Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise in support of the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024, as brought to the House by the magnificent, masterful and always amusing Minister for Education. This bill provides substantial support for past, current and prospective students through a variety of forward-thinking and progressive reforms. The Universities Accord is an initiative of this Labor government. We recognise that, although we have a good education system, there are ways to make it better and ways to make it fairer. That's why Labor directed $2.7 million over two years from 2022-23 to conduct a 12-month review of the Australian higher education system. It was the first board review of higher education since 2008, when I made my first speech in this parliament, and it was conducted by an expert panel. The members of the panel, led by Professor Mary O'Kane AC, were thorough in their approach. Their review covered crucial pieces of the higher education picture, including student fees, teaching, international students and research. The panel considered more than 800 public submissions and held nearly 200 stakeholder consultations.

The aim of the review, as Professor O'Kane urged, was to be bold, to think big and to think beyond the immediate challenges. The panel was interested in positioning the higher education sector for long-term security through improvements to quality, accessibility, affordability and sustainability. The Australian Universities Accord:final reportquite a lengthy tome—was released in February this year and includes 47 recommendations. To quote from the summary report:

Its message is simple and direct: if Australia is to prosper in the years ahead, Australian participation, performance and investment in tertiary education needs to improve in order to generate the knowledge, skills and research our nation needs.

To achieve this, the accord recommends changes in these areas amongst others: participation; the relationship between vocational education and training and universities; and student contributions, repayments and support.

This bill amends the Higher Education Support Act 2003 and implements the first stage of the planned Universities Accord reforms. The headline reforms were part of the Labor budget in May. Labor is wiping $3 billion of student HELP debt. I'll say that again because those opposite don't seem to be telling their constituents about it: Labor is wiping $3 billion of student HELP debt. We're implementing a Commonwealth prac payment for teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students. Teaching was my first career. My mum was a nurse. My next-door neighbour is a midwife. And my wife was a social worker for 25 years—before she saw the dark side and became a lawyer! We're also expanding the fee-free university-ready course program.

The decision to reform the indexation methodology for the Higher Education Loan Program reflects Labor's core value of fairness—a value that has been underpinning the Labor Party for 130-plus years. The changes will apply to HELP, which some people still know as HECS; VET student loans; Australian apprenticeship support loans; student startup loans; ABSTUDY student startup loans; and the Student Financial Supplement Scheme.

This bill changes the way the debt is indexed. It caps the indexation rate at the lower of either the consumer price index or the wage price index. This reform will be backdated to 1 June 2023, which means that three million Australians will have their debt cut. We're also fixing the impact of last year's CPI indexation rate of 7.1 per cent and replacing it with the wage price index's lower rate of 3.2 per cent, something quite significant when you consider the joys of compound interest when it comes to student debt. We will also wipe out the 4.7 per cent increase from this year and reduce it to four per cent.

These numbers speak for themselves. A person with an average HELP debt of $26,500 will have around $1,200 wiped from their debt. Someone with a debt of $45,000—not untoward for lawyers and doctors and the like—will have around $2,000 taken off their debt, and a worker with a debt of $60,000 will have their debt reduced by almost $2,700. Not surprisingly, the constituents who contacted my office after the announcement were very grateful. One constituent described their relief as 'incredibly welcome'. Another said:

This is going to make such a big impact in my life.

And a third student wrote:

Thanks for listening to uni students and alumni across the country! Changing the way student debt is calculated benefits all students for years to come.

As I said, more than three million Australians will benefit from wiping $3 billion of student debt. This is a direct cost-of-living relief for students, new graduates, workers, apprentices and trainees in every community across this nation. Not only does this reform provide substantial financial relief; it protects our student loan scheme, a system that is necessary to provide access to higher education.

The next measure that will substantially help students is the Commonwealth prac payment. It's something the education minister should be particularly proud of. Practical experience is a key element of degrees for teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work. You need to go to the coalface and speak to those in your profession when it comes to teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work. I know the former teachers in the caucus, including the whip, understand the important role that a mentor/teacher provides, and I am sure that it's the same for nursing, midwifery and social work. I'm getting affirmation from Ged Kearney about the role of nursing and midwifery. They're important roles. For social work, there are so many different streams to go out and experience.

As I mentioned before, my wife was a frontline child protection worker. She was one of those people who knocked on doors in the middle of the night when everything had gone to hell in a handbasket for a family. It would be good for people to experience some of that mental work to understand what they're going into. We don't want people to complete a degree and then step into the workplace and say, 'This is not for me.' Practicums are a part of that, saying, 'This is a tough job.' We know that teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work are tough jobs. No-one turns up at an ED to say, 'Everything's good in my life.' Social work often involves people at a very bad time in their life. So, for many students, prac placements are the highlight of their studies. It's where they get to put the theory they've learned into practice and to experience firsthand how their chosen studies can positively impact people. All of those professions are caring professions.

