Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The most profound gift that can be bestowed upon a human being is the gift of a decent education. The difference that a good education makes to a person's life is quite remarkable—their quality of life, the income that they'll earn during their career and their health. But the outcomes for their family members and, in particular, their children will be fundamentally different for a person who receives an education compared to one who doesn't. That's why I think that people across the world, international forums and nations have recognised that access to a decent education is a fundamental human right—because of the difference that it makes to a person's quality of life and the difference that it makes to the quality and standing of a nation in terms of how well it treats its citizens.

When it comes to education, the most important principle that governments should operate around and legislate for is equality. Equality of access to education should be the fundamental principle of any education system in a modern-day democracy. That is the premise behind this important piece of legislation: ensuring that we deliver equality when it comes to access to higher education throughout Australia. To achieve this, once we were elected, we set about looking at that issue and that notion of equality in our higher education system, particularly at the university level.

I want to congratulate the Minister for Education, the member for Blaxland, who put in place this Universities Accord and asked eminent Australians who have experience working in government and in education—particularly in the equality realm—to put together the interim report around the Universities Accord. We're acting on their recommendations because we see equality of access to education as a fundamental human right and as vitally important for the future of our nation in so many areas—in the health outcomes of Australians, in the social outcomes of Australians, in the efficiency and effectiveness and productivity of our economy moving forward, and ultimately in the wealth of all Australians and our nation.

We're taking this action because the report makes it abundantly clear that more and more occupations and careers in the future will rely upon higher education, particularly a university qualification. This report outlines five priority areas where we, as a government, can work towards achieving greater equality in university education and greater access to that equality, with greater numbers of Australians being attracted to and offered university positions and greater numbers graduating with a university qualification in the future.

There are five priority areas for action that are outlined by this report, and the government is committed to implementing all of them. Two of the priority action areas require legislative change, and that's what this bill is all about. The first one abolishes the 50 per cent pass rule, introduced as part of the Job-ready Graduates scheme, which has had a disproportionately negative impact on students from poor backgrounds and those in rural and regional Australia. More than 13,000 students at 27 universities have already been hit by this. Instead of forcing them to quit, we want to make sure that we're helping them to pass. We know that, generally, when students get access to the assistance they need—perhaps to overcome learning difficulties; to overcome personal issues; to overcome access issues; to overcome issues associated with balancing work, family commitments and studies—that you can help people pass their university courses. And this bill will provide the chance for that to happen. This law will make a change and ensure that can occur.

As well as abolishing the 50 per cent pass rule, the bill strengthens accountability and reporting requirements for higher education providers, to ensure that students are properly supported to study and complete their courses. Higher education providers that fail to meet these new requirements will face some actions as to compliance and possible penalties.

The bill also delivers demand-driven funding for all Indigenous students to attend university if they're qualified for admission to the course. At the moment, this requirement applies only to Indigenous students who live in regional Australia. In the New South Wales context, that's passing over where the largest number of Indigenous Australians live in New South Wales, and that's in the cities. Most of them will live in a city environment, like the rest of the country. So having a policy that deliberately excludes where the majority of Indigenous potential students will live is counterintuitive. We're removing that rule and ensuring that it will now apply to all. Doing this could double the number of Indigenous students at university within a decade.

I have witnessed, in the community that I represent, the difference that higher education can make to the lives of younger local Indigenous community members. I'm proud that our community is home to the University of New South Wales, where they're building on the success of the UNSW Indigenous Strategy. This was launched in 2018, and UNSW's strategy represents a commitment to creating an environment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, researchers and staff to thrive. It's a successful approach that's emphasised recognising the importance of country, community and culture at UNSW. It's led by Professor Megan Davis, the Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous, and it provides an overarching framework for Indigenous education, employment and research. That means the strategic vision is implemented across all aspects of the university's operation.

It's not just a strategy about increasing the Indigenous student body and workforce; it's also about developing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers and academics who will make an impact in communities across the nation. I've often spoken quite proudly in this place about a project that's happening in the south of my electorate in Botany Bay, or Gamay as it's known to the local Indigenous community, where researchers from the University of New South Wales—marine biologists—are working on a seagrass restoration project for Botany Bay. They're working on that project in collaboration with the local Gamay Rangers, the people who know the bay best because their ancestors have fished and lived on the shores of Botany Bay for thousands of years. They're working closely with that group to care for and to restore that important natural environment for their local community.

It's a classic example of a nature-positive project in a partnership between the university and the Indigenous rangers. These will operate side by side with the carbon market, with a shared regulator, and the market will encourage carbon farming projects that also deliver biodiversity developments. Most importantly, some of those Gamay Rangers have now been attracted to further study, and a couple of them are now studying degrees in marine biology. What a wonderful example of a university working in collaboration with local Indigenous populations to get better outcomes not only for our wider community but for the individual young Indigenous men and women who work on that project. I'm very proud that UNSW is also actively supporting the Voice to Parliament. It became the first Group of Eight university to officially support a First Nations Voice to Parliament, and that's something that we're very proud of.

The changes in this bill will make a real difference to access and equity for underrepresented groups at Australian universities, including for Indigenous Australians. In addition to the immediate priority actions, the interim report has identified more than 70 policy areas that the accord panel is considering including in their final report. The Australian Universities Accord interim report makes it clear that more and more jobs will require a university qualification into the future. This government wants to make sure that, if that is the requirement—if that is the entry ticket into the future—that all Australians have access to that quality education to fulfil their dreams of a better life in Australia.

As I said at the beginning, the most profound gift that we can give a human being is the gift of an education. The fundamental principle to providing that gift is equality, and this bill is all about equality—delivering equality of access, particularly for disadvantaged groups of Australians who might be from low income families or who may be Indigenous or from rural Australia. Providing them with that equality and that access is fundamental not only to their human development but to the development of our nation and in particular the efficiency, effectiveness and productivity of our economy into the future.

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