Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

I think I can say without any fear of contradiction that every member in this place values education, whether it's early childhood education, or primary, secondary or tertiary education. I think there's a shared passion across the chamber that we want to see the best possible outcome for our young Australians. I note the presence of the minister here today, and I'd suggest that he and I are on a unity ticket when we say that we got elected to try and make sure kids in our electorates could achieve their full potential through the education system. I remember the member opposite—the minister—when he had jet black hair. I think he has found, since taking on the ministerial role, that nothing is easy in a ministerial office and that achieving good public policy is not a question of 'set and forget'. So I do commend the minister for his aspirations on behalf of young people in Australia, but I particularly want to draw his attention to the plight of rural and regional students in pursuit of their tertiary goals.

I know the minister understands that there are barriers to young people in rural and regional Australia achieving their full potential. Part of the barrier, without any question at all, is a barrier of aspiration. It's a barrier for us in our own communities and as leaders in our communities in terms of making sure that young people realise that they can be something they've never seen before—that they can be the first person in their family to attend university and become a doctor, a nurse or an engineer. But there are also economic barriers. The previous government recognised this as well. The coalition government, in our time in office, worked to try and reduce the economic barriers for young people forced to move away from home to attend university. But this is not an area of public policy where you can 'set and forget'. There's no question that there are some specific issues right now facing regional students that this minister will have to overcome.

We had a system in Australia—the HECS or HELP system of deferred payments—which meant that it was easier for more people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to go on to university, and that's a good system. I understand the minister is about to make some changes in relation to reducing the rate at which those debts increase, but what we're seeing now for our regional students seeking to relocate is that the cost-of-living impacts are so enormous and the accommodation shortage is almost insurmountable for a lot of young people, so much so that we're now seeing students from regional communities who get the marks and get the ATAR score and who are well and truly capable of going on to tertiary studies but for whom those barriers of accommodation and the cost of living to move to a metropolitan area are getting to the point where many are simply saying: 'I'll go into the workforce'—and it's a workforce that is screaming out for skills right now—and they won't actually go on and achieve their full potential by undertaking university studies.

I am not one who thinks for a second that every kid needs to go to university. Getting a trade or doing some vocational training is equally a good choice. But, for those students who want to go on to tertiary studies and want to go to university, we have to do more to reduce the economic barriers. So I do ask the minister: what else is he going to do to ensure that students from regional, rural and remote Australia, including our Indigenous young students, have the funds and the appropriate housing to participate in higher education in the future? This is a barrier that impacts not just the young people themselves; it also becomes a problem for our communities. The mums and dads are making decisions, when their kids reach 12, 13 or 14, and are saying: 'I can't live in a regional community. I need to move closer to the city so I can accommodate my child when they go to university.' It becomes a brain drain from regional communities where we see doctors, teachers, nurses and paramedics say, 'I can't live three or four hours from the city anymore. I need to move closer to the city and closer to a university campus so I can afford to give my children the opportunity to go on to university if they choose to do that.' I do encourage the minister with the work he is doing in relation to reducing those costs, and I single out the issue around supporting the practical placements. I recognise that that it is a new decision. It is a bold decision in terms of being an issue that a lot of students have grappled with, but I do question the minister and urge him to go back to his department and say, 'Why is the scope so limited?' There are other areas of skilled workforce shortages in our communities where students—in allied health, in particular, or veterinary science—would benefit from access to the paid practical placements.

The other question I have for the minister is in relation to the regional university centres. I recognise there have been some expanded opportunities in that regard. I don't think we have fully realised the opportunities and the importance of those centres. I don't think we've fully understood what they could be in the future, so I do urge the minister to keep working with the Regional Commissioner Fiona Nash and with regional MPs who have a lived experience in this area to make sure that we recognise there are local solutions here. People living in those committees are best placed to make those decisions and influence the outcomes to help build aspirations and reduce those economic barriers for regional students.

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