Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I want to start with some acknowledgements of the work that was done in the final report of the Australian Universities Accord review. They talked about the value of our universities and what they bring not just to our people but to our nation. They started that report with this simple statement:

Higher education is vital to Australia's future: the knowledge, skills and research it produces enable us to be an economically prosperous, socially equitable and environmentally sustainable nation.

They highlighted that universities are key to uplifting the quality of life here in Australia. They noted the important role that universities have in promoting democracy and civic values. And the accord's work highlighted the importance of employment—that we have better jobs and higher paid jobs because of our university sector.

But, right up front, the accord review also noted that there was not enough integration in our education system. They said very plainly to everyone in this place, to our nation and to the vice-chancellors across the nation that every part of Australia's education system needs to work together. That's the only way we're going to meet the skills challenges that Australia faces.

Thankfully, in meeting those challenges we start from a good place. We start with a high-quality tertiary education system. We start with a system that performs above the OECD average. But it's a system that is under pressure, and some of that pressure we will relieve with the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 today. Supporting our universities is not just about making sure that the next generation can get a great education and a great job; our universities also contribute to solving some of the other challenges that we deal with in this place day in, day out. In terms of the threats to our social cohesion, a large part of the solution to that challenge is tertiary education, and that's clearly in the report.

I want to share a story I've shared in this place before about the change that's already happened in our universities. I'm going to take you, those who are choosing to listen, back to 1957, to the start of a new semester at the University of Western Australia. You had a new cohort of enthusiastic students, sweating in the February sun on the edges of the Swan River. Probably the student amongst that cohort in 1957 who was most nervous and most unsure about what this experience of university was going to be like was Irwin Lewis. Irwin Lewis was the first Aboriginal student to attend university in Western Australia, in 1957. He was attending university just three years after what had been known as the 'native pass' system was finally abolished in Perth. He came from Morawa and went on to be dux at Christ Church Grammar School, a renowned school in Western Australia. Not content with just getting a degree from the great University of Western Australia, he then went on to play for the Claremont Football Club in their 1964 grand final win and on to an excellent career as a public servant. The story of Irwin Lewis's life is a story about the power of what happens when we open the doors of opportunity and welcome more into our higher education system.

I had correspondence with a woman called Pat Pearce, who was working at the university bookshop back in the 1950s. Pat's a wonderful person and a supporter of this side of the House, but she often gives advice to me and my staff about things that I could maybe do more effectively. These were her words about that day back in 1957: 'I was on the UWA campus the day Irwin Lewis started at uni. The buzz was everywhere.' That again just shows that people in our higher education system are excited to welcome more people into these excellent institutions.

I've been very fortunate in my life to have attended Curtin University and the University of Western Australia. I had not just an excellent education but the opportunity to experience those great things that happen above and beyond just paying for the courses that allow you to get the qualifications you want. You make lifelong friends, and that's not just with fellow students. I was really fortunate to serve on the Curtin University Council alongside Dr Eric Tan, a really excellent leader in Western Australia. I saw amazing university administrators who really had passion in their hearts for both their students and their academics. They were people like Lance Twomey, Jane den Hollander and Val Raubenheimer. They were people who gave so much to education and to academia in Western Australia. Unashamedly I made lifelong friends at university. When we open the doors of university to more and ensure that people can have a quality experience when they're at university, then we do so much of what it is that I think we all aspire to do in this place, which is to allow every Australian to reach their full potential.

This bill is about taking a good education system and making it fairer. It's about wiping HECS debt. For my electorate alone, some 25,000 people will have their HECS debt wiped as a result. It's about bringing in, for the first time, a Commonwealth prac payment, making sure we support people who are in the final stages of their study. It's about expanding Fee-Free Uni Ready courses so that more people can go into our universities and be welcomed in without having that big upfront fear of fees. They might be the first in their family to go to university. It's also about a down payment on our goal of having 80 per cent of the Australian population have a university, TAFE or trade qualification, recognising that, when we invest in our people, we invest in our society and everyone benefits. It's not just the people who go to university who benefit from a quality education. The people around them and the society in which they live will benefit as well.

With that, Deputy Speaker Vasta, I commend this bill to you and to this parliament. I know that it will be a significant downpayment on our investment, from this place, in the future generations who will lead Australia in the decades and centuries to come.

Debate interrupted.

See this speech in context