Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—On behalf of the member for Sydney, I move:

That this House acknowledges that:

(1) during the COVID-19 crisis, Labor has been urging the Government to act to help universities and save jobs, while:

(a) the Prime Minister has done nothing, and now jobs are being lost; and

(b) it has been reported that hundreds of jobs will go at universities in Rockhampton, Geelong, and suburban Melbourne;

(2) without serious Government help, universities have predicted 21,000 jobs will be lost in the next six months alone, meaning:

(a) tens of thousands of livelihoods could be destroyed, including those of academics, tutors, administrative staff, library staff, catering staff, grounds staff, cleaners, security and many others—all with families, trying to make ends meet; and

(b) the impact on regional communities will be devastating (universities support 14,000 jobs in country Australia);

(3) to save university jobs, the Government must take serious action now, and that the Treasurer could have acted to solve this problem, but hasn't—instead, the Treasurer has been deliberately moving the goal posts to ensure universities are excluded from government support;

(4) the Government cannot explain why a university student working a $100 shift per week receives the full $1500 JobKeeper wage subsidy, while their full-time university tutor, with three kids to support, is not eligible; and

(5) Labor believes it is a big mistake for the Prime Minister to abandon university staff during the COVID-19 crisis.

I thank the member for Sydney for her motion highlighting both the challenges faced by our universities as they work through the coronavirus and the continuing role that our tertiary sector plays not only in education and research but in the transformation of our respective communities.

Extra support for our universities is essential. University education is one of the largest enterprises in our country and certainly one of our biggest employers. Universities support around 260,000 jobs, including 14,000 jobs in regional areas. The government must take serious action to help universities to save these jobs. If the government fails to deliver on this now, the prediction is that 21,000 jobs will be lost in this sector over the next six months. To put this into context, there are thousands of livelihoods that could be in jeopardy, including those of academics, tutors, administrative staff, library staff, catering staff, ground staff, security officers and many others, all of whom, together with their families, are trying to make ends meet. We know the Treasurer could have fixed this issue but, rather, has been deliberately working to ensure that universities are excluded from the government's support, including through his ongoing refusal to extend JobKeeper eligibility to our tertiary sector.

For electorates such as mine in Western Sydney, the economic impact of the coronavirus has been devastating. The region is experiencing wide-scale job losses related to social and economic hardship, heightened levels of youth unemployment and significant supply chain disruptions, and this is as employers and businesses seek to secure their financial viability. Denying support to our universities at a time when they have been hit so hard by the coronavirus not only is disappointing; it is absolutely irresponsible. It fails to take into account the multifaceted role our universities play in promoting the development and growth of our communities.

Professor Barney Glover, the Vice Chancellor of Western Sydney University, succinctly put this issue in perspective when he said:

For Western Sydney, the University is part of its fabric. Alongside one another, the community, business and the University have transformed the region. This has changed the narrative from one of disadvantage, to one of promise. That regional compact is vitally important, but the work is far from done. The current financial position of the University—

now puts that progress at risk. Far from being just a major institution, Western Sydney University, and its success, is integrally related to the sustainable development of Western Sydney itself.

This ongoing commitment is not just an investment in bricks and mortar, the expansion of campuses; it is also the provision of pathways for many of our young people to be ready for the jobs of the future. Whether through its association with the development of the Badgerys Creek airport, the aerotropolis and the Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research or through serving the growing needs of our health and hospital sector, it is clear that Western Sydney University has a significant role to play in our region. Through its industry-partnered programs of educational infrastructure, the university has provided positive changes in key centres like Parramatta, Liverpool, Westmead, Campbelltown and Bankstown. In 2018, I had the privilege of attending the opening of the Liverpool campus of Western Sydney University. This facility is now providing many of the graduate nurses who are choosing to stay to live and work in our region. In fact, this university is now hosting the largest nursing education program in the country. We are putting at risk not only programs but also the regional transformation itself if the university's financial position is left in doubt.

