Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to be speaking on the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill and I thank the member for Warringah for her contribution. It was a very measured contribution in which I think she made some excellent points. I also think the member for Warringah rightly pointed out that some really important steps have been put forward in the bill. Obviously the university sector is one that is ever evolving and one where we need to continue to strive. While there are a whole range of issues around access and around student wellbeing and student welfare that need to be captured and dealt with, this bill is a very good piece of legislation that will make some significant changes to the lives of university students in our country.

I might start with some personal reflections. I, like many members in this place, had the privilege of attending university—one of the outstanding universities in this country. But my grandparents, especially on my father's side, left school when they were 13 and 14, and I know from my own family that the ability, privilege and opportunity to go to university was not a reality for generations past. They then moved to Australia and were able to provide a situation where my father's generation and our generation were all able to access higher education and further training post school. We all finished school, and my generation went to university. It was a great privilege, and it meant that there was social mobility, that there were options in life and that Australia was a place where it didn't matter where you came from or what your background was. University was an option, and, if you wanted to strive to get to university, it wasn't necessarily going to be easy, but it was going to be possible.

That's exactly what the HECS system was all about. It was about ensuring that Australia had a system where people could access university regardless of whether they could pay for it upfront. The HECS system was originally designed to be a low-interest loan system where students would not be penalised and students would have the lowest interest possible, but, with the high inflation, what that meant was that students had ever-increasing university bills, and that is one of the key reforms outlined in this bill, which I'll come back to in a moment.

The other point I want to mention on this bill is that, inside Macnamara, we have a number of higher education providers, but we also have campuses of two of Melbourne's finest universities: Monash University and the University of Melbourne. Monash Caulfield campus is tucked away in one corner of my electorate, right on the edge, and the University of Melbourne Southbank campus is on the other end. Also the University of Melbourne is building a big engineering precinct in Fishermans Bend, which is going to be really one of the most exciting prospects for young engineering students in the country. It is going to be truly not only a national but a world leader in terms of education, industry connections and practical applications. It is going to be a world-class institution, and we're very excited for that to be unfolding. There are so many wonderful universities around town, and there are so many wonderful universities in our country. I'm pleased to support them and pleased that they are providing so many opportunities to young students.

But we know that access to university is not straightforward and that students are being left with significant debt. We know that a whole range of issues, including student welfare and student wellbeing, are real and live, and they are things that were examined under the Universities Accord, which was the product of 12 months of work by the expert review panel. There were 785 public submissions, 150 meetings with stakeholders and a comprehensive report of 47 recommendations to make our higher education sector fairer and more accessible. I'm not going to go into all of the things that the accord did, but this bill has three important measures that are all about assisting with access to university, the cost-of-living pressures and mandatory training as well.

The first measure, obviously, is the changes to HECS. As outlined in this bill, it will wipe $3 billion of student debt for more than three million Australians, and it will be backdated to 1 June last year. This means in practical terms that, if you've got a HECS debt of $26,500, for example, your HECS debt will be cut by around $1,200, which is significant, especially when you look at the scale and the number of people who will be affected by this. It's a really positive thing, and I think that we need to do as much as we possibly can to reduce the financial burden and financial strain on our students.

One of the advantages of HECS has obviously been that more people have been able to go to university. The government no longer provides universal free university access, but it does mean that literally hundreds of thousands more people can access the university system and get a degree, which is obviously a huge benefit of the HECS system. This bill makes a fundamental reform to that system which changes the way in which the debt is indexed. This bill caps the indexation rate to the lower of either the consumer price index or the wage price index.

Once this legislation passes, individuals will receive a credit to their outstanding student loan debt balance for the difference between the indexation rate under the current legislation and the new indexation rate. For example, last year the CPI was 7.1 per cent, and we're replacing it with the wage price index's lower rate of 3.2 per cent. In my community of Macnamara, nearly 27,000 people will benefit from these changes. I'm really proud of that and I'm proud that, for all of those 27,000 people, they are going to get much-deserved support and financial credit in order to help them deal with the very real challenges around the cost of living.

The second important measure that this bill introduces is around paid prac. For the first time, the government will introduce paid prac to support teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students to do mandatory placements. These are critical workforces. We know that we absolutely need to be doing more to support our teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers. But we also expect them, as part of their training, to go to schools, to go to hospitals and to be in the field working and supporting those who they will be, ultimately, working for throughout their work. We know that part of their training is not just theoretical. In order to turn a student into a teacher or a nurse, we need to ensure that those young people or those trainees have access to practical placements.

We know there are other industries that also have a similar arrangement but we have said that these four will be covered as part of this bill. Obviously, when you have a track record of supporting people through these arrangements then you will always look to do more. Let's make sure that the bill gets passed, ideally, in a bipartisan way. Let's get that support in for teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers and then obviously, in the future, we will look to do as much as we possibly can. I've had conversations with people doing mandatory placements in other fields and I absolutely think we can certainly advocate on their behalf and ensure that their voices are heard inside government decision-making.

I am really proud of these reforms and proud that those four categories of training and paid prac will be covered. Students will be paid for their placement. If you are a young person and thinking about a career in teaching or nursing or midwifery or social work, it's an incentive to really consider those pathways and to know that you will have the option of being supported while doing your paid prac.

Universities Australia, the peak body for universities across the country, about paid prac, said:

The Government's Commonwealth Prac Payment means fewer Australians will have to choose between paying the bills and studying for the qualifications they need.

For far too long students in so many fields but especially in these four have had to move mountains to finish their paid prac and continue on with their daily lives. Hopefully, this will mean they get the support they deserve. These are four industries that are ultimately not the highest-paid industries and we desperately need those who go into them. We rely on them, we value them and we want them to look after our young people, to look after our patients, to look after some of the most vulnerable people and those people who need social services. That is exactly what we want them to do and we want quality people in those fields because they make our whole community and our whole society better as well.

The third measure in the bill is the fee-free uni-ready courses. The Universities Accord was very clear that we need a lot more people going to university and enrolling in VET courses to deliver the large skilled workforce we need for the future, and these reforms will assist more Australians in taking the step of getting into university. The fee-free uni-ready courses are described as a bridge between school and university to equip young people with the skills they need at university. We will be investing $350 million over four years to deliver this new and vital scheme. This is particularly important, as this will assist students who are from underrepresented backgrounds, ensuring university and higher education is accessible for all, which, I believe, is a fundamental core belief of the Australian Labor Party, which has assisted my family and is one that I am proud to work for.

In summary, this is a bill that supports students. It will support those who have finished their studies by reducing their HECS debt. It will support those who are accumulating studies and it will reform HECS so it always has the lowest form of interest in their loan. It will always be as affordable as possible for our students. We know how challenging it can be for our young people and we want to support them. That's the first measure I'm really proud of. It will help create a bridge between school and university and it will also pay people to do the mandatory prac during their time at university in those four incredibly important professions.

I want to thank the Minister for Education for his work in pulling this together. It is an outstanding piece of reform. It is one I'm very proud of, and I commend the bill to the House.

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