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

When Gough Whitlam was first elected as the member for Werriwa in 1952 there was not a single high school, let alone a university, in the electorate. University participation rates in the western suburbs had, for a long time, been the lowest in Australia. The concept of a university in Sydney's western suburbs was, for decades, repeatedly considered and shelved. Gough was not only instrumental in ensuring a tertiary education was the right of all Australians but was also an active champion for the establishment of a university in Western Sydney.

Gough, of course, remained a close friend and supporter of WSU until his death. The university honoured that support with the establishment of the Whitlam Institute in 2000. He would no doubt be proud to know, as I am, that Werriwa is now home to more Western Sydney university students than any other electorate—3,909 at the last count. In 30 short years, the university's impact on the region has been immense, becoming one of the driving forces in the transformation of Western Sydney.

There aren't too many people who live, work or play in Western Sydney that don't have a connection to WSU. All three of my sons are alumni of the university. Two of my current staff are both alumni and ex-staff of WSU, and I have a staff member who is currently a student. Because of these strong links, WSU recognises it must play a leading role in the post COVID-19 recovery of the Western Sydney economy. It aims to do this through employment, education, training and construction. Despite a disappointing lack of support and assistance from the federal government and unlike a lot of other universities, WSU is proposing no staff cuts or redundancies this year. So I commend WSU on its ongoing negotiations with the NTEU and the PSA.

WSU is also supporting an essential retraining and reskilling effort by offering online short courses in the areas of education, aged care, interpreting and translation. Through a swift migration to online learning, existing students were able to negate the toll COVID-19 has had on their studies. The WSU's Student Hardship Fund has provided an olive branch to both domestic and on-shore international students experiencing financial hardship. A critical 10 per cent reduction for international students was implemented, along with money and food vouchers to ensure they're well taken care of.

WSU is determined to support their students, their staff and the wider community. However, the burden of any recovery effort cannot be carried by the tertiary sector alone. The federal government must support our TAFEs and universities. As we saw with Labor's successful management during the GFC, one of the key factors to keeping an economy strong and Australians working is providing strong stimulus, particularly in the construction sector. If we're to overcome our nation's first recession in three decades, it won't come via HomeBuilder. WSU is ready and committed to do some of that work. The university believes residents across the width and breadth of Western Sydney should have ready access to the world's best education and research facilities, and it wants to do that building. A multiversity, bringing in four of Australia's leading higher education institutions, would be one such facility. Located at the Aerotropolis, also in my electorate, the multiversity will focus on STEM specialising disciplines, including aerospace engineering, advanced manufacturing and defence.

A health research and education hub, adjacent to Liverpool Hospital and the Macarthur Medical Research Centre in Campbelltown, will provide thousands of positions in the health sector, focused on education, research and employment. There's the peri-urban greenhouse and the logistics hub at Hawkesbury and a future technology centre at Werrington, providing projects based on CBD campuses. The first of which is the Peter Shergold Building in Parramatta, which sets a world standard for technology driven modern learning spaces. The Ngara Ngura building in Liverpool, which opened last year, is a similar success.

Gough once said:

We are all diminished when any of us are denied proper education. The nation is the poorer—a poorer economy, a poorer civilisation, because of this human and national waste.

Western Sydney University is trying their best to make sure that the students of Sydney's west have the best outlook on life.

House adjourned at 20:00