Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

RAE () (): It is no secret that education can have a powerful effect on someone's life. Educational attainment has been linked with better health outcomes, a higher quality of life and greater income. Of course university is not the only source of a quality tertiary education; however, it is a critical pillar for an education system that delivers better outcomes consistently.

Doctors, engineers, accountants, teachers and allied health professionals are all educated at university and deliver vital services to our communities. Unfortunately, these services are not equally available to all, with geography often representing a significant barrier, particularly for rural, regional and peri-urban communities like mine. That's why lifting accessibility to education is doubly important. It helps not only those being educated, but also all of our communities. We cannot solely rely on bringing in doctors and teachers into these communities from elsewhere. We must provide the people already in those communities with the opportunity to fill those sorely needed professions. Education has the power to uplift whole communities, and the Higher Education Support Amendment (Response to the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report) Bill 2023 will ensure that our university system is better equipped to do just that.

In November last year, the Minister for Education ordered a review into our higher education system. The Australian Universities Accord will develop a long-term plan for our higher education system. It will look at almost every aspect of our education system, not just the basic principles of accessibility and affordability but also employment conditions, teaching quality, and how vocational education and training and higher education should work more closely together to deliver better student outcomes. This bill represents part of the Albanese Labor government's response to the Universities Accord interim report, and particularly seeks to address the two immediate actions from the report that require legislative change.

This bill will amend the Higher Education Support Act to scrap the 50 per cent pass rule which requires students to pass at least 50 per cent of their units of study to continue to access Commonwealth assistance for their course, as well as extend the demand driven funding currently provided to Indigenous students from regional and remote areas to cover all Indigenous students. The Universities Accord interim report found that the 50 per cent pass rule disproportionately disadvantages students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as regional and Indigenous students. It has already impacted over 13,000 students right across the country, denying them access to an education.

Despite the widespread acknowledgment the rule has failed to do anything but lower outcomes for vulnerable students, the opposition are still defending it. In his contribution to this debate, the former Minister for Education, the member for Wannon, in speaking about the rule, said:

This was about holding universities to account. It wasn't about the students.

This simple statement fulsomely sums up the opposition's approach to education: it wasn't about the students. It wasn't about supporting students to attain a higher education. It wasn't about providing students with more opportunities to develop their skills. It wasn't about enabling students to achieve their goals for education. Rather than enhancing the support provided to students, the Liberals chose to punish those who were struggling.

The accord interim report notes that removal of the 50 per cent pass rule should be accompanied by improved processes to track students' learning and engagement to hold institutions to account for identifying and supporting at-need students. That's why, under this legislation, universities will be required to demonstrate how they will identify students who are struggling and how they will connect those students with appropriate support services. In stark contrast to the approach of those opposite, this legislation is about requiring universities to support students, not forcing them to quit.

The second effect of this legislation is the expansion of demand driven places for Indigenous students to those from metropolitan areas. This measure aims to increase the number of First Nations people studying bachelor and bachelor honours courses at university by removing any cap on the number of Commonwealth supported places available to Indigenous students. It is estimated that this could double the number of First Nations students at our universities within 10 years. Sadly, like in many other areas, the gap between the educational outcomes of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is far too wide. Only seven per cent of First Nations people have a university degree, and, tragically, young Indigenous men are more likely to be incarcerated than to graduate from university. Better access to education is essential for ensuring better outcomes for First Nations Australians in areas such as health and employment. First Nations Australians who haven't completed a secondary education are twice as likely to be unemployed, and those in remote areas are five to 10 times as likely to be unemployed. We must do better to provide educational opportunities to Indigenous Australians if we are serious about closing the gap, and that's exactly what this legislation does.

While these are the two measures contained in the bill, the Albanese Labor government's response to the accord interim report is much broader. We're directly responding to each of the other priority actions of the report. We're investing $66.9 million to double the number of university study hubs and extend the program from rural and regional areas to include outer suburban areas. We understand that simple geography can be a significant barrier to higher education, and these hubs go some way to breaking those barriers down. They provide students with essential facilities such as computers, internet and study spaces, as well as in-person administrative and academic support. We are also providing funding certainty to our higher education institutions throughout the accord process by extending the Higher Education Continuity Guarantee into 2024 and 2025, as well as working with state and territory governments to improve university governance.

The Albanese Labor government's plan for lasting and transformative reform to our higher education system comes off the back of nine years of neglect and mismanagement from those opposite. Over the course of successive Liberal governments, education minister after education minister sought to amend, abolish or deny equity measures that would increase access to education for those communities like mine that need it most. The Liberals first tried to deregulate university fees, almost opening the door to $100,000 degrees, and, after that failed, they simply cut university funding.

When COVID-19 came and campuses across the country closed down, the Liberals went out of their way to exclude universities from accessing JobKeeper. It was good enough for companies like Harvey Norman but not good enough for our universities.

Finally, the Liberals introduced their Job-ready Graduates scheme, a policy that caused students to pay more and universities to receive less, and actually reduced the capacity of universities to offer courses in areas of critical skills shortage. The interim report found that continuing the Job-ready Graduates scheme would 'risk causing long-term and entrenched damage to Australian higher education'. Not only did it fail to improve anything at all; the Liberals' higher education reform package actually threatened the future of our education system.

The approach of the Albanese Labor government could not differ more from that of the Liberal opposition. Labor will always support our tertiary education system, spanning from our universities to the pathways provided by our TAFE system. We understand the enormous value of education in creating a fairer society. We also understand the need to have a diverse and accessible higher education sector that meets individual needs and aspirations as well as the skill requirements of our communities and our economy. We've already made a huge investment in TAFE and delivered 214,300 new fee-free TAFE and vocational education places, smashing the 12-month target of 180,000 in the first six months of this year. Of those 214,300, 60 per cent are women and 6,845 students are Indigenous. The most popular courses include a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care, and a Diploma of Nursing.

Measures like this are invaluable for communities like mine. In my electorate of Hawke, TAFE courses are essential for providing educational pathways to good, well-paid employment. That's often because TAFE allows people to pursue education in their own communities, in a manner that suits them best. Unfortunately, university education is not always able to have the same impact on communities like mine because it simply isn't accessible enough. That's why the reforms in this bill and the broader response to the interim report are so very important.

All Australians should be able to access an affordable education. Whether it be university, TAFE or other vocational training, making tertiary education more available to underrepresented and disadvantaged cohorts will not only improve the lives of those individuals but also uplift our entire communities. Many of us in this chamber have personally been impacted by the transformative power of a quality education. This bill is about ensuring that the same opportunity is afforded to many, many more Australians. In commending this bill to the House, I thank the minister for his tireless work in this space and, on behalf of our community, I thank him all that he does to create accessible pathways to education and further training for the community that I live in.

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