Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Schools) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to have the opportunity to participate in this debate on university funding. It is a very important debate that illuminates a fundamental contrast between the government's narrow vision for Australia and our future and that of the opposition, the Labor Party. Education is a key fault line in Australian politics at the moment at every level. This motion moved by the member for Griffith highlights the failings of the government when it comes to higher education, in particular the university sector. The government has made cuts that are not only short-sighted but cruel, and that will have an extraordinary impact not only at the individual level, on many young Australians, particularly those who have not had every advantage in life, but also on our collective wellbeing and our path to secure prosperity as a nation.

This motion highlights as well some of the failures of the government's political management. We remember the member for Sturt, the predecessor of the current Minister for Education, who liked to describe himself as a fixer on matters of policy and politics. When it comes to his record in the education portfolio there is a bitter irony attached to his boast. The current minister, Senator Birmingham, also carries on that attitude of being a fixer, but when we examine his record we see it looks very thin. Nothing has been fixed. When it comes to early years we are now seeing the impact of his so-called fix, with many families being pushed out of early learning, many kids denied the opportunity of access to high-quality early learning and the foundation for their school education and their journey through life. This is in defiance of the evidence and any principles of equity.

We all remember their triumph of just over a year ago and the false bravado of Minister Birmingham and of the government as a whole. They boasted that they had ended the schools funding wars. How does their boast look now? The government spoke of having ended Labor's 'special deals'. They are now flailing around whilst being internally divided, trying to stitch together deals to salvage their position. It is an extraordinary thing that Minister Birmingham has done in schools policy: he has offended every sector in the education system.

So we move on to universities. There is no fix here, because there is really no policy from the government. There is no meaningful policy after five years. That is in contrast to Labor's record of increasing investment in our universities and of recognising their critical role as an enabler of individual attainment of potential, of individual fulfilment in life, and as a driver of the sort of country we want to be, a country where we harness our greatest natural advantage—the talents of young and older Australians—to its fullest potential.

The government is in denial about that role of universities and about their critical role when it comes to research, supporting Australian businesses and investment more generally. We have seen more than $2 billion in cuts to universities. This is denying thousands of young Australians a place at university. It is impacting on the experiences of those currently at university. Over the break, I had the opportunity to speak with university students at the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University. The uncertainty that they face and feel for themselves and, indeed, for their younger brothers and sisters is palpable. It is a constraint on their opportunities and, again, on all of us.

We have this government here which once boasted, when the now Prime Minister took office, of agility and innovation. Yet its every action is to reverse of that. It is denying us the capacity to fulfil our potential by denying too many young Australians of their capacity to reach their potential. The government needs to understand the challenges of the workforce of the future.

We have just been involved in the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training on a significant bit of work around the transition from school. To make real the recommendations of that report, bipartisan recommendations, we need to do two things. We need to invest properly in our schools, but we also need to properly fund our universities and wrap that funding in a vision of a sustainable policy framework that looks to the first principles of our universities—their necessary role in enabling the higher education of talented young Australians, whatever their background, and their role as a driver of the research that is so critical to the future of the Australian economy. The government stands condemned for its neglect of Australia's universities and the cruel impact this has had and will continue to have. (Time expired)

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm grateful to the member for Fisher for proposing this motion as it gives us another opportunity to show up Labor's dishonesty and remind the people of Australia of the truth about university funding in Fisher and, indeed, all over the country. When I was at university, I studied law, and one of the things I learnt is how important it is to understand the words you are using and to use them with care. It's particularly important in our work here making the laws that govern Australians. A party that doesn't use words carefully is a party that doesn't deserve the people's trust.

Members opposite talk about cuts. They use the word 'cut's a lot. They throw it around. In fact, we have seen recently that repeating the word 'cuts' again and again is really all they have. Yet they seem, at best, to have no idea what that word means. This motion, and the whole of Labor's argument on education and health, is false, empty, meaningless, because it relies on a totally dishonest representation of this government's policy.

