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

It is with great pleasure that I join the debate and follow my friend and colleague the member for Newcastle. I acknowledge her contribution, particularly in relation to the challenges that we face as regional members of parliament in terms of equity of access and also in relation to her comment that there's more to be done. As much as there has been a significant amount of work done in terms of reforming the university sector and access for regional students, there is still a lot more to be done.

The Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill amends the Higher Education Support Act to give effect to several measures from the Australian Universities Accord. I'll reflect on the accord in more detail in a few moments time. These measures, though, include changing the way the HELP indexation is calculated; introducing the Commonwealth prac payment for teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students; providing fee-free uni-ready courses for students to undertake preparatory courses for university studies; and requiring universities to provide 40 per cent of the student services and amenities fees to student led organisations.

Despite the exhortation of the member for Newcastle for the coalition to declare its position today, the coalition notes that the government itself has referred the bill to the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee for an inquiry. As is appropriate in those circumstances, the coalition will not pre-empt our final position on the bill until after we have heard from all the key stakeholders, and I understand the committee is due to report back to the Senate by 3 October this year.

For those of us who have been around the issues regarding universities and further education for an extended period of time, I think there is a shared passion across the chamber to help young people right across Australia to achieve their full potential. Achieving their full potential doesn't necessarily mean every Australian student has to go to university. It's quite the opposite, in fact. Accessing improved trade training through the TAFE system, taking on entrepreneurialism or their own small business, or, indeed, pursuing a university course are all reasonable pathways for a young person in Australia today to pursue. But helping all young Australians achieve their full potential is, I think, a shared goal across the chamber.

For those of us who represent regional seats, the issue of how we achieve equity and fairness has been a problem that governments have grappled with throughout my entire 16 years in this place. I actually want to commend the work of the Minister for Education with the Universities Accord process and also for the briefings he's provided to me and my office. I also want to note the very significant contribution to that work by the Regional Education Commissioner, former senator Fiona Nash, who, like me, is a fellow traveller on the path of trying to get fairness for regional students in the education system. Her contribution to this process was noted in the final report.

The final report does provide ambitious targets for higher education participation. It's very clear—and the minister himself, in his own second reading speech, made this clear as well—there is much to do to achieve the goals set out in the accord, and no-one, including the minister, is suggesting for a second that this is anything other than the first stage of the implementation of the accord.

There has been a major program of reform across the university sector over the whole time I have been in this place, and the minister himself has acknowledged that what we're looking at with this accord is a very significant program that will run across many budget cycles and will require goodwill across the chamber and a commitment to achieving those long-term goals of helping every young Australian achieve their full potential.

I am one who would suggest that we do have a good education system here in Australia. It's not great. It's not without it's failings. But it is good. Unfortunately, it serves some people better than others. Sadly, the others are often those who live in regional, rural and remote communities. Often the others are those students who live two, three, four, five and many more hours away from a capital city or a university campus. One of our great challenges for the members in this place who represent the National Party is how we improve the participation rate for those students in our communities who want to go on to study at the tertiary level. Notwithstanding the fact that you can be very successful as a young person in Australia today as an entrepreneur starting your own business, working on your family farm, taking over the family farm or learning a trade and applying your skills in your community—they are all very reasonable pathways—for those who aspire to tertiary education and need a qualification to fulfil their dream, the participation rate in our regional communities is too low. It's recognised in the accord. It's been recognised now for a long period of time.

The previous government, the coalition government, had Senator Fiona Nash, who was one of those who worked diligently on this issue. They sought to reduce some of the barriers to university participation for our regional students. I've spoken about those barriers before in this place and I will raise them again tonight. Some of those barriers are economic, but some of them are also aspirational barriers. The aspirational barriers are something we can deal with ourselves in our communities. It's up to us as leaders in our own communities to get into our schools and make it clear to young people in our community that they can be the first in their family to go to university—to talk to them about the pathways which exist. We can do that as people who care about our communities, so the aspirational barrier is something that we've got to deal with.

The economic barrier is something that lies fairly and squarely at the feet of the federal government of Australia. During her presentation, the member for Newcastle quite rightly commented about equity of access. There is nothing equitable about a system of tertiary education which actively discriminates against regional students on the basis of cost of participation. And it's got worse. It's actually become harder in recent times, during this cost-of-living crisis, for students in my community of Gippsland to move to Melbourne and undertake a course of their choice.