For too long students in these fields have been left to work out how they can make their pracs happen while trying to minimise the detrimental impact on their lives. Many students have been negatively impacted by having to move away from home to complete their mandatory placements. This means paying out of pocket for transport to and from the prac location, paying for accommodation while there and often buying the required uniform for the prac. Remember, sometimes these students still have to pay their own rent for the place that they are holding for the university. Many students have to give up the part-time or casual jobs that help support them at home in order to meet the requirements of their degrees. For some, it is not a choice. They simply cannot afford to undertake the prac component of their degrees—the so-called 'placement poverty'. This can result in a delay in completing the degree or not finishing it at all.

A first-year nurse told me that she had the opportunity to do two rural and remote placements during her degree. This is a young woman I've known since she was a little girl and who's now at university. I have obviously been here a long time. These placements often inspire graduates to move to these areas, where they're always crying out for more staff. As we know, there are lots of bush hospitals calling out for staff. Whether for nurses, teachers or social workers, there's plenty of work in the bush at the moment. Due to the lack of any financial support to undertake a placement away from home, but with the desire to experience a Western Queensland setting, this nurse self-funded her four-week prac in Charleville. She said that a prac placement payment would have made a huge difference for her. She is optimistic that the new scheme will motivate and enable many more students to have the enriching training she received and go on to inspire them to move to the bush to work.

I'm sure the Nats will get behind this idea of sending people to the bush with a small payment. When you consider the number of weeks that students must do of unpaid mandatory placement, you can see how the costs add up. Student teachers must do 16 weeks of prac. Student nurses must do 20 weeks, and social work students must do 26 weeks. Australia cannot afford to let these students slip through the cracks. We desperately need teachers. We need nurses, we need midwives, and we need social workers. The new Commonwealth prac payment is designed to ease the financial pressures for eligible students to undertake pracs and support these students to finish their studies and their vital degrees. The payments will start in July next year and be benchmarked at the Austudy rate of $319 per week. It will be means-tested to ensure that those who need it most will have access. The new payment has been welcomed by higher education providers, and it will support more students to finish these degrees and move into these crucial fields of work.

The third part of this bill's reforms concerns assisting more Australians to get into university. The bill establishes a new Commonwealth grant scheme for fee-free university-ready courses. These courses have been described as a bridge between school and university to give the students the skills that they will need at university. The Albanese Labor government is investing $350 million over four years from 1 January next year to deliver this new scheme. This includes funding for additional student places. It is estimated that the number of students participating will increase by 40 per cent by 2030. This means that around 30,000 students will be studying in fee-free university ready courses annually by 2030. The scheme will be targeted at students from under-represented backgrounds.

All of these reforms contribute to Labor's broader goal of increasing the proportion of our workforce that has completed higher education. It speaks to Labor's commitment to education and the transformative opportunities it brings. Our target is to have 80 per cent of the workforce having completed university or TAFE studies by 2050. That's quite a goal. It's good for Australians. It will be good for our economy and productivity. It feeds into a Future Made in Australia with the skills, training and opportunities for all Australians.

As the minister indicated, we also need to remove the artificial barrier that exists between vocational education and higher education. It benefits students and the economy if we align these sectors. This means measures such as recognition of prior learning at TAFE being counted towards a degree at university. I know the minister at the table is very enthusiastic about these challenges and opportunities.

The May budget directed $27 million into developing a more aligned higher education sector, including recognition of prior learning and more efficient regulation for dual providers, and we're working with the states to develop up to 20 centres of excellence where students can work towards certificates, diplomas and degrees together. The accord recommended oversight of the alignment of the university and TAFE sectors with the establishment of an Australian tertiary education commission. We are consulting with the sector as to how this will look and how it will operate.

There's a lot of action taking place to set the Australian higher education system and the students of the future up for success. We're looking at a revised funding system that better meets the needs of people from disadvantaged backgrounds, enabling them to complete qualifications, and we're focusing on additional investment in public schools to ensure that more children finish high school.

Labor understands that the pathway to better educational outcomes doesn't start at TAFE or uni. It starts with the 1.8 million Australian children who are aged zero to five, those crucial years for brain, language and social development. These years are the building blocks for good health, good education and wellbeing later in life. Labor is supporting the educators who work with this age group with a richly deserved 15 per cent wage increase over the next two years, something that I know will transform so many lives. For the people who were full-time workers who had no chance of getting into the housing market, now we can at least set some on that pathway to being able to put a roof over their head.