Let me offer members opposite some help. A quick look at a dictionary tells us that 'to cut' means 'to lower, reduce, diminish or curtail'. Perhaps they can begin to see how wrong they have been—because the Turnbull government is not lowering university funding; it is, in fact, raising it. We are not reducing university funding, but increasing it. We are not diminishing or curtailing or lessening or decreasing university funding. We are growing it by 23 per cent over the next four years. An increase of billions of dollars is not a cut, not by anyone's honest definition, and the Australian people know it.

The Turnbull government is growing federal funding to universities to a record $17 billion this year. We will spend more on universities in each of the next four years than any federal government before, but we will contain that growth to responsible levels.

In my own electorate of Fisher, we have a fantastic regional university—the University of the Sunshine Coast. The USC is a dynamic, growing institution under the exceptional leadership of Vice-Chancellor Professor Greg Hill. I'm passionate about making the Sunshine Coast the place to be for education, and I've advocated strongly on behalf of USC in Canberra. I've worked closely with them since my election on projects like the federally funded Mind and Neuroscience Thompson Institute and on my Fisher defence industry initiative.

Through its rapid growth and it's well-earned success, USC has had the third largest increase in base funding for Commonwealth supported places of any university in the country since 2009. This funding continues to grow. Last year, funding for teaching and learning came to $165 million. This year it is $172 million, and it will keep growing to $182.8 million in 2021. This substantial federal support helped USC to a net operating result of $28.8 million in 2016 and to cash and investments of $79.9 million.

Under Vice-Chancellor Hill's leadership, USC is continuing to grow, with new campuses in Moreton Bay and Fraser Coast in Hervey Bay. For the new Moreton Bay campus, which I was delighted to be part of launching earlier this year, funding will increase by $69.4 million. Next year, this campus will get $7.5 million more. In 2020-21 it will receive $22.9 million in extra funding and in 2021-22 it will see an extra $39 million. We will also increase the number of Commonwealth supported places available to USC to fill that campus with new Australian students. USC's Moreton Bay campus will have 1,200 places in 2020, 2,400 places in 2021 and 3,600 places in 2022. We are further supporting this campus with a $35 million grant to the Moreton Bay Regional Council to build infrastructure.

There are no cuts here. The federal government is absolutely powering and empowering the university sector, particularly in— (Time expired)

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It saddens and infuriates but probably doesn't surprise me to hear the spin that those opposite are trying to put on these decisions. The government's latest effective cuts to university funding are hitting hardest those who can least afford it. In the electorate of Macquarie, which I represent, around 2,000 students attend Western Sydney University. Just before Christmas, the Turnbull government decided to freeze growth in university places as part of—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 18:37 to 18:50

Just before Christmas, the Turnbull government decided to freeze growth in university places as part of a fourth attempt at university cuts. At Western Sydney University, which many of my constituents attend, they're facing some of the largest hits to any university in New South Wales. Of the more than $2.2 billion being denied to universities across Australia, $93 million will not go to Western Sydney University. About a quarter of the students come from low-income families, and nearly 62 per cent of students at Western Sydney University are the first in their family to go to uni.

By slashing their funding, the government has effectively reintroduced limits on student numbers. There was no consultation and no discussion, just a big fat roadblock to someone's education. It takes us back to the bad old days when undergraduate places were determined by bureaucrats in Canberra. That led to a university system that wasn't keeping up with population growth or the needs of a growing economy. I remember when entry scores for courses were becoming high because supply was being deliberately held tight at a time of increasing demand. 'How dare people assume that they should be entitled to do go to universities!' seemed to be the prevailing idea. The reality of John Howard's university system was that many bright students were missing out on the course that they wanted, while others, who had wealthy parents, could buy their way into a course with a lower entry score by paying full fees. We can't go back to that. That skewed universities in favour of those from the most privileged backgrounds, while there was a lack of participation from students from outer metropolitan areas like mine. That's why Labor set about boosting participation in higher education, particularly the number of students from regional Australia and disadvantaged and unrepresented backgrounds. As a result, 190,000 more Australians have attended university, many coming from areas where participation was lower.

