Fiona Scott (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. Will the minister explain how the government's higher education reforms will help the people in my electorate of Lindsay gain greater access to universities?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr Conroy interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Charlton will desist.

Fiona Scott (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How does this compare with other approaches?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I have to confess that I did not hear the question because of the shouting.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was having trouble myself. I call the honourable member for Lindsay.

Fiona Scott (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to—

Mr Conroy interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We will have some silence to listen to the question. That includes the member for Charlton.

Fiona Scott (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. Will the minister please explain how the government's higher education reforms will help my people in the electorate of Lindsay gain greater access to universities? How does this compare with other approaches?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am happy to tell the member for Lindsay that the University of Western Sydney is a great asset to her in Western Sydney and to the people of Western Sydney. People like those in Western Sydney will be big winners from the government's higher education reforms that we are introducing through the budget. They will be big winners because we are expanding university education to 80,000 more students around Australia, many of which will be low socioeconomic status students and first-generation university goers, just like many of those who go to the University of Western Sydney in the member for Lindsay's electorate. We are expanding and creating Commonwealth scholarships. We are lifting the cap on diplomas, which the University of Western Sydney specialises in, as pathways for first-generation university goers. And we are opening the Commonwealth Grant Scheme to non-university higher education providers, which will create competition and a bigger market for students in the University of Western Sydney, giving more young Australians the opportunity to get a higher education qualification.

We have a plan in this budget to re-energise higher education as a sector in Australia in the future. That stands in stark contrast with the approaches taken by the Labor Party, because the Labor Party is no longer the working class party; it is the whingeing party of Australia.

Mr Dreyfus interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Isaacs will desist.

Mr Champion interjecting—

The member for Wakefield, as usual, will desist.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Labor Party approach in government was to cut $2.7 billion from universities without the corresponding granting of freedom to universities to innovate and compete with their Asian competitors. Labor's approach is to say no to 80,000 more places at university, to say no to the Commonwealth scholarships fund, to say no to expanding the Commonwealth Grant Scheme to non-university higher education providers, and to say no to lifting the cap on diplomas so that those people in Western Sydney get the chance to use pathways into being first-generation university goers.

Unfortunately, Australia's No. 1 whinger has no plans for Australia's future. The only response he has is to say no to the government's attempt to re-energise higher education to give our universities the chance to compete against their Asian competitors. But we will persist because we know that what we are doing is right and good for students and universities in the future.