Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of this bill, the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024, which responds to some of the key recommendations in the Australian Universities Accord final report. The Universities Accord was a long-awaited and important review into the way higher education is delivered in Australia. Over decades, the Australian university system has evolved, and the way Australians access education has changed. I commend the government for commencing and committing to this review and for commissioning this report into how we improve the quality, accessibility, affordability and sustainability of higher education.

The review looked at meeting Australia's current and future knowledge and skills needs; improving access to higher education across teaching, learning and research; exploring better alignment between VET and universities; and supporting a system of university research that delivers for Australia. The resulting report made 47 recommendations.

The bill being debated today introduces five of the 47 review recommendations and budget commitments. The two that are most significant to my constituents and about which I get the most emails and calls are: changes to the HELP indexation scheme to make study more affordable, and changes to funding arrangements for practical placements. These changes will go some of the way to improving access and opportunity for Australian students and to easing the financial burden for a small group who are studying or will study in future. But I urge the government to do so much more to make education more accessible.

I want to talk about these two changes, how they could be improved and the need for broader reform. When it was first introduced in 1989, the HECS system was the world's first national income-contingent charging mechanism for higher education. In 1989 only 12 per cent of Australians had a university degree. At that time it was considered unfair to expect all taxpayers to fully fund the higher education of this 12 per cent, as they would eventually earn more than an average full-time worker. By 2021, about 39 per cent of people aged 25 to 34 years had a bachelor's degree or higher. This is good news for the country, because a better-educated workforce is able to make the most of evolving economic opportunities, and higher-paying jobs are theoretically available to more Australians. But it also means that far more students are saddled with a HECS debt.

Over this time, government has also reduced the proportion of higher education it subsidises, with the expected student contribution increasing from about 20 per cent to about 48 per cent of student course costs. This means that HECS debts are burdening a generation of young people. Students now finish their degrees with average debts of $50,000 to $60,000. They're taking, on average, about 12 years to repay their debts.

HECS debts have been indexed by the rate of inflation, so in recent years student debt has outgrown earnings. The outstanding HECS debts owed by graduates have ballooned from $22.5 billion in 2011 to $78 billion in 2023. Many young Australians had no idea what they were getting into when they signed up to university at the age of 17 or 18. Higher inflation has resulted in indexation of 3.9 per cent and then 7.1 per cent in the last two years. This is having a real impact on intergenerational inequity. Young people are facing higher HECS debt on top of unaffordable housing and a tax system that disproportionately taxes effort.

In this context it makes sense to reduce the financial burden on young people. HECS debt will be indexed from now at the lower of the consumer price index or the wage price index. This change will mean that your debt won't grow faster than prices or wages. This is a modest but commonsense change to recognise the social benefit of higher education and stop penalising young people for investing in their future. I acknowledge and thank my colleague the member for Kooyong for her work in publicising this issue, mobilising the community and demanding a fairer approach to paying for education. I'm proud to sit with her on the crossbench that's driving positive change.

But I think we need to do more. Federal funding for Australian universities has decreased from 80 per cent in 1992 to around 35 per cent today. In 1996, student fees constituted about 10 per cent of universities' income. For some tertiary centres that figure is now 70 per cent. Our universities are relying on international student fees to fund research and domestic student fees to keep the lights on. We need to do better. Education is worth investing in. If we want a prosperous and forward-looking society, we need to support easier pathways into higher education, whether at university or at a VET institute, and that shouldn't be restricted to the wealthy.

The prac payment for those training in teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work is a welcome development. From July 2025, eligible students will be able to access $319.50 per week while they're undertaking a placement, although a means test will apply. However, the Universities Accord recommended this form of support to students in the care and education sectors, and the legislation applies it only to the approximately 68,000 students who are currently undertaking teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work studies. There's really no clear or justifiable rationale for excluding students of medicine, radiography, allied health and other health sector professions, students who also undertake compulsory placements.

A few months ago I was emailed by Dave, a third-year vet science student living in Subiaco with his partner, Jen, a midwifery student and full-time nurse. He wrote to me to describe the pressure felt by his peers, who were required to complete a minimum of 52 weeks of placements over the course of a five-year degree. He said:

It is great that the Government has decided to provide payments for placements for Teaching, Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work Students; however, Veterinary Students are also struggling. They are sleeping in cars and struggling to pay rent because of a course so demanding that paid work feels like a luxury. This is devastating for our students, devasting for agriculture and exports, devastating for our pets and wildlife, devastating for our regions and devastating for our country.

I believe this measure needs to be extended to cover more prac students like Dave. Medical students and those studying to become psychologists will miss out, and these are key industries in which we know we have major shortages.

The details of how the prac payment will be calculated have been left to regulation, and there's no detail in the bill. Because the details have been delegated to a legislative instrument it means this government or a future government could decide to change it substantially. At about $8 an hour, this cannot be compared to an acceptable wage, but it is in line with Austudy. I won't go into why we're keeping our students in poverty here; that's an issue for another day. This is a generation which now, in the face of a cost-of-living crisis and a crisis of home accessibility and affordability, is being burdened with unprecedented levels of personal debt arising from their attempts to equip themselves with the skill sets required not just for their adult lives but also for the country's future prosperity. This is a generation which understands that Australian university students contribute more to government revenue than the oil and gas revenue pays in its super profits tax.

I'd also like to note the concerns from universities that the government expects universities to administer the means test, a task they're not really equipped to carry out. The bill provides for grants to be made to universities with the intention that universities will undertake means testing and make payments on a weekly basis. As such, this legislation will result in considerable additional administrative costs to universities and will require the Department of Education to establish a grant estimating and acquittal process. It will be essential that the regulations set out a clear process and appropriate support to ensure universities can deliver this with minimal administrative burden.

In conclusion, I'll support this bill because it will make a small difference to some of the students that are studying some courses and it will reduce HECS repayments for some years. But I do not think it is anywhere near enough to overcome the many current challenges in the higher education sector. Our kids are struggling to buy a house, pay for higher education, be financially secure and eventually have a family. I urge the government to do much, much more to support university and VET students.

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