The Albanese Labor government knows that making our education system better and fairer for all requires initiatives, funding and programs across all ages. I've always seen education as the great transformational policy in this multicultural, egalitarian society. It's about kindergarten, primary school, secondary school and tertiary education. It's about breaking down barriers to entry and removing blocks to completing qualifications. With this bill, we're tackling some of these barriers and creating more opportunities for young Australians and for all Australians in the cities, in the towns and in the bush. I commend the bill to the House.

Dai Le (Fowler, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for the opportunity to speak on the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024. I think I've shared in this House previously about the importance of education to me and to my family. My beloved late mother, when we were in refugee camps in Hong Kong, applied for resettlement. She told me that she wanted to apply for resettlement in this country called Uc Dai Loi, which meant Australia back then. There were two reasons she gave. One was that it was an island that was far from the conflicts that were happening in Vietnam. The second was that it had the best education system in the world. She chose and applied for resettlement here in Australia, and we were very, very lucky to be given the opportunity to be resettled here and rebuild our lives.

As we know, education is the key to success. It's the passport to the future for many people, especially young people, and for the country, but more so for people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and people that have similar shared backgrounds to me—those of us who missed the early years of education and, when we get to a country like Australia, seize the opportunity to learn.

For students from socially and economically disadvantaged electorates like Fowler, the cost of education now is becoming such a big deal. It's huge. That's why, since my election, I have been calling for the freezing of the HECS indexation. I do want to acknowledge that the government took steps in this budget to change how indexation is calculated, using the lesser of the wage price index, the WPI, and the consumer price index.

As some of my fellow members in the House are aware, in late 2023 I established the Fowler Youth Advisory Committee, or FYAC for short, which consists of youths aged 16 to 24. It has given the youth in my community an opportunity to raise their voices and assist me in shaping policy. Earlier this month, we had a quarterly FYAC meeting, and one of the agenda items was their HECS debt and the increasing cost of the pursuit of higher education. So I asked the FYAC group, 'What do you and your friends think about the changes to the HELP-HECS indexation calculation that's being backdated to the 1 June 2023?' It was interesting that, out of the 12 FYAC members present, a good half answered along the lines of, 'It's good to see, but we're still accumulating debt.' Another FYAC member said, 'Wouldn't it be nice if we could revert to the Gough Whitlam days when education was free.' Now, we all know that it probably wasn't totally free, but the concern was primarily on how expensive their degrees were becoming and the indexation that they were expected to pay in the future. I can appreciate their comments. I suppose we had it easier back then, with no upfront cost, but the Gough Whitlam days are, of course, now very much behind us.

In the past year, as I mentioned, I have relentlessly called on the government to address the spikes in HECS, and I know that some of my crossbench colleagues have done similarly. I'm pleased, and we're all pleased, to see the government has taken some sensible steps towards addressing this. But does this do anything to really support students with substantial debt? Students face HECS debt, and I have also been doorknocking in my electorate and many young students were sharing with me the cost-of-living crisis that they are experiencing, in particular in Western Sydney, where students have to travel far to study. The cost of transport has also increased, and the cost of petrol has increased for those who have to drive. Those who are renting have seen the cost of rent also increase. These young people, who are studying to get ahead in life so they can have a proper professional job and build a better future, are struggling with many other cost-of-living pressures.

The findings from the Universities Accord final report proved that there is a lot of work to be done in the education space, hence the government is now introducing this bill to implement its recommendations. As well as indexation, this bill addresses student services and amenities fees, FEE-FREE Uni Ready courses and the Commonwealth prac payment. In my Fowler electorate, over 15 per cent of constituents attend university, around seven per cent are studying for a diploma and around 22 per cent of students are currently in the high school system. So I understand how important reform of the higher education is for the future of the youth in my electorate.

The proposed legislative requirement that higher education providers allocate a minimum 40 per cent of their student services and amenities fee revenue to student led organisations is a positive approach. For socially and economically disadvantaged students, student led organisations may be able to offer support measures that allow them to have a more fulfilling tertiary education experience by providing student services and support. But what assurances can the government give that this support will be targeted at the most disadvantaged students?

What students want is more affordable higher education, but the current cost of living, as I mentioned, is not making their situation any better. A lot of students in Fowler are working part-time jobs while struggling to pay their rent, food, travel and other expenses. Students are now thinking twice and maybe even three times as to which degrees to enrol in or whether to bother at all. There's nothing inherently wrong with such consideration, but I fear that we are going to lose a generation of talented artists and creative people with the way things stand.

I am disappointed that this bill makes no changes to the Morrison government's Job-ready Graduates Package, the JRG package, which used financial manipulation to incentivise students to study in areas of national priority. I don't know who made the decisions; they must have had a crystal ball. This has deterred students from studying arts courses by doubling the cost of arts degree subjects. To be frank, this is a death sentence for students who are talented in the arts and humanities, and it condemns them to the choice between a big debt or walking away because they cannot afford it. This is clear discrimination. Arts and humanities students are not less important than those pursuing a STEM degree. I understand the need to push for STEM. It's very important and something I support, but I think the arts and humanities students are also critical for the cultural growth of Australia. Along with the majority of members of this House, I studied an arts degree, which enabled me to obtain a career in the creative industry, as a writer and a journalist, which led me to where I am today. Arts and humanities degrees create future political leaders, advisers, consultants, journalists, academics, poets and musicians—the list is endless.

