Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to support university students and give more people from the outer suburbs and regional Australia the chance to go to university?

Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank my friend the absolutely sensational member for Bendigo for her question. We're wiping $3 billion of student debt for more than 3 million Australians, including almost 17,000 Australians in the member for Bendigo's electorate. That will help with the cost of degrees. We are also, for the first time, introducing paid prac to provide financial support for teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students. That will help with the cost of living while they are at uni.

But we've also got to do something about the cost of young people from poor families, from the outer suburbs, from our regions and from the bush missing out on the chance to go to university at all. About one in two young people in their twenties or thirties today has a university degree, but not everywhere—not where I grew up, not in our outer suburbs, certainly not in the regions and not in the bush.

One way to help with that are regional university study hubs—places that bring university closer to where people live so they don't need to leave home to go to university and they don't need to travel for hours to get the skills and the qualifications that they need. When we were elected two years ago there were 34 of these hubs across the country. We're doubling that. Already we've announced 10 more, in the Pilbara, East Arnhem Land, King Island off the coast of Tassie, Innisfail, Warwick, Chinchilla, Longreach, Victor Harbor, Gippsland and Katanning. I'm pleased to advise the House that the King Island, Pilbara and Gippsland hubs have now opened and are starting to support students. These hubs work. The fact is that where they are we see enrolment in university go up and we see completions go up. Not just that; people get jobs where they live, and they build lives in the communities where they grew up.

Today we've announced that applications are now open for another 10 regional university study hubs. So I encourage all members who represent regional Australia, who represent the bush, to work with your local councils, work with universities and put an application form in. I ask members of the Liberal Party to pay close attention here: applications close on 18 October 2024, to be more specific, at 5 pm. It will be daylight saving by then, so that's 5 pm eastern daylight time. Remember to put your clocks forward, not back. You've got a 58-day warning. I hope that's enough time for the Liberal Party. I'm happy to table all of those details for the benefit of the New South Wales Liberal Party. It's all part of building a better and fairer education system.