Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

  This government's so-called higher-education reforms are a shambles. It is a flawed policy, and it should be thrown on the scrap heap. Deregulation of university fees means that many young students will start their working lives with crippling debts while others will simply see university as being completely out of reach. These reforms will particularly hit people in regional Australia, like my electorate of Newcastle, hard. And despite what members opposite, living in some sort of fantasy world, think—that regional Australia thinks this is a good deal—let me bring to your attention some of the views of those at the University of Newcastle. Nearly a third of all students at the University of Newcastle are from low-socioeconomic backgrounds, well above the sector average of 15 per cent. But it is proudly a university for everyone, a university that delivers excellence coupled with equity, not in spite of it.

In the university's submission to the Senate inquiry into higher education they highlighted aspects of this bill, as currently proposed, that will indeed limit future capacity of universities to deliver excellence and equity. Regional universities like Newcastle are particularly concerned about the cuts in Commonwealth funding to unis, the deregulation of student fees, increased interest on HELP loans for students, and the proposed structure of Commonwealth scholarships. The University of Newcastle is set to lose more than $153 million because of these cuts. No campaigns, no tweaking or tinkering of this bill will change the informed view of the Australian people that this plan is a dud. (Time expired)