the units they study to remain eligible for a Commonwealth supported place and FEE-HELP assistance. This change will have the largest impact on students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The former government introduced this rule as part of its job-ready graduates package, and it has seen a disproportionate number of students from poor backgrounds being forced out of university. More than 13,000 students at 27 universities have been hit by this coalition change in the last two years, and most of these 13,000 students are from disadvantaged backgrounds—the battlers.

Minister Clare noted that he'd been told by Western Sydney University that, in 2023, 1,350 students had lost their funding and then withdrawn from their courses. We don't want people dropping out of university. We want them to stay the course and graduate, especially if a helping hand is all that they need. We should be helping students to succeed, not forcing them to quit or engineering a situation where they are more likely to quit.

I stumbled in my first semester of teacher's college. I was a 17-year-old from the bush, trying to make sense of the big smoke, far from my friends and family. My wife experienced a similar hiccup coming down from Cairns to go to university in Toowoomba. Between us, we now have seven degrees. She has four; she's much smarter than me. So these early hiccups are not uncommon. The six months after the last day of high school are some of the most traumatic and dramatic times in any young person's life. They go from the school rules and routine, and perhaps the family home, to independence, driving, working, money, sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll and politics—all of those wonderful things you embrace appropriately as an adult. That first swirl of adulthood is a heady mix that can be too rich for many young people. Liberty is exquisite but it is also scary. So I am glad that this bill also requires universities and other providers to do their bit as well.

Universities will be required to put in place a dedicated plan to keep their students engaged and completing their studies. Something as simple as a helping hand or a kind word can make the difference. There will be a support for students policy, under which they will be required to proactively identify students who are at risk of falling behind and set out what they will do to help them succeed. This could cover matters like processes for identifying students who need help; assessing a student's academic and non-academic suitability for continuing study, particularly where they have triggered an alert; connecting students to support; and identifying students who are not engaging with their support before that census date wherever possible, when struggling in a subject will show up as a fail. It could cover providing sufficient non-academic support for students such as financial assistance, housing information and mental health support. All of these are important because many students struggle because of non-academic issues. Something as simple as providing a safe place for study or a supportive hand can really change a person's life, particularly in that first semester at uni, I would suggest, as can having appropriate crisis and critical harm response arrangements. As we have seen lately, university campuses are full of all sorts of people, including some ne'er-do-wells.

A student support policy could cover providing access to trained academic development advisors who can help a student identify what's holding them back and come up with the right response for that student. It could cover ensuring that academic and non-academic supports are age and culture appropriate, including specific arrangements for Indigenous students. It could cover proactively offering special circumstances arrangements where a provider is aware of a significant life event for a student. Something as simple as the death of a grandparent can dramatically change a student's life. It could cover providing access to targeted individual literacy, numeracy and other academic supports. It could cover providing provider driven and evidence based additional support such as peer support. Hooking people up with the right colleague can make a difference as well. It could cover providing targeted, in-course support from academic staff such as check-ins, and flexibility on assessment arrangements that considers a student's work and family situations. Those are 11 suggestions that could help.

There will also be financial penalties applied to universities that fail to comply with these sorts of support obligations. These changes are about tearing down the barriers that keep Australians from completing their higher education courses. We need to have a well prepared, educated and skilled workforce to meet the needs of this nation's future, and we know that education leads to better life outcomes and more money in the pocket.

The other three priority actions recommended in the interim report don't require legislative changes. They include creating further regional university centres and establishing a similar concept for suburban metropolitan locations. In response, the Albanese Labor Government will double the number of university student hubs. There are currently 34 in regional Australia, including one in my hometown of St George, out in south-west Queensland. I was out there for a book signing recently, and I can attest that the locals are very proud of their centre. The mayor of Balonne Shire, Samantha O'Toole, told me she hopes it will help the shire fill some of the many local job vacancies they have—training locals up and connecting them with universities, but then keeping them local rather than losing them to the cities. The government will establish 20 more in the regions and, for the first time, establish 14 in the outer suburbs of our major cities, where the percentage of people with a university qualification is low. I say, particularly as a Queenslander, the most decentralised state, that this is a significant boon.

The next recommendation is to extend the Higher Education Continuity Guarantee into 2024 and 2025, which the Albanese Labor Government will do. As part of that, we will require universities to use any funding remaining from their grant each year on things like enabling courses and extra academic and learning support for students from poor backgrounds, from the regions and from other underrepresented groups.

The last recommendation is to engage with state and territory governments and universities to improve university governance. I know Minister Clare has written to the ministers responsible for higher education in each state and territory to convene a working group to be led by Ben Rimmer, the deputy secretary from Higher Education, Research and International from the department. This group will provide advice to the minister and other state and territory ministers on the immediate actions they should take to improve university governance.

All these important changes are about ensuring more Australians, no matter where they live and as long as they're smart enough, have the opportunity to attend university and, importantly, have the best opportunity to complete their studies. I commend this legislation to the House.

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