The university system should be driven by demand. It seems those opposite want to make it harder to go to uni, but we don't. Dr Andy Marks, who's the Assistant Vice-Chancellor of Western Sydney University, rightly asks:

How will freezing university enrolments in Western Sydney bring about the monumental skills-uplift required in the region's labour force?

How will demanding nurses, teachers and social workers pay more of their HECS debt sooner help deliver the frontline services the region so desperately needs?

The same dedicated people who already can't afford to live near where they work.

These are good questions and issues to raise. The consequences of the cuts are that students will be worse off, there will be fewer staff employed, scholarships will be at risk and some of the schemes that support not just students but the wider community will have to go.

Of course, not all the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury based students go to Western Sydney University; many travel further afield to the University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales, Macquarie University, UTS and the University of Wollongong. That doesn't mean they're immune from these cuts. These cuts total $330 million over four years to those other New South Wales institutions.

Right now, many year-12 students are sitting their trial HSC in preparation for their main exams in October. Many of them have the added stress of making a decision about whether they go to university, which university to apply for and even whether or not they can really afford it. The students travelling from outer metropolitan areas, if they're lucky enough to get a place, will join the rest of Western Sydney in contending with the failing train system, hefty road tolls and long travel times, even if they're heading to a local campus. Others will opt for crazy rents and two-minute noodles in preference. Many will try and pay their way through uni on a wage that is less likely than ever to cover the cost of living, made worse by this government's attack on penalty rates. No matter which way you look at it, cutting funding to universities, especially those that impact Western Sydney, is yet another attack that will increase inequality. A Centre for Western Sydney report released last year shows bachelor degree attainment among young people in the region is 40 per cent lower than elsewhere. I'll quote Dr Marks again:

The government’s freeze on funding shows they are OK with that imbalance.

Well, I see a problem. That imbalance is not okay with me.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to speak on this motion, which gives me an opportunity to highlight the deception that typifies the Shorten Labor Party. As we know, from its conception the Labor Party has been guided by a range of philosophers—from Marx to Engels and even Mark Latham. In more recent times, we know those opposite have been inspired by Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders. But, over the recess, I think I found their true guiding philosopher: Seinfeld's George Costanza. In fact, I've begun to wonder whether George Costanza's favourite maxim, 'It's not a lie if you believe it', was at some point surreptitiously inserted into the Labor Party's constitution. This Costanza-ite motion follows in the tradition of 'Mediscare' and 'Operation Tell Mistruths about Caboolture Hospital'. It's yet another embarrassing attempt to trick the voting public.

Labor seem to have conveniently forgotten their own party's record on higher education when they were in government. I encourage those opposite to reflect on the $6.6 billion in higher education and research cuts that Labor announced during its last three years in government, including $2.9 billion in its last budget in 2013-14. Yet in opposition Labor has opposed an efficiency dividend that it recommended while it was in government. University students and their families should know that Commonwealth university funding is not reducing, it's indeed growing.

The truth is that the Turnbull government is providing a record total of $17 billion per annum of investment in higher education. No-one is missing out on a university place this year or next year as a result of government policy. It is and remains, as it should, the universities' exclusive prerogative to enrol as many students as they wish. Universities receive the index student contribution from the Commonwealth for however many students they enrol. Funding of bachelor places is maintained at 2017 levels over the next two years. This doesn't affect how many students a university chooses to enrol.

The advantage of the demand driven funding model is that universities can choose which students they wish to enrol and how many students they will take. The Commonwealth provides funding on a per student basis—so the more students the more funding. The rate of funding per student has stayed the same. There is no cut. The reality is that, in the university sector, we want universities to be spending taxpayer money much more wisely than they're doing. There is a degree of fat in universities and we want to see more taxpayer money spent on academics—teaching and research—and less on back-office administrators. At the same time that Commonwealth funding per student has grown by 15 per cent, the costs for universities to deliver courses has only increased by 9½ per cent.

