Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this portfolio as education is a part of my job that I'm very keen to contribute towards. Australian education helps form the backbone of our society as a foundation for both family and community and as platform for our people to live, adapt and thrive regardless of their current environment. It provides Australians with the tools to better themselves and those around them, no matter their social or economic conditions.

Quality education is something that lifts people out of disadvantage and into opportunities previously thought distant. It's rightly a priority for a Labor government, and it is essential for the people of Spence. Essentially, because Spence often lacks the advantages of other metropolitan areas in Australia, it is often much harder for people in Spence to access education pathways, particularly at a tertiary level. As it stands, change is needed to ensure that my community is ready to meet our transforming economic landscape as we move into the future. It's for the good of the individual, their communities and Australia at large.

I'm proud to say that under this government, change is coming with a suite of budget measures that place students and all Australians aspiring to learn at a tertiary institution front and centre to rise to that challenge. These include measures to help mitigate placement poverty often felt by students in certain fields like nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work when they undertake unpaid placement programs in order to complete their qualification. Given current cost-of-living pressures especially, it can be hard to make ends meet when studying at university or undertaking vocational programs. This is a known significant barrier for my constituents in achieving higher qualifications after school. These pressures can become even more difficult during required placements often taking four weeks at a time, well away from a student's residence, which then proves highly disruptive and expensive.

Fortunately, this Labor government is one that listens to my community and to students across the country. It is a Labor government with an education minister that is addressing placement poverty through the Commonwealth prac payment introduced in the budget. Every year, from 1 July 2025, an estimated 68,000 eligible higher education students and another 5,000 in VET programs will be provided $319.50 per week during either clinical or professional placements. This means that an aspiring nurse or midwife placed at the Lyell McEwin Hospital in Elizabeth Vale learning valuable skills and assisting where it is needed most can do so with financial pressure lifted. It means that a budding teaching student supporting our future leaders at Kaurna Plains School in Elizabeth will be less likely to consider deferral or withdrawal due to affordability concerns, and it means that a social worker on their way to helping thousands of Australians throughout their career can complete their placement with greater certainty over their circumstances.

There is still a significant challenge for Australia in encouraging greater enrolments and supporting students to complete their programs in order to meet future demand for higher education qualifications. Firstly, in regard to the Commonwealth prac payment, I would like to ask the minister: how will this measure attract greater interest in higher education programs and encourage students to see them through?

Directly relating to this challenge of increasing higher education participation, I would also like to touch upon another significant investment towards our communities by the budget—that of the suburban university study hubs, or SUSHs, to be created in outer metropolitan areas. Their creation is a game changer for outer metropolitan areas. Our community in Spence is one of the most educationally underrepresented metropolitan areas in Australia. There are many in the north who find themselves fundamentally isolated from tertiary education due to factors like cost, distance and visibility in our community. This simply won't do.

The Universities Accord makes this clear: 55 per cent of all jobs by 2050 will need higher education qualifications in order to work in them. To ensure that we are ready for this, the government has set a target of 80 per cent of Australians having a tertiary qualification by the same year. This is where the SUSHs will come in. As introduced under this Labor government, they will smash the barriers to university education in outer metropolitan areas. It is an approach that prioritises student capability, creating safe, accessible and visible learning environments open to all higher education students. This is an investment into local communities that need it most—an investment into our aspiring Australians, regardless of background, to better themselves and their livelihoods. My second question to the minister on the SUSHs is this: how will the SUSH program help achieve the education target set by the government? (Time expired)

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