Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I speak in support of this particular piece of legislation, the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024. We've got a good education system in this country. It can be better and a lot fairer. The previous speaker spoke about her experiences. I grew up in a working-class family in Ipswich. My dad was a cleaner in the meatworks, and my mum was a shop assistant. Neither of my parents or grandparents or anyone before them had the benefit of going to high school, let alone university. I was the first person directly in my family to ever go to high school, let alone university. It was those teachers in year 12 at Bundamba State Secondary College that gave me the aspiration, the inspiration and the opportunity to get to university and be the first person from my high school ever to study law. That gave me the chance to go to university.

I'm completely aware of the value and the contribution of the Labor Party and the trade union movement, my family and friends and, of course, my constituents who voted me in again and again, but I believe I would not be here if not for the brilliance of teachers and for the fairness and opportunity that were given to me as a young fellow in Trumper Street in East Ipswich, at the back of a flood ridden house, and at the back of a school in a working-class battling community in Ipswich. Education raised my expectations and gave me a chance to be in this place and to build with my fellow directors and shareholders a multimillion-dollar business that operated for the whole time I was in business as a lawyer in the Brisbane CBD. So education changes lives. Education lifts people up, such as battling kids in regional and rural communities and in working-class communities like the one in which I grew up.

The big hike in HECS-HELP debts last year hit a lot of Australians hard, particularly young Australians. We heard their voices and we're acting on it. These changes require passing legislation, and introducing this bill brings us one step closer to reform. We're introducing legislation to make the system fairer and improve the way indexation is calculated for the HELP system. Once this bill passes, it's going to wipe out $3 billion in HELP debt for more than three million Australians. And we're going a step further and backdating it to 1 June last year.

The bill introduces a Commonwealth prac payment to give eligible people who've signed up to do some of the most important jobs in our country a bit of extra help for the qualifications they need. I can't describe how important this is for regional and rural communities. I've represented most of the country towns in my area. I think Deputy Speaker Buchholz and I have represented a fair bit together at various times, with him crossing over after me after redistributions. I can say that, in those rural communities and regional areas in South-East Queensland that I've had the honour and privilege to represent, there are so many young people who would like to go to TAFE or university and study certain courses, but one of the barriers for them is the fact that they have to do months and months of prac work. And that's good because, if you want to become a teacher, social worker, nurse, midwife or early education teacher, it's crucial you do that prac work, but the challenges of geography are matched by the challenges of finance for them.

This bill will massively expand the fee-free Uni Ready courses, which also act as a bridge for students in those regional communities who aspire to go to university. These courses help Australians get a go and have a crack at university. It amends the Higher Education Support Act to implement the first stage of the Universities Accord. I've spoken to the University of Southern Queensland. I've got the privilege of having two campuses in my electorate, with one at Springfield and one at Ipswich. That accord was led by Professor Mary O'Kane AC. The Universities Accord was the biggest and broadest review of the higher education system that we've seen in 15 years. The final report was released on 25 February this year. It's a blueprint for higher education reform. There are 47 recommendations, 29 of which the government has agreed to implement in full or part in this year's budget.

First, the bill makes the HECS-HELP system fairer by improving the way indexation is calculated. That will impact 23,000 people in my electorate. Just imagine that: 23,000 people. That number sounds like a lot. If you were to put them in Suncorp Stadium, imagine how full Suncorp Stadium would be. About half the stadium would be filled. That's just in my electorate alone, one of 151 electorates in this chamber. This is going to help a lot of people and their families. The 23,000 is just the individuals concerned. If you add their families, well more than 50,000 people in my electorate alone will be benefiting from this change. The new methodology is really critical and goes back to 1 June last year. It's going to apply to all HELP loans, VET Student Loans, Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans and other student support loans and ensure that outstanding loans never grow faster than the average wage. Up to 68,000 people will benefit from the Commonwealth prac payment that I've talked about. That's for the nursing, teaching, midwifery and social work students. That will make a big impact in regional Queensland.

Third, the bill establishes a new Commonwealth grant system, funding a cluster for fee-free Uni Ready courses, which act as a bridge between school and university to provide foundational support. And I'll come to that soon. The bill effectively uncaps fee-free university-ready courses across Australia, helping students make the jump to university.

Fourth, the bill supports students by requiring higher education providers to allocate a minimum of 40 per cent of their student services and amenities fee revenue to student led education organisations, ensuring the students have a significant role in deciding how their services and amenities fees are spent.

This is crucial. The legislation is the first step in our reform agenda, and it's critical work that we're undertaking. As I said before, these are the most extensive changes we've seen. The government set a national target of 80 per cent of the workforce having a tertiary education by 2050. I can remember how few students graduated from high school just a generation ago. We're lifting our aspirations from high school to university. If the broader accord targets are achieved, about $240 billion in additional income will be added to the economy over the period to 2050.

We've got many changes in this bill. We're developing a new managed-growth funding system for Commonwealth supported places to meet student demand and support sustainable growth and increased opportunity, particularly for people from underrepresented backgrounds like my own. We'll make needs based funding a core component of funding for higher education teaching and learning.

