Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before the debate was interrupted I was indicating that the government has had no commitment to higher education in the decade that it has been in office. There is no point in trying to trick the Australian public into believing that it has suddenly accepted the community benefits of higher education. Since the government has been in office, it has systematically set about cutting as much as it could from higher education in all forms. It has set about destroying an excellent health and education sector for reasons that I have to say are unfathomable to me. Since this government came to office it has systematically and clinically set about slashing $5 billion in grants to universities.

This government has overseen, under a succession of ministers, a decline in public investment in TAFEs and universities of seven per cent, while other OECD countries have increased expenditure by an average of 48 per cent, according to the recent OECD publication Education at a glance 2006. The very same report went on to indicate that Australian students are now paying the second highest fees in the world. That is not a very good reflection on the way we treat education in this country. Australian university fees are now only surpassed by those of the United States.

This government has set about a process of Americanising everything and it has all but achieved it when it comes to education. Under this government we now have 100 courses which cost $100,000. Some of the courses presently on offer in this country range up to $230,000. As the OECD report which I referred to earlier noted:

In Australia, the main reason for the increase in the private share of spending on tertiary institutions between 1995 and 2003 was changes to the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) that took place in 1997.

Student debt is increasing by $2 billion a year and is projected to reach the $20 billion mark by 2008-09. What is this government doing about that? The answer is that there is no plan to meet that. This government is more than willing to continue along the path of higher HECS debts and higher fees for students. It tries to mount the preposterous argument that HECS debt is increasing because student numbers are increasing. But the main increase in student numbers is not from HECS students; it is from the full fee paying students. That is how this government has opened up our universities. That is where growth is occurring, not from our kids trying to gain their education at university and using HECS. The growth is through the full fee paying system. That is how the government has rejigged the financial balance of our university sector.

The opposition’s amendment to this bill has been criticised by various government members in their contributions, but I stand by the amendment moved because the figures speak for themselves. The figures tell us the degree of havoc that this government has inflicted on the higher education sector. As the amendment rightly notes, this government is jeopardising Australia’s future prosperity by reducing public investment in tertiary education as the rest of the world increase their investment. This is not an argument about what a good bottom-line budget would be for any one, two, three or so years; this is an argument about what is good for the prosperity of our country and what is designed to lift productivity for the future prosperity of our country.

The government makes it easy to stand before this House today and criticise its record on tertiary education. I have already spent some time highlighting some of the major flaws as I see it in this government’s approach to higher education. But, having said that, I think it is also appropriate that I comment on the positive initiatives that the Labor Party has put forward for higher education. Unlike the government, which plans to Americanise our tertiary education sector, Labor has a plan to support it. That is the traditional way that Labor has approached education. Recently, through the shadow minister for education, Labor released a white paper which develops a new policy framework for higher education, research and innovation.

It is a landmark policy, a policy framework that will take Australia forward. It is a policy framework that recognises that tertiary education is not a burden on society but rather an investment in our future. That is the point I would like to stress: with respect to education, we need to be prepared to invest in our future. Central to Labor’s plan is lifting up all universities to build a prosperous future for all Australians. Under a Labor government, all universities would be better off. They would not be, as they are now, a means for the government to extend its extreme industrial relations laws. They would not be used as a whipping horse or for blackmail, as the government is doing now with universities to impose Australian workplace agreements on lecturers and administrative staff. Moreover, they would be used as centres of learning to produce the desired results for students who are going to be responsible for delivering productivity growth for this country into the future.

Labor’s white paper points the way forward on issues such as the reform of university funding, world-class and world-scale research hubs, the expansion of associate degrees and a new Australian higher education quality agency. The implementation of Labor’s plan would mean that Australians would have access to the best possible education and training to compete with the rest of the world. Students want to know that they will receive a high-quality education, not a high-cost education. Employers want to know, and they want to be confident, that the qualifications that people present to them when they are applying for jobs are consistent. They want to know the status of those qualifications. It is simply not good enough for our system to be one that does not assure at least minimum standards of quality. Merit should be the means by which you get into education, not the size of your bank balance. It is not a complex idea, but it is the basis on which Australia’s future prosperity must be built.

