Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Be it as I am unexpectedly here to speak on this occasion, I think we have some very important points as a coalition to put forward. I note that it was only a couple of days ago that we announced our regional education fund. As a member of a very rural electorate—Barker has often been referred to as the most rural electorate in Australia; it is a wonderful electorate—we have had some extraordinary feats in the area of agriculture. We only need to look at, for example, how good we are at producing wine in the electorate of Barker. With areas such as the Barossa and the Coonawarra and Padthaway and Mount Benson and Wrattonbully and the River Murray regions, we are very proud of what we do. But it is also very important that we educate our young.

We have a very important task in rural areas to ensure that we can educate our young and give them the same sorts of abilities and capacities that their city cousins have. That is why we announced on the weekend the regional education fund. If elected a coalition government will invest $1 billion in a new regional education fund that will provide capital investment and additional support for schools, vocational and education training providers and universities in rural and regional areas. Rural people find it much harder to go to university. The fact is that most of the students in my electorate have to leave home to attend university unless they have the opportunity to attend one of the few regional universities, given the limited subjects that they have.

I think this really goes to the fact that we originally set up the Higher Education Endowment Fund, or the HEEF, with an initial capital of $5 billion and a subsequent contribution of $1 billion to provide universities with a regular long-term source of infrastructure funding. Upon coming into government, Labor took our idea and renamed the Higher Education Endowment Fund as the Education Investment Fund. Unfortunately, they have drawn down its funds, built up by the previous coalition government, raiding what was meant to be a perpetual, secure, long-term source of financing for university infrastructure. As there is only $2 billion remaining in that fund from the original fund—it has not taken Labor very long to draw that down—the coalition would redirect the interest earned from $1 billion of it to finance new projects in regional areas as part of the regional education fund while the capital would stay secure and untouched. That is one of the large differences between the Labor government and the coalition: they have drawn on it without actually returning those funds to the original amount that was set aside by us. This fund will be a long-term investment. It will be flexible, allowing schools, vocational and education training providers and universities to have the freedom to nominate important projects which might include new buildings, equipment or even programs designed to support and encourage teachers to move into or stay in regional and remote areas.

The REF aims to improve educational services by providing funding to regional, rural and remote organisations and universities, to establish new facilities or to enhance facilities where a lack of infrastructure, capital works and/or equipment can be demonstrated as a barrier to the delivery of essential education services. It will increase the range of, or enhance, existing educational pathways available to students from regional, rural and remote Australia. It will improve the current resources and facilities available to assist with attracting to regional areas—and retaining in those areas—the best teachers and academic staff and it will improve the viability of smaller university campuses and smaller education providers in order to support local, rural and remote communities to develop flexible, long-term solutions for the provision of services to meet community needs. (Time expired)