In order to address the pressures facing our communities and ensure regional growth, there is an urgent need to lift the cap on Commonwealth funding for domestic students. As Professor Glover notes, this would allow the university to work hand in hand with our TAFE sector and industry partners to rapidly strengthen the skills within our region and enhance productivity at a time when it is most needed. On behalf of our tertiary education sector and, indeed, the Western Sydney community as a whole—we are grappling with the economic impact of COVID-19—I call on this government to take urgent and serious action to support our universities. In turn, that will secure not only the future of Western Sydney but our future as a whole.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Celia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the motion put forward by the member for Sydney, and I'd like to take the opportunity to formally acknowledge the member for Sydney's continued and longstanding advocacy for education in Australia.

Our university sector in Australia is large. It employs over 200,000 people, and in 2018 over 1.4 million students were enrolled in courses. In 2018, the combined revenue of universities in Australia was $33.7 billion, their net assets were worth over $59 billion, and the average revenue for a university in that year was $865 million. As a sector and individually, universities are in charge of large amounts of money, assets and resources. They are also a significant export industry. They also have an enormous amount of independence and autonomy, and, because of this, they are rightly subject to a high level of financial responsibility and accountability.

Universities are being hit; there's no denying that. There will be job losses. There should be no downplaying of the impact that these job losses will have on each person individually and on their family. It is, and will be, a devastating time for all those who are directly or indirectly impacted. What I would note is that this pain being felt in the university sector is being felt across the country in a variety of different sectors. It would be far easier and quicker to identify those areas which are not being hit by this virus than it would be to list those that are. The difference between universities and many other sectors is that across the university sector more than 50 per cent of the annual operating revenue for universities comes from the government. This funding is provided so that universities can undertake their core activities of teaching, scholarship and research. This year, through a variety of different programs, this sum comes close to $18 billion.

In normal times, a significant amount of that funding is tied to the number of domestic students who enrol within a particular university. If a university doesn't enrol its estimated numbers, the amount of funding it receives will decrease. In recognition of the impact the coronavirus is having on universities, earlier this year the government guaranteed that funding for 2020. This means the universities will continue to get this money for the year for their estimated enrolments even if they enrol less than that number of domestic students. This is a significant support for the sector. Aside from anything else, it ensures a level of certainty for the year—a certainty that, quite frankly, is not felt in many other sectors across the country. This guarantee in domestic funding support has also been underpinned by the government's extension of a number of arrangements for research funding, once again to ensure that level of financial certainty.

There are other things that the government has done to reduce direct and indirect costs: waiving some of the regulatory requirements, decreasing some of the reporting obligations and creating an entire new funding source of $7 million to support the delivery of new six-month online courses. Yes, universities are taking a sizable financial hit, and that means that individuals are getting hit. Yes, the support being given to universities is different to that which is being given to other sectors. But there is significant support. The government will continue to support universities and, importantly, continue to work with them so that they can work through, both now and in the future, the impact of the COVID pandemic.

It is in this context that we all have an opportunity to refocus on why post-secondary education in all its forms is vital to us as a country and why it is funded by the Australian taxpayers through the government. Universities exist to serve our community, locally, nationally and internationally. They do this by providing higher education opportunities to Australians and those from other countries who want to study what we are offering. They engage in research that expands our knowledge and understanding. We should use this opportunity that is presented by COVID to consider if universities are delivering what we need them to deliver for our country and for our students; to look at the plethora of regulations and reporting requirements which are often duplicated, if not triplicated, for no ultimate benefit to anybody; to look at incentives to see if they are tailored to deliver what we want; to look at the measures we use to assess them; and to see if we can build a better connection between higher ed and vocational ed so that we can provide better opportunities and choice for all Australians.

Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With strong economic growth overall in the last 30 years, the coming of the digital age and the opportunity that the Higher Education Contribution Scheme provides, now more than ever, Australians are not just ending formal education after year 12 but striving to continue their education to a bachelor or postgraduate level. In Australia we have some of the best universities in the world, with a world-class lifestyle to match. I should know. I taught as a professor at universities both here in Australia and overseas. Australian universities provide some of the best environments in the world for education and for research. Our quality of teaching and our ability to provide support for those from other countries through a harmonious and multicultural and supportive environment are well regarded internationally. Students choose Australian universities for many reasons, not just because they are or are not in the top 50 rankings internationally.

