Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I've spoken many times in this House about the importance of education to my late mother. While in refugee camps in Hong Kong, my mother chose to be resettled in Australia because she believed that Australia had the best education system in the world. It had. Ever since my election in 2022 I have spent the last few years engaging with youth and my community in Fowler through doorknocking, and I know that the increase in cost of living has impacted their everyday life profoundly. For the young people living in my area, travelling to and from university costs them time as our public transport system is not connected. It costs them money as they have to pay for the increased fares, tolls, petrol, food, costs and materials for their courses. That's not to mention the HECS debt, which I started to call for the reduction of when I first set foot in the House.

I know the challenges of growing up in a low-income household and having to balance work life with continuing tertiary education. I was working full time as a reporter while studying my Bachelor of Arts degree. I chose a simple arts degree, majoring in international relations and infused with philosophy and political science. I chose an arts degree because it allowed me to explore a broad range of subjects, and I wanted to increase my knowledge about what was happening in many parts of the world, while at the same time I wanted to understand the views and perspectives of the world of philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Adam Smith, Thomas Aquinas and Hannah Arendt during their existence. I believe the arts degree broadened my thinking and knowledge, contributing to my life's journey which led me to be elected as the first Independent member of my wonderful federal electorate in Fowler—a very multicultural and very diverse community. I can't emphasise enough how humbling the opportunity is, and will be, for me for a long time.

What I did not have to face during the time of studying my arts degree was the enormous spiralling debt that would confront me as soon as I entered the workforce. What the Higher Education Support Amendment (Fair Study and Opportunity) Bill 2024 does is begin to address the completely unfair and unreasonable course costs that have been imposed on arts students since the commencement of the Job-ready Graduates Scheme, or the JRG, which was introduced by the Morrison government. This policy, which the Albanese government seems to drag their feet on, has seen students charged over three times as much per unit for studying subjects related to history, archaeology, anthropology and political science, just to name a few, compared to maths, education and agriculture. Indeed, the subjects listed under the 'society and culture' cluster now attract the maximum fee chargeable to students, alongside law, banking, finance, business and management.

I know that many members on all sides of the House believe that this is wrong. I'm sure there would be many Young Labor and Young Liberal members who would very much appreciate their members supporting this bill. The JRG package was introduced, in theory, to incentivise students to choose STEM subjects at university, but the JRG package was premised on the incorrect assumption that students would respond to price signalling that disincentivised enrolling in arts courses. So unsuccessful has the JRG package been that students have continued to register in arts courses despite the enormous cost involved. All this has achieved is to unfairly burden arts students financially before they have had a chance to begin their careers. This has led to unintended consequences of systematic inequity within the education system simply because certain students chose their passions in arts and culture. How is this an equitable education system? Even, if JRG had been successful in pushing Australia's students into STEM fields, this would still be a flawed approach. Australia needs to have men and women educated in the fields of history, geography, politics and archaeology. While STEM is important in seeking solutions to questions as to what can be done with the earth's precious resources, arts degrees look at the deeper questions of how technology impacts us and assesses the moral questions raised by these advances.

Australia has a great concern for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and is seeking to understand the cultures that existed before colonisation and how they continue to share a common life. Anthropology has arguably never been as important to Australian life as it is today as we seek to find our identity as Australians in the 21st century.

Students from my electorate of Fowler are disproportionately affected by the JRG policy. Professor Michelle Arrow of Macquarie University, who is president of the Australian Historical Association, has told me that the JRG legislation has:

… brought inequity to so many students, especially poor, Indigenous, and women students seeking to make a better life for themselves.

Fowler is one of the poorest areas of our nation and has the largest community of non-English-speaking families. The fact that many of our young people get to enter university is testament to their hard work and the efforts of our wonderful schools and community groups. Punishing them with hiked up fees is a real kick in the teeth to their aspirations.

We as lawmakers in this House can do better than this. We entered this House to make a difference to our communities. Sometimes there are unfortunate results, despite our best intentions. This bill seeks to begin to put right a policy that was all downside. There was no benefit for the community. Many art students have been left worse off, especially those struggling in Western Sydney. Do not forget them.

I commend the bill to the House, and I cede the rest of my speaking time to the member for Calare.

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