Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is now well and truly clear that the Abbott government's budget of broken promises has been roundly rejected by the Australian public. They did not vote for it and they do not want it. In response, the desperation of the Abbott government is growing by the day and we are starting to see some truly extraordinary justifications for the measures in the budget. The most extraordinary yet is the Treasurer's latest justification that the budget is really about restoring fairness to Australian society. Well, I can definitively inform the House that there is nothing fair about the government's proposed higher education changes.

The cornerstone of a fair education system is equality of access: that merit, not means, should determine who goes to university. That is what our current tertiary education system—a system designed by the Labor Party in government—is designed to achieve. Take Victoria University in my electorate, the centrepiece of tertiary education in Melbourne's west. Victoria University prides itself on being a university that brings people in from all walks of life to receive a great education, in particular those who do not have a family history of attending university. Indeed, in his recent Mitchell lecture the Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University, Peter Dawkins, stated that the aspiration of Victoria university was to:

… provide outstanding opportunities for students from diverse education backgrounds to enter and exit tertiary education …

The figures support this aspiration. Currently, around 60 per cent of Victoria University's students undertaking a bachelor degree do not have parents with university degrees. This is around double the national average. The Abbott government's plans to massively hike both student fees and their ongoing debt costs, however, are a direct attack on this model of opportunity. According to Professor Bruce Chapman, the original designer of the HECS higher education system, as a result of these changes:

Fees will go up and they will go up quite significantly.

How much would these fees rise? Initial estimates have suggested they will rise by at least 30 per cent, but other commentators are even more pessimistic. Indeed, Professor Chapman suggests:

… most universities will increase tuition fees to international student fee levels, which are currently about three times higher.

For students from families who have never studied at the university before, this level of debt is incomprehensible. How does a 16-year-old from a family in Sunshine in my electorate—from a family which is never undertaken tertiary education—justify taking on over $50,000 in debt just to take a degree?

For many students who do not have firsthand experience of the benefits of further education in their family homes, this cost will be enough to prevent them from seeking this higher education. This is the fear of VU vice-chancellor, Peter Dawkins, who has argued that the Abbott government's proposed changes carry a real risk of:

… discouraging disadvantaged students and/or diminishing the quality of education that students from poorer backgrounds receive, …

He says that this 'iniquity' is the most concerning effect of the budget. This is a far cry from the fairness furphy being pushed by the Treasurer.

The Abbott government may try to use the facade of fairness in trying to defend their indefensible budget, but even the experts agree that the change in the university sector will make Australia a more unfair and unequal place. (Time expired)