It is little wonder that, as the world opened up with the advent of the internet and with Asia's growing middle class and low-cost airlines, Australia has become a top choice for those wishing to study abroad. The university sector, like Australia's healthcare sector, works across the board. Full-fee-paying placements allow for international students who want the quality and lifestyle an Australian degree can offer, and then domestic places subsidised by the federal government and the deferred payment scheme of HECS enable our kids to achieve educational success and go on to be a strong economic base to support this nation. For domestic students the Morrison government recognises that HECS should be accessible to all Australians. Funding to universities is at a record high, with Commonwealth expenditure estimated to be more than $18 billion in 2018, increasing to $19 billion in 2023. This is a subsidised sector.

This year, following the COVID shutdown, universities moved quickly to support Australians by closing universities and holding lectures and tutorials online. The success of this was made easier by the universities' overall movement to putting more resources online and e-submissions for assignments. Overall, the Morrison government's first priority has been to keep Australians safe, and that has included Australian students. The global pandemic of COVID, however, has highlighted universities' reliance on international students and their revenue stream. International students contribute $8.8 billion each year, accounting for 26 per cent of revenue.

Now, with this COVID crisis, the Minister for Education, Dan Tehan, has worked closely with the universities to understand the current situation and the way forward because we wanted to continue to help them meet the demand of the domestic market and to ensure that universities give the best-quality degree to their students. In 2018, total Australian government funding amounted to $17.6 billion, or 52 per cent of the universities' total revenue. This comes with a safety net. The Morrison government's early action in the pandemic assured that the Commonwealth Grant Scheme payments for Commonwealth supported places will still be forthcoming, enabling cash flow through this crisis.

It is true that we are looking at a changed international student education environment. But what this makes clear is that the university business plan needs to think about a diversified mindset. We know that international students are and will continue to be an important part of our university sector. But universities do more than just teach international students. They have a responsibility to provide quality education to our domestic students. And, as we all know, they have an amazing research record. We should be grateful as Australians that the medical research sector, in particular, supported by the university sector, has delivered outcomes for all Australians to keep us healthy and safe. As one example, the Peter Doherty Institute was the first outside Wuhan to grow the COVID virus, and it was the first to develop a test so we could be on the front foot with regard to our COVID response.

Throughout this time and moving into the future it is important that universities work to remain flexible and adapt to the changing times, as they so often have. They need to prepare for a potential shift in the way they conduct business, and they need to work closely with government in a subsidised sector to ensure this occurs.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to agree with the member for Higgins about the importance of research at our universities. The sad part of this story, of course, is that it is often the revenue from overseas students that funds that very research that we are so proud of here in Australia. She spoke about how government funding has been maintained for Australian students. Of course it has been, because Australian students are still going to university. We've seen very little drop-off in Australian student numbers. The big drop is in revenue from international students. We're talking about many, many billions of dollars cut from our university sector because, quite sensibly of course, our borders are closed to international students at the moment. For months Labor has been urging the government to intervene to help universities, to help Australian jobs in those universities. For months we have watched as universities have shed jobs, closed campuses and cut back on courses and degrees. From the beginning of this crisis the university sector predicted that without serious federal government support 21,000 jobs would be lost over the coming six months. We have seen the beginning of those job losses already.

Despite these warnings, the Prime Minister has done nothing to help our fourth biggest export industry—one of Australia's largest employers. In fact, the government's gone out of its way to exclude universities from receiving support. The government has repeatedly moved the goalposts to block staff at our public universities from wage subsidies, putting thousands of jobs at risk, while allowing staff at private universities to access support. We have started to see the effect of the job losses caused by this approach, especially in regional areas. We have seen hundreds of jobs lost already. Deakin University has lost 400 jobs. If you take 400 jobs out of Geelong, it makes a big difference. In Rockhampton, Central Queensland University has cut 180 jobs and closed three campuses, Sunshine Coast, Yeppoon and Biloela. Across Melbourne and Bendigo we've seen job cuts at La Trobe University.

