Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. How does Australia’s higher education system measure up against the world? What action is the government taking to address this?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. When it comes to Australia’s higher education system, the Rudd Labor government wants to make sure it benefits from a higher education revolution as part of the education revolution. In order to deliver that—and I am glad that the member has raised the important question of higher education—the first steps are to deliver on our election commitments. On this side of the House, we believe in delivering on election commitments; on that side of the House, they are brushed away as non-core a moment after they are made. But we are delivering on our election commitments. We are of course delivering on our commitment to commence the phase-out of full-fee-paying places. I will be very interested when the new shadow minister for education can answer this question about higher education: do the Liberal Party still stand for the ability of Australians to buy a place in university over a student of merit? Do they still stand for that fundamental unfairness?

Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Never have!

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Was that no? Actually, your government introduced that fundamental unfairness, and you might want to clarify that question: whether you stand for that unfairness—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Deputy Prime Minister will address her remarks through the chair.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and whether you stand for the ability of university places to not be allocated on the basis of merit. We are also delivering our policies for more places for nurses and early childhood educators. We are doubling the scholarships available to undergraduates. We are committed to rebuilding student services, and we are of course committed to incentives for maths and science, because they are enabling disciplines where we are in such short supply as part of the skills shortage. But, to deliver a full higher education revolution to this country, we will need to do more. This is a government that not only believes in delivering its promises; it believes in delivering on reform—reform that is necessary to make sure that this is a modern nation ready to meet the challenges of the future.

It is interesting to me that when one moves around the higher education community they still talk about the Dawkins reforms. They are still debating and still talking about the Dawkins reforms. There are views in favour, views against, but Dawkins’s name has become synonymous with higher education reform in this country. There will never be a day when higher education policy people will talk about the Nelson reforms or the Bishop reforms, because they never did anything profound to improve our higher education system. Instead, they had years of neglect interspersed periodically by ideological meddling, the high point of which was the imposition of Australian workplace agreements, their industrial relations extremism, on Australian universities. The sorts of things they stand for are extremism in all places. Reform, promise delivery? Never.

In order to deliver the rest of the higher education revolution, we want to be guided by a review that includes the sector.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Whilst the opposition of course are catcalling, this is part of their historic trend of denigrating all things to do with universities. The Leader of the Opposition, when Minister for Education, Science and Training, used to make it an art form, pretending that universities were ivory castles disconnected from the rest of society. On this side of the House, we believe our universities and our higher education system should be treated with respect and we believe what happens in those universities matters to all Australians. What the Leader of the Opposition never understood when he engaged in that denigration of our universities is: you cannot take a kid to the doctor without a university system. Your child in school cannot have all the subject choices they would like without a university system, and you cannot have global research efforts like the invention of the cervical cancer vaccine without a university system. But what did the Howard government do? Denigrated our universities over 12 long years.

Today, to guide us in the delivery of the higher education revolution, I have announced a wide-ranging review. It will be guided by Emeritus Professor Denise Bradley. Professor Bradley is the National President of the Australian College of Educators and a former Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of South Australia—exactly the sort of person that the opposition would denigrate because she is from the higher education system.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Urban Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. During the course of this week there has been a series of answers to questions which have approached the nature of a ministerial statement. None has been more along those lines than this answer. Given that this is approaching a ministerial statement in nature, I would suggest that it is appropriate that we be given time to respond or otherwise that such statements not be made in answers to questions.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question was in order and the Deputy Prime Minister is responding to the question.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This review will be overarching and will inform the formation of our compacts with universities, which will value their unique mission in our university system. Delivering on our promises is the first step in our higher education revolution. This review will guide the next steps in our higher education revolution. It comes from a political party that puts education at the forefront, which values it from preschool all the way through school and vocational education and training and through to university. The opposition is led by two people with a track record of failure as ministers for education. They were never associated with profound reform. We are going to get on with the job of making sure our education system, including our higher education system, is ready for the challenges of the future.