Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to say how disappointed I am that the government's higher education reforms did not pass the Senate yesterday, stymied by the Labor-Greens partners and a small number of Independents. It was a very close vote, and I am particularly disappointed because the changes would have expanded opportunities for students in my home state of Tasmania. Without these changes, the university sector is just not sustainable; the universities themselves have told us that. Despite the consensus support of the higher education sector, Labor, the Greens and a small number of Independents have ignored the necessity for reform. Bill Shorten and Labor have again failed to act responsibly and in the best interests of Australia's higher education sector. They ripped $2.3 billion out of the sector before the last election, and now they provide no alternative, just persisting with the mendacious campaign—a scare campaign—about Americanisation and the doubling and tripling of fees which even the universities themselves have repudiated.

Of greater concern to me is the effect on my home state of Tasmania and the link between these reforms and an innovative proposal by the University of Tasmania to enhance the Launceston and north-west campuses. I believe that proposal has great potential, and I have been working for months to promote the idea with senior colleagues like the education minister. A key reason we must change is that an unacceptably low number of Tasmanians participate in higher education. Only 6.7 per cent of Tasmanians go to university and, for the sake of our future innovation, for the sake of our prosperity, that has to change.

I am puzzled by Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie's decision to vote against the bill. She has publicly said that she wants a better deal for the University of Tasmania yet has voted against the very means of achieving that better deal for our state. The problem is that, unless these reforms pass the Senate, the UTAS concept has no future, because it depends on a steady stream of students to make it work. You do not secure government investment in expensive infrastructure at UTAS if you do not have a growing market. Without the reform bill, without the pathway programs and that additional activity at the university of Tasmania, the business case does not stack up.

Under the current scheme, there are simply not enough funded pathway programs to make that significant investment work. Senator Lambie says that she wants to do the right thing by Tasmania and I agree with her; we must. If that is the case, I call on Senator Lambie to support the higher education reform package for the good of Tasmania when those reforms are reintroduced into the Senate. I call on Senator Lambie and the other crossbenchers to seize this opportunity to secure a sustainable higher education sector that will benefit students, particularly in areas that need it most like my home state of Tasmania.