This is just the very beginning of what will become a rolling crisis. The impact of these job losses on regional communities will be devastating. Universities support 14,000 jobs in regional Australia, and they help underpin the local economy in countless regional cities. Many of these institutions also serve as the local TAFE campus, like, for example, Central Queensland University. It's a double blow for those towns where campuses are closing, because they haven't just lost their university campus; they have lost their TAFE campus too.

Across the board we're looking at tens of thousands of livelihoods being destroyed. We're talking about academics, tutors, admin staff, library staff, catering staff, ground staff, cleaners, security guards and many, many others; all with families, all with bills to pay, all with commitments to meet. I recently spoke to Laura, who was an admin worker from the University of Sydney, a mum of two kids. She tells me she feels 'anxious and worried about her future'. She is wondering, 'Where is the job security for us?'

Why has the government gone out of its way to keep changing the rules to exclude women like Laura from receiving assistance? What is it about university staff that makes them so very undeserving of help? In fact, the rules keep being changed to make sure that these universities don't qualify in the way that any other business in Australia would qualify. The federal government can't explain why a university student who has been working a shift a week at the bakery on $100 a week gets access to the full $750 a week JobKeeper; but their tutor, with a mortgage to pay and two kids to feed, doesn't get the same help.

We are relying on our brilliant researchers right now to help us through this crisis, to discover a vaccine for COVID-19, but we're not prepared to back them with the same support that any other worker in any other Australian business would be entitled to. The Prime Minister's $60 billion stuff-up on JobKeeper means there is no excuse to exclude university workers from the same support that other Australian workers would receive at this difficult time.

Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Skills) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to support the motion today. My seat of Cooper takes in La Trobe University's Bundoora campus. It is a powerhouse of employment, academia and community in the northern suburbs. Yet because of this government's pig-headedness the uni is under severe financial distress and thousands of jobs are at risk. Let me be clear: the government has deliberately shifted the goalposts to exclude universities from accessing JobKeeper. JobKeeper is the crucial wage subsidy which would allow unis to keep staff employed while they worked through the disastrous effect that coronavirus is having through no fault of their own. According to La Trobe, JobKeeper payments would have provided them with $50 million to mitigate the impact of the current crisis on the jobs and livelihoods of their staff. The government's response? 'You lot work it out. You're getting nothing from us.' As a result, La Trobe has already started a voluntary redundancy program, and now staff are being asked to choose between pay cuts or further redundancies. These redundancies are due to the Morrison government's inaction. This makes me furious! Workers should not have to take all the responsibility of saving the sector. The government can and should step in. It has an extra $60 billion sitting in the bank because of its JobKeeper bungle. While the government continues to withhold support, people are losing their livelihoods: academics, tutors, administration staff, library staff, catering staff, groundspeople, cleaners, and many others—all with families, all trying to make ends meet. I've heard from so many workers at La Trobe who are incredibly anxious about what the future holds for them. All the indicators are bleak, and they are hearing nothing from this government. Nothing at all. They have left the sector and its workers to fend for themselves.

I want to say to those at La Trobe University: I am so sorry that you are going through this. I see your anger and your anxiety, and I will keep fighting for your jobs, your livelihoods and your community. Honestly, if I was one of those hundreds of people who have already lost their jobs, I would be saying: 'Why doesn't my job matter? Why doesn't my livelihood matter? Why doesn't my family matter? Why doesn't my community matter? And why don't I rate the sort of help that everybody else is getting from this government?'

These job losses will have a terrible impact on Melbourne's northern suburbs, and in regional cities like Bendigo, where La Trobe is a key employer. The flow-on effect of large-scale job losses will be huge. Think of the small businesses that are supported by having a university nearby: landlords who house university students and workers; cafes, bars and restaurants who are filled by La Trobe workers and students. You must wonder how a government, who so recently were touting innovation as the path ahead for Australia, and who were more than happy to see international education support Australia's economic growth for the past decade, could stomach the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.