When I say it's become harder, I mean there are a number of factors here. The shortage of housing and the competition has made it harder for students to secure housing. The cost of living more generally, through the inflation rate, and in Melbourne through food and transport prices, have all added to the barrier. What we're seeing is that mums and dads in regional communities who have a son or daughter who has to move away from home to pursue their chosen course are up for at least at least $25,000 to $30,000 per year in out-of-pocket costs, and that's after tax. They've already paid tax on their income. They're doing money in cold blood to make sure that the young person in their family can move away from home, find accommodation and meet the cost of living such a long way from their family home.

The previous government did some good work in this space by improving access to youth allowance and providing the tertiary access payment, but there is more to be done. The Universities Accord makes it clear that there is more to be done, and we have to do more. Unfortunately, the legislation before the House today, in terms of the question of economic barriers for regional students, really only tinkers around the edges. It is harder than ever, with this increased cost of living, for our young people in regional Australia to move away from home and achieve their full potential at a university course based in a metropolitan area. So we do need more holistic reforms than what we're seeing here tonight. I say to the Minister for Education in all sincerity: I'm up for the challenge if he's up for the challenge of working in a constructive way to ensure that the needs of regional people are properly represented as he rolls out the further program of reform required under the Universities Accord.

One of the opportunities we have in this place, and one of the opportunities we have in our regional communities, is to reduce the need to move away from home in first place. So the more that we can do to support our regional university sector to provide a broader range of courses in those regional towns the less the need is for our students to move away to study in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide or Perth. Now, that's easier said than done, because, obviously, you need a critical mass of students to run a course in a regional location.

The member for New England is right beside me, and his University of New England at Armidale is an impressive institution. We should be investing in our regional institutions, those regional campuses, so that those students who don't want the big city experience, who'd rather stay in their own regional towns and pocket the savings, quite honestly, have the opportunity to study in those communities. We know, particularly in the health fields, that, if a regional student undertakes a degree in nursing or midwifery or any other allied health course, or becomes a GP, that regional student is more likely to return to those regional communities and address the skilled workforce shortage we're facing. It's even better if they don't have to leave in the first place. If there are more opportunities for them to study in their own communities, they stay connected to their communities. They stay connected to their family life and their sporting clubs, and they don't incur those cost barriers which are making it harder and harder for our current regional students to excel in their chosen course.

Put yourself in the shoes of a 17-, 18- or 19-year-old country person who, in one year, is expected to move many hours away from home; set up house or move into accommodation provided by the university; get their licence; be allowed to go to pubs and drink responsibly; study; and, because Mum and Dad aren't made of money, they've got to get a part-time job as well. They've got to do all that as a 17-, 18- or 19-year-old. Is it any wonder that many of those young people feel like they fail or can't absorb it all in one year? Some of them come back home broken; it's all been too much for them. We should not be allowing situations to develop where we set up young people to fail. We need to be making sure that we reduce the cost barriers, or we make to make it easier for them to stay in their home communities, in their regional communities, and stay the course that they're choosing.

In the little bit of time I have left, in relation to the accord, I want to note a couple of things about the Group of Eight—or the sandstone universities—in this country. I suggest to them that they need to lift the game too, in terms of the way they deliver courses and in the way they accommodate regional students and their specific needs. I think the sector is in for a massive disruption. We saw the disruption that's occurred in a whole range of other industries in recent times through COVID, and you look at the media sector and a whole range of other industries that have changed dramatically. The Group of Eight are basically still delivering courses on their own terms to suit them, not to suit the needs of regional students. There is no reason whatsoever why some regional students could not have all their courses delivered to them—their time in front of tutors and in front of their classes—in a day or two, rather than spread out across a whole week. That would allow some of our regional students to keep connected to their own communities. They wouldn't have to be there all week; they wouldn't have to incur the cost of $25,000 or $30,000 a year that I mentioned earlier. I believe the Group of Eight could do a lot better in terms of outreach to regional students in their own communities, using telecommunications and using the new regional study hubs better to allow more of those students to study in their home towns.

As I said at the outset, this is a piece of work that will help young people achieve their full potential right across our nation. I congratulate the minister for his work on the accord. I encourage him to keep going further and to work with members on this side of the House who have been passionate about this issue for more than a decade and who are willing to work in a constructive way to ensure that the needs of rural and regional students are properly respected in the debate and that the needs of rural and regional students are addressed in a manner which helps us overcome those barriers I spoke about earlier. We have a good education system in this nation, as I said. Unfortunately, it continues to serve some people better than others, and, too many times, the 'others' are our regional students, and we are letting them down. We're letting them down in this place. We can do better. We must do better. And I look forward to working with the minister in a constructive manner for the remainder of this term of parliament.

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