Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. Given the humiliating defeat of the government's unfair higher education changes in the Senate and the comprehensive rejection by the Australian people, why won't the minister listen to Australians and finally drop his $100,000 degrees?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The premise of the question is false to start with, of course, because Labor are continuing their lies and scare campaigns about the fees that would be charged at universities, which obviously they feel they have had some success with. Why have we reintroduced a Higher Education and Research Reform Bill today? Because it is the right thing to do for Australia, for students, and for the university sector. Labor cut $6.6 billion from our university sector and gave universities no prospects of replacing that revenue. That $6.6 billion cut has damaged the university sector.

The university sector themselves, led by Brenda Robinson at Universities Australia, have said that universities are in decline and they risk stagnation without reform. Every university representative organisation has called on the parliament to pass these reform bills with amendments. Because of Labor's $6.6 billion of cuts we are making the decisions that are necessary to give universities the opportunity to replace that revenue by asking students to pay 50-50 for the costs of their education when they are currently paying 40 per cent and taxpayers are paying 60 per cent. I think that is fair, and I think that most students would be happy to pay 50-50 for the cost of their education.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do note that it is Phil Hughes's funeral today, and I would ask the opposition to at least consider, today of all days, their behaviour in the chamber. I would also remind the opposition that today—

Honourable members interjecting—

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

There will be silence. The minister will resume his seat. There will be silence in the chamber and we will listen to the answer. The Minister for Education has the call.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let me quote the Vice Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, Professor Greg Craven, who said:

Rejecting the package wholesale is not a vote for university equity. It is a vote against reality.

That is what Labor and the Greens and four of the crossbenchers did yesterday. They voted against the reality, the inevitability, of reform. If revenue is not able to flow to universities from the students, then Labor are obviously proposing it flows from the taxpayer. That means they are proposing more taxes or to take the money from other parts of the portfolios of the government to give it to education. That is the inevitable consequence of the Labor Party's position. It is either higher taxes or it is cuts to other services to fund universities.

The Regional Universities Network put out a press release today which says:

The new bill is a big step in the right direction and we acknowledge the efforts of the cross-bench Senators and the Government in progressing this,

The chair of RUN, Professor Peter Lee, said that the new bill introduced today shows that many of the issues raised by RUN have been listened to by the Senate and the government.