Education, including universities, is Australia's third-biggest export industry. What is the government thinking to risk an industry that size? Universities and the industries that surround them are the source of 260,000 full-time jobs. What university workers are telling me is that this government likes to portray them as out of touch, as elitist and even as overpaid. I can tell this government that when you attack university workers, you attack workers in one of the most casualised and vulnerable industries in the country. You're attacking people who often have to fight for secure workplace arrangements, who all too often are struggling to get enough hours to cover their bills and who often have to pick up additional work to make ends meet. And when you attack a university like La Trobe, you attack the rural and regional communities that some on that side of the House have claimed are the heart and soul of their voter base.

Universities support 14,000 jobs in regional Australia, all at risk due to incompetence and government inaction—and I haven't even touched on the educational impacts of these decisions. With fewer staff at our universities, we will undoubtedly see reductions in the quality of teaching and learning outcomes. We'll see fewer courses offered at campuses and we'll see fewer students able to take up places at universities, and this will absolutely have an impact on a greater proportion of regional and rural students. I say this to the government: take a long, hard look at your decisions here and think of the far-reaching consequences they will have. Think of the tens of thousands of people you will put out of work and the communities you will destabilise. Think of the educational outcomes you will diminish and the research outputs you will destroy. And think of the staff and families who will go along with that. You can fix that. Do it now.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's estimated that, due to COVID-19, university sector revenue in Australia will be down between $3.1 billion and $4.8 billion this year, and $16 billion over the next four years. In my home state of South Australia, the University of Adelaide is estimating a $250 million budget shortfall over the next two years; the University of South Australia, $120 million; and Flinders University, down $54 million in this year alone. We simply cannot pretend that this won't have a significant impact on the quality of the tertiary education of our young people, or on our local economies. And to put this economic impact into perspective, 650 Australian businesses earn more than $50,000 of their annual revenue as a supplier or contractor to Flinders University alone. Imagine the economic impact on every business and contractor providing products and services to universities across Australia as a result of drastic cost-cutting measures being implemented across the industry to ensure the ongoing survival of universities.

Much has been said in the media about universities relying on revenue raised from international students; however, as the system stands now, there is no incentive for Australian universities to take on more domestic students. In the 2017-18 year, the federal government imposed caps on funding of domestic students, creating an upper ceiling on domestic student intake. The funding system is based on the number of domestic students who were enrolled in university education several years ago, but times have changed and we must look at this outdated cap system.

Since first being elected in 2016, I've been passionately advocating for more tertiary educational opportunities for young people from the regions like my electorate of Mayo. Roughly 22 per cent of South Australians live in the regions, yet regional students only account for 16 per cent of domestic students enrolling in South Australian universities, meaning our regions are underrepresented at university. Lifting the cap on regional student intake would give universities a much-needed revenue boost during such difficult financial times and create a more equitable representation of the regions at university. A lifting of the cap on Commonwealth university places for domestic students in rural, regional and remote areas would help to ensure the regions continue to have the skilled professional workforce they need to continue to drive local industries, such as agriculture. Those kids are the ones most likely to go back and live in regional Australia, whether they be doctors, whether they be nurses or whether they take their ag skills back home.

As a means of supporting Australia's universities further, stimulating the construction industry and creating much-needed jobs, I would also encourage the government to look at providing universities with low-interest loans for capital infrastructure projects. I know, for instance, Flinders University has budgeted to invest around $80 million this year in their capital works asset renewal and maintenance of infrastructure. However, due to COVID-19, and the resulting impact on the sector, Flinders has no option but to defer around half of this year's investment indefinitely, with a similar deferral each year until at least 2023, by which time $115 million would have been cut from capital spending in the local economy. Think about how many jobs that $115 million would equate to. Charles Darwin University recently received a $150 million concessional rate loan from the federal government's Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund. South Australian universities have no access to such a fund, and yet the need is well and truly there. Minister Tehan recently announced a rollout of short online courses in order to help Australians upskill or retrain at heavily discounted rates. I congratulate the minister on such an initiative, as it offers universities a flexible avenue to generate alternative revenue streams while at the same time providing options for Australians who may have found themselves jobless due to COVID. However, I would ask the government to consider expanding the initiative to more available places for a longer period of time. Universities will be suffering financially from COVID for at least the next four years. We know our whole economy will. We need to ensure that some form of government support is there in that period in between.