Independent analysis from Deloitte has shown that universities divert 15 per cent of taxpayer funding towards endeavours other than student and course related expenses, such as administration and marketing. We want to see more taxpayer money spent on teaching and research. The growth of funding that the Commonwealth has given to the university sector has outstripped the growth in the entire economy. Indeed, it's growing at twice the rate of the economy, and that just isn't sustainable. The truth is that Labor have had many opportunities to keep university funding on a sustainable basis but they would rather outdo the Greens on economic irresponsibility than fix the funding problems they created.

We need a long-term solution and that's why, under the Turnbull government's policy, from 2020 the growth of university funding will be based on population increases and will be subject to meeting performance measures. The old funding model was inefficient, wasting taxpayers' money, and, in the long run, it was completely unsustainable. Our policy solves both of these problems. We're providing sustainable funding growth and making universities accountable. It's a responsible policy that addresses inefficient, unsustainable spending and ensures that future generations will get the most out of their university experience.

By linking funding with performance outcomes, we're incentivising universities to focus their attention on improving academic performance, student retention and employability. The Turnbull government is ensuring new students are going into a system that wants to produce successful and employable graduates. The demand driven system provides more students with the opportunity to attend university and puts those students in the best position to meet the needs of an emerging economy. It also lets universities select the students they want, rather than have a Canberra bean counter determine how many students a university can enrol. The Turnbull government supports the demand driven system. Labor says they support it, but they've continually voted down any opportunity to make that system sustainable. The enduring legacy of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years was economic vandalism. Motions like this one show that Labor has learnt nothing from its failures in government and, given the opportunity, they'd thrown us straight back in the same mess. Labor will never face up to the fact we have to live within our means. I value the university experience. Education is the bedrock on which the whole economy exists. That's why I'm proud to be part of a government that's increasing funding for universities and equally proud that we're ensuring that the rate of this increase is sustainable for future generations.

Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia's education system is world leading. It supports more than one million students, both international and domestic, and our universities directly employ 120,000 people and support another 40,000 jobs. It must be protected. I'm proud to speak on this motion today and stand up for not only university students and future university students in my electorate but for students rights across this country who have been left short-changed by this government. Make no mistake, this government has taken a wrecking ball to our universities and higher education system, with $2.2 billion cuts since they have come to power—a simply staggering number that means our universities will be under-resourced and our students will miss out on the vital education they need to succeed in the fast-moving 21st century.

When Labor was last in office we lifted the caps on the high number of uni places, which saw, in my community in Oxley, a huge increase in the number of students attending university. We've seen the complete opposite by this government. Their $2.2 billion axe to our universities means that 9½ thousand Australians missed out on a university place in 2018 and another 9½ thousand will miss out on a place in 2019. This is just unacceptable. We must be supporting and investing in our universities rather than gutting the institutions that will guide the next generation of scientists, doctors and teachers.

Australia's future economy will require a highly skilled workforce. This government's cuts to our universities do nothing to support that. The government is going out of its way and making deals with One Nation to prove that point. Earlier this year we saw the government make a deal with One Nation—a deal to deliver tax cuts for the big end of town in exchange for a mere 1,000 apprenticeships, which is nothing more than a pathetic con job. In particular, it is selling out young Australians. We know that, since this government came to power, Australia has lost over 140,000 apprenticeships, a decline of over 35 per cent. In my community we have seen a loss of around 1,500 apprenticeships, which is equivalent to a 43 per cent decrease.

It's not just students looking to go to university who are in the sights of this government but any person wishing to finish their education will pay the price. I know in my own community there are many current high school students who are aiming to be the first in their family to ever go to uni. Many of these students come from tough, disadvantaged backgrounds and are studying and working hard to see their dream of going to uni become a reality. But now, thanks to the Turnbull government, the door to a higher education is being slammed in their face by these vicious cuts to our universities. This is an especially cruel blow to the many year 12 graduates who have studied so hard to get into uni. There are reports of some universities already turning away students and cutting programs before next year begins.