I can remember when the Liberals and the National Party linked funding to WorkChoices under John Howard's reign and regime. I can remember that they'd linked university funding and that they had to bring in those workplace agreements. The only way universities would get the funding they needed is if they put AWAs in. That's the attitude of those opposite in relation to university funding. Once the party of Menzies, who valued education, they thought, 'We'll use higher education to impose our ideological right-wing agenda,' and they haven't changed. They've still got the same mentality. You can still see it from those opposite.

We're going to fund a number of organisations—for example, Charles Darwin University to establish and operate a new medical school in the Northern Territory, subject to the finalisation of exploratory work. We're commissioning an independent strategic examination of research and development across government. There are a whole range of reforms that we're undertaking in relation to that. We've established an implementation advisory committee to undertake further engagement with the sector to inform legislative design of the Australian Tertiary Education Commission and new managed growth funding system. The advisory committee is being chaired by Tony Cook PSM, the secretary of the Department of Education.

One thing we're undertaking which I think has got real benefit—and I've been speaking to the minister's office and the minister personally about it—is the proposal to establish a network of suburban university study hubs. This is where it comes in, giving more people from the outer suburbs of major cities an opportunity for tertiary education. We're investing $66.9 million to double the number of university study hubs across the country and bring those hubs to the outer suburbs of our major cities for the very first time. This builds on the 34 existing regional university study hubs located across the country, which support 4,000 students. Of those 10 regional university study hubs recently funded—that's in response, by the way, to the Australian Universities Accord interim report.

We're going to establish these suburban university study hubs in areas without a significant university campus and where there are low rates of university qualification. The hubs will provide safe spaces for students, including those from low-socioeconomic backgrounds, First Nations students, people with disability and people from multicultural communities. This is also where it's critical for my electorate. They'll provide computer facilities, internet and study spaces as well as in-person administrative and academic skills support for tertiary students. Applications have now closed. I know I've encouraged the University of Southern Queensland to apply for a network of hubs across Ipswich, Logan and south-west Brisbane as part of this process. I've attended a number of roundtables with the University of Southern Queensland and Griffith University, as well as councils across South-East Queensland and other stakeholders, to discuss this proposal. It's very exciting for South-East Queensland.

Too often, someone's postcode is a brick wall that stops them from going to university, with the cost of moving closer to a campus being a major disincentive to study. The postcode you live in shouldn't be a barrier to getting a degree. The opportunity to go to university is life changing, particularly in regions like mine and particularly across Ipswich. Our suburban university study hubs will provide support close to home. The discussions I've been involved in with local stakeholders have identified a number of possible sites, including Redbank Plains, in Ipswich—a very multicultural community and the biggest suburb in Ipswich. Applications are now going to be evaluated in relation to that.

The need for TAFE or university qualifications is growing, and more people in the workforce will be required to upskill and reskill. Almost one in two young people in their 20s and 30s have university degrees, but not in my community—not in Blair. This has to change, because in the decade ahead more and more jobs will require TAFE or university qualifications. As I've said before, I was the first person in my family to go to high school, let alone university, and I want to see more young people in Ipswich and the Somerset region get the opportunities that I did. One way to do it is by providing higher education services closer to home, closer to the students, and providing that financial support for them when they are doing prac. It's bringing education and financial support to the students where they're located.

So I'm excited that we're doing this. This bill is a very important piece of legislation for my community and particularly for regional communities and outer suburban communities. I am very keen to see one or more of these suburban hubs established in my electorate. This will help, for example, young people in Logan, Ipswich and south-west Brisbane, across electorates like Oxley, Rankin and Blair, which we on this side of the chamber have the honour to represent—and also the electorate of Wright, Deputy Speaker Buchholz. It will help people in the Lockyer Valley, which I used to represent and which you represent now.

In closing, I want to acknowledge the Minister for Education for bringing forward these reforms. These are major changes. We sometimes don't quite realise, when we're debating legislation, the kind of impact this will have. This is not legislation that will be forgotten. This legislation that we are debating today will have impacts on people for generations. People's lives will be changed by the bill that we are going to pass. They will be changed, their families will be changed and their generations will be changed. That's how important this legislation is.

I want to thank our government officials and public servants who worked on this legislation—the whole Universities Accord team. I've read this report. It's an excellent report, and I commend it to anyone to read. I want to thank all the stakeholders for their valuable input in these reforms. This is about building a better but also a fairer system. It's not just about supporting rich schools; it's about filling universities with kids from low-socioeconomic backgrounds—the Bradley reforms, as we used to call them years ago. This legislation will help with the cost of degrees and the cost of living, and it will help a lot of young people—and older people too—who would have missed out on opportunities in life. It's that ladder of opportunity, which we often talk about. This legislation is absolutely vital, but it's only the first step in what the Albanese Labor government is doing to assist young people in the outer suburbs and the regions.

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