Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

The Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 strikes at the very heart of how difficult it is for students, particularly regional students, to make ends meet at the moment. Higher Education Loan Program, HELP, indexation has reached record levels under this government as a result of soaring inflation. You could ask any student in Australia whether they're any better off now than they were 2½ years ago and you would get an emphatic no. Under Labor, student debts have increased by 16 per cent just over the past 24 months. The impact of such high indexation is that the average loan, which is $26,494, has risen by more than $4,000.

The best loan that anyone in Australia can get is the HECS loan, the student loan, because university graduates on average earn more than those Australians who do not go to university. Those are the figures. That's just how it is. We need sparkies, chippies, brickies and all those labourers who do such wonderful things in our nation, but you get those student graduates from Charles Sturt University; UNE, the University of New England, in the member for New England's electorate; any other regional university; or any of the eight sandstone universities in Australia. Those graduates are going to earn, on average, more than those who do not go to university and do not get a certificate or diploma with the university imprimatur on the bottom of it.

Interestingly, in contrast to what's happening under Labor, indexation averaged 1.7 per cent per annum under the coalition. Student debts have increased by 16 per cent in the past two years; under the Liberals and Nationals, indexation averaged 1.7 per cent per year. This is having a big effect on students' ability to repay that debt. Whilst that loan will, on average, provide them with a better life and more income going forward, they still have to pay it back. I appreciate there's also a threshold to reach before they have to pay back that debt. Nevertheless, student debt is going up and up. How is this fair?

We all can remember Labor members—certainly the then opposition leader and now Prime Minister—running around saying that they would be better for young people, that they would provide more hope for university students. I'm the proud father of three graduates of Charles Sturt University. One did a teaching degree, one did accountancy—my eldest son—and my other young fella did policing. I'm very proud to say that Charles Sturt University made its major campus in Wagga Wagga. I know it's headquartered in Bathurst now, but certainly the origins of CSU were at Wagga Wagga. The late Wal Fife, who was the member for Farrer and the member for Hume, played a big role in RMIHE becoming Charles Sturt University in 1989, as did Dr Cliff Blake. They built Charles Sturt University north of the river. At the time, they were criticised for putting it so far out of town. I well remember that people said, 'Why would you want to build a university campus out there?' It is a magnificent setting, and they provide magnificent outcomes for young people—and some who are not so young.

Charles Sturt University put in a submission in relation to this bill, emphasising the uniquely high financial barriers faced by regional students. I had a meeting just last week with Professor Renee Leon PSM, the CSU vice-chancellor, about all matters relating to Charles Sturt University. She's concerned about the cap on international students and how that will affect the bottom line of CSU. I understand that. I was pleased today to be able to broker a meeting between her and the education minister, the member for Blaxland, whilst we were in the Federation Chamber discussing another Universities Accord bill before the House, which we voted on a little earlier.

In her submission in relation to this bill, Professor Leon quite correctly indicated that it's not just the cost of the degrees but also the cost of getting to, staying in and succeeding at university. That's an impost. Members who will stand up and speak on this bill may not understand the uniquely regional effects and the uniquely regional disadvantages that some students face in wanting to get their diploma at a regional university.

The great thing about regional universities is that 75 per cent of those who do a degree there stay in the regions, and quite often it's the region where the university is providing the course. Seventy-five per cent of them will stay regional. That's why I was so proud to be able to put in place, through UNSW, the Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network, which I know is already a success. I know that just in Wagga Wagga there are more than 30 students studying at what will soon be a big new shiny building in the medical precinct, right there next to the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital. Seventy-five per cent of those graduates from UNSW—the rate is probably higher; UNSW says it's about 90 per cent for that particular course—will stay and become the general practitioners and the specialists of the future in rural communities. That is what it is all about.

CSU supports without caveat the creation of fee-free uni ready courses. That's part of their submission. Professor Renee Leon states:

Preparatory programs have proven to be an effective way of boosting higher education access and attainment for students from disadvantaged, First Nations and regional backgrounds. Charles Sturt University has a proven track record in providing such programs …

Indeed, it does.

As a proud advocate for regional education, I'm very supportive of initiatives which help open new pathways and careers for people living in regional Australia. I know and I re-emphasise just how difficult it is in this cost-of-living crisis for students, particularly for students who might come from remote areas to study in other areas of regional Australia—other areas which are less remote—but also for those city students who want a country lifestyle along with their university education. Why wouldn't you? If you were sitting in traffic every day, why wouldn't you want to go out to Armidale or Wagga Wagga or Orange—

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