Here's what it means for universities in Queensland in my home state: the University of Southern Queensland, with a campus in my electorate, is facing $36 million in cuts; Griffith University, a cut of $92 million; QUT, a cut of $100 million and the University of Queensland $100 million in cuts. Ironclad evidence that this government does not care about students in the country going to university and receiving a higher education. We know this because they have a track record of tearing down our universities. In fact, they have repeatedly attacked higher education year after year. When they were first elected it was a 20 per cent cut and full fee deregulation, which we know would have seen $100,000 degrees. Fortunately, my Labor colleagues and I were able to stop that, but they weren't done. In the next iteration, last year, they wanted to hike up fees by 7.5 per cent, have a commensurate cut in university funding, have a further cut to university funding and then cut the HECS payment threshold down to as low as $42,000—that's barely more than the minimum wage and would mean Australians with a HELP debt on low incomes would be required to make repayments. I have to wonder if those opposite are actually aware of where Australia sits in the public investment in universities in the OECD. Are we near the top? Not even close. About midrange? No. Australia has the second-lowest level of public investment in universities in the OECD, and this government only wants to make it worse.

But there is an alternative. A Shorten Labor government, which invests in a higher education system and which believes in students, will have a once-in-a-generation national inquiry which will look at every aspect of our vocational and higher education systems. This will be the first time a national inquiry has put TAFE and unis on an equal footing. It's about ensuring that Australians have access to the best post-secondary opportunities in the world. If Australia is to continue to be a wealthy, highly educated nation, we must participate in quality education. I call on the government tonight to abandon their cuts to universities and instead to invest in Australia's future.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I call, with some trepidation, the member for Solomon!

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to acknowledge the hard work of the member for Griffith, Terri Butler, who joined me in Darwin just a little while ago and who has been a champion in the fight against the government's cuts to regional universities, including ours in Darwin, the Charles Darwin University. The member for Oxley, the previous member, rattled off about four or five universities. We understand that there are many universities in the larger capital cities of our nation, but for our northern capital there is one—Charles Darwin University. I guess that for this side, universities are not just research centres and places of teaching but part of the foundation on which we want to build a better nation. That's certainly true for us in the Territory. Charles Darwin University, our university, is so important for building the foundations on which we're going to build a better Territory. Education is one of the keys to preparing our society, especially our kids, to understand, anticipate and shape change, not just react to it. We want to build a northern future that really grasps the potential of the north and the massive markets further north.

Unfortunately, the current federal government, under Prime Minister Turnbull, has cut $30 million from our university, which represents a decline of 8.1 per cent in funding. Unfortunately, regional universities are disproportionally affected by the government's decision to cut higher education. We might ask where their priorities might be: if regional universities are missing out, who might not be missing out? Of course, the $17 billion handout to the big banks becomes unconscionable. If they're serious about developing the north and developing the human capacity of Australians then why would they cut funding to universities, particularly to ours?

CDU is ranked in the top two per cent of universities in the world. CDU makes a range of social and economic contributions to the Northern Territory. These things are sometimes hard to quantify, but there are things like improved opportunity for social mobility and cohesion across the north. As all members should know, these cuts place our university's future in jeopardy, which makes no sense. Darwin is on Asia's doorstep and Asia is increasingly hungry for the quality educational opportunities we provide. It should be our No. 1 export. CDU offers a unique chance to study in one of the world's most diverse and spectacular natural and cultural environments, and for many in the tropics to our north, where there are billions of people living, it has a tropical environment where they would feel very much at home when studying with us. Today over 1,500 international students from 50 countries call CDU campuses home. This, obviously, presents huge opportunities for CDU and other regional universities to service the growing education demand—as I said, from Asia in particular. We should be investing heavily in the human and capital infrastructure across our education system to realise this massive opportunity.

Without a viable, active university, our young people often seek to go elsewhere for their education. They'll increasingly do this if CDU isn't properly funded. As a smaller university, like other regional universities, CDU doesn't have the financial depth, flexibility and contacts with the same level of philanthropy as do some of the big sandstones we see in the southern capitals. So we are, without a doubt, disadvantaged in this regard. We've also got a small population size. Many people want to study part time and move in and out of education. This model that CDU uses is a high-cost delivery model, so it makes it challenging financially. So, in case you haven't picked it up yet, we can do without $30 million in cuts to our CDU.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:11