Australia is a nation that's able to boast world-class universities. In fact, 15 of our Australian universities make the top 200 of world university rankings. It is imperative that we offer our universities the financial support they so desperately need in order to ensure we remain world-class players in university education and to further educational opportunities for young people. Particularly, young people from regional Australia must be a priority of the government.

Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is shameful that during this COVID-19 crisis the government has deliberately ignored the plight of our universities. Universities employ 250,000 people, including tens of thousands in regional areas. They educate 40 per cent more domestic students than they did in 2008, with very little additional funding. Education is our fourth-biggest export earner, with around $26 billion earned by universities out of $37 billion earned by all education. Forty-three per cent of all applied R&D in Australia is done in universities. In a post-COVID world we will need our research more than ever to make the scientific breakthroughs and build a stronger economy. The massive decline in international students will cost universities up to $4 billion this year and around $16 billion up to 2023. My own regional area of Corangamite, home to Deakin University, has been hit hard by the crisis, with Deakin announcing they will shed 400 jobs. About 22 per cent of their students were international until COVID. Like most other universities, Deakin has ignored the deal made between the Tertiary Education Union and Universities Australia to save jobs through wage cuts and freezes. A big shout-out to the NTEU for its sense of responsibility and leadership in a crisis, something this government could do well to emulate in higher education.

These are important jobs and real people. I have over 1,200 Deakin University staff living in my electorate, and I will continue to fight for you. It isn't just the direct workers that matter. Many people have bought investment properties to house the 440,000 international students who attend our universities. Many businesses rely on students as workers and to shop locally.

So where is the government's helping hand on this? Nowhere. The government's total disregard for universities isn't new and it shouldn't surprise us. The government has pushed universities to build their international student base. Their success means that international students are funding an increased share of university budgets. The coalition has let this increase in fees—over $7 billion last year—hide their own lacklustre contribution to both education and teaching of Australian students. Commonwealth funding for university R&D was around $3.1 billion in 2008. It was only $3.6 billion a decade later. The universities' own contribution has almost doubled from $3.6 billion to $6.8 billion over the same period. Around $1.8 billion in research funding is at risk this year alone as a result of the COVID crisis, and over $3 billion a year in the medium-term. Chief Scientist Alan Finkel estimates that this impacts around 7,000 research jobs. It's a disaster.

General Commonwealth contributions to higher education have stagnated in real terms. The figures show a real-price contribution of around $9.1 billion in 2009 and an estimated $9.4 billion in 2019. A key reason is that the coalition froze the Commonwealth Grants Scheme for domestic student places in 2018 and 2019. For this year, a share of the CGS payments is tied to a performance based system. Increases in that performance component are tied to the growth in the 18-64 age group nationally—only 1.4 per cent at most. That won't cover increased costs, let alone the increased demand that will come from the Costello baby bonus kids coming of age in the next seven years.

And then along came the coronavirus, which has knocked the stuffing out of the international student market. And given this government's inept handling of the China relationship, it seems now probable that this fall in students will be longer and more pronounced than we imagined four months ago.

This coalition government has done nothing to help, apart from guaranteeing CGS funding through to the end of the year and some money for short courses. There is not even a guarantee to maintain the Commonwealth funding for the next year. They've excluded universities from JobKeeper, even altering guidelines when it looked like La Trobe University had found a loophole. So a casual tutor with a young family has to go on Jobseeker. Meanwhile, her student earning $400 a week at a pub is entitled to $750 a week on JobKeeper. Go figure!

Last week the coalition launched yet another flawed rescue package, this time for private residential construction. Yet they remain silent about the plight of one of Australia's biggest and most important industries. It is disgraceful, and they should fix it now.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of debate will be made an order of the day for the next day of sitting.