Despite the clear evidence to the contrary, the government continues to pursue its ideological agenda against universities with all of the vigour with which it pursues its industrial relations agenda. People already fear for their children in the workforce; they should not have to fear for their children’s prosperity and prospects in the education system as well.

The continuation of the government’s policies will mean that Australia’s higher education sector will continue to lag behind the rest of the world. As I mentioned earlier, the OECD reports that since 1995 there has been a seven per cent reduction in the public expenditure on university education. In the United States, by way of comparison, there has been an increase of nearly 70 per cent. In Japan the increase has been just over 30 per cent. In New Zealand, Austria and Germany the increase has been slightly over 10 per cent. The OECD members have shown an average increase of 48 per cent. I think that most reasonable people can see the trend here. Most countries are investing in higher education—they are investing in their tertiary sector—but Australia is going backwards.

There are some very fine universities in this country. I am particularly proud of the impact that the University of Western Sydney has on the Macarthur region. It is an excellent facility staffed by very dedicated people. I was very pleased to see that it received some additional medical student positions under the COAG agreement, and I look forward to some highly skilled medical practitioners being turned out from the Campbelltown campus. These students will be in good hands under the stewardship of the vice-chancellor, Janice Reid, and Professor Neville Yeomans. They have done a sterling job. Recently they have recruited Dr Andrew McDonald as an associate professor. Dr McDonald heads paediatrics at Campbelltown Hospital. I know what a sterling job they do. I am glad to see that they have such a talented staff to look after and oversee the development of these young doctors for the future.

Universities like the University of Western Sydney need to be supported. However, once again we are seeing important legislation introduced into the parliament in a rush. It is going to be pushed through. The government does not want time spent on its record. It does not want to discuss that, particularly when it comes to the higher education sector. It does not want any form of close examination of these proposals. I am sure that the government did not want to hear the comments of Alan Jones on the Today show this morning when he raised this particular issue. In her second reading speech the Minister for Education, Science and Training said:

The bill before the House is a clear expression of the Australian government’s strong commitment to higher education and will enhance the quality of our higher education system and the choices available to students. It reflects the government’s commitment to ensuring that Australia’s higher education sector continues to play a vital role in our economic, cultural and social development.

Regrettably, that is simply not the case. This government has systematically failed to make the necessary investment in education that will drive Australia forward. It has failed to make the necessary investment in the medical workforce. People in my electorate remember that one of the first things this government did when it came to office a decade ago was to slash the number of GP training positions. We are now paying the price for that. We are paying the price for what occurred 10 years ago. In the outer metropolitan areas of Sydney, we have one GP to 1,700 people. The federal Department of Health and Ageing’s recommendation for what is acceptable is one GP to 1,200. That shows how this has impacted on the outer metropolitan areas of Sydney and—if everyone in this place is honest—on other electorates as well.

Full fee degrees, degrees with a price tag the size of the average mortgage and massive student debt are not the way to produce the highly skilled workforce that Australia is going to need to compete on the world stage. That is not what we need for the future. It is not what we need if we are seriously going to provide economic prosperity for this country.

I support the amendment moved by the shadow minister for education and training. Unlike the government, Labor knows that the best way to promote innovation— (Time expired)

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I realise that my extensive discussion on the Higher Education Legislation Amendment (2006 Budget and Other Measures) Bill 2006 this afternoon will last only about 90 seconds. However, given the nature of this legislation, I want to remind the House of a question which was asked of the Prime Minister on 14 October 1999. The member for Grey asked the Prime Minister:

... does the government stand by its commitments in the area of higher education made at the time of the release of the West report into higher education and at the last election?

The Prime Minister’s response was:

There will be no $100,000 university fees under this government. That is a figment of the Labor Party’s propaganda machine, and everyone knows that is what it is.

That figment is now a reality. It is a reality that the Howard government has burdened the Australian people with. There are now more than 100 degree courses in Australia with costs in excess of $100,000. Do the Prime Minister and the government really think that average Australians can afford such a degree? What has happened, and this legislation demonstrates it, is that this government has sold out on higher education—sold out the interests of young Australians, the interests of the Australian community and the wealth of the nation.

Debate interrupted.