I've called on the government to consider the ramifications of the package on multiple occasions. Before the House today, I ask the government again to make changes to the JRG package, ideally scrapping it altogether—I would certainly support that. We cannot simply let this scheme continue to fail not only the generation of students facing this utilitarian discrimination but Australia as a whole. I acknowledge the government's efforts to establish a new Commonwealth prac payment, the CPP, to support students in teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work during their mandatory placements. There are 68,000 eligible students who can expect $319.50 per week during placement. It may not be much money, but it is still some money that students can use to sustain themselves while undertaking their placements. I also welcome the possibility of increasing the CPP for students, to relieve their cost-of-living tensions while undertaking placements, particularly during the spiking inflation that we are currently experiencing.

What about other allied health fields and sciences? Psychology, veterinary science, physiotherapy and podiatry: what provisions are available for them? I have shared in previous speeches that Fowler students in physiotherapy and podiatry feel like they are just being left out. They too must undertake practical placements as part of their course. I think it's a flawed measure to segregate other allied health fields from accessing this benefit. The government should consider what constitutes priority areas.

I understand that the payments will be means tested and available only to priority areas, but this may unintentionally cause inequality, like with the JRG package. The government is essentially cherry-picking courses that they are willing to support. I really urge the Labor government to consider opening the CPP to allied health nurses. These are some of the frontline workers and people that we need in our community. I would also like to see the government clearly define how the means test will be applied. Will the means test lead to any inadvertent exclusion of students who are working part time, for example? Many students from Fowler rely on their part-time jobs to support themselves, as I mentioned earlier, through higher education. My concern is that they may be excluded under a proposed means test.

While this bill is a step forward, I fear it is not enough to help struggling students who need greater support as they navigate higher education. We need to get the blueprint right. If our students and allied health students are disincentivised to study then this will place even more pressure on universities financially.

The Fowler Youth Advisory Committee may not have the expertise or experience to assess all of the factors involved in the funding of higher education, but they do know that, if the future offered to those who study an arts degree is one of mounting debt and high-interest payments, they will and could withdraw from higher education entirely. That is surely not the message that we want to send or the future that we want our students to aspire to.

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I speak in support of this particular piece of legislation, the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024. We've got a good education system in this country. It can be better and a lot fairer. The previous speaker spoke about her experiences. I grew up in a working-class family in Ipswich. My dad was a cleaner in the meatworks, and my mum was a shop assistant. Neither of my parents or grandparents or anyone before them had the benefit of going to high school, let alone university. I was the first person directly in my family to ever go to high school, let alone university. It was those teachers in year 12 at Bundamba State Secondary College that gave me the aspiration, the inspiration and the opportunity to get to university and be the first person from my high school ever to study law. That gave me the chance to go to university.

I'm completely aware of the value and the contribution of the Labor Party and the trade union movement, my family and friends and, of course, my constituents who voted me in again and again, but I believe I would not be here if not for the brilliance of teachers and for the fairness and opportunity that were given to me as a young fellow in Trumper Street in East Ipswich, at the back of a flood ridden house, and at the back of a school in a working-class battling community in Ipswich. Education raised my expectations and gave me a chance to be in this place and to build with my fellow directors and shareholders a multimillion-dollar business that operated for the whole time I was in business as a lawyer in the Brisbane CBD. So education changes lives. Education lifts people up, such as battling kids in regional and rural communities and in working-class communities like the one in which I grew up.

The big hike in HECS-HELP debts last year hit a lot of Australians hard, particularly young Australians. We heard their voices and we're acting on it. These changes require passing legislation, and introducing this bill brings us one step closer to reform. We're introducing legislation to make the system fairer and improve the way indexation is calculated for the HELP system. Once this bill passes, it's going to wipe out $3 billion in HELP debt for more than three million Australians. And we're going a step further and backdating it to 1 June last year.

The bill introduces a Commonwealth prac payment to give eligible people who've signed up to do some of the most important jobs in our country a bit of extra help for the qualifications they need. I can't describe how important this is for regional and rural communities. I've represented most of the country towns in my area. I think Deputy Speaker Buchholz and I have represented a fair bit together at various times, with him crossing over after me after redistributions. I can say that, in those rural communities and regional areas in South-East Queensland that I've had the honour and privilege to represent, there are so many young people who would like to go to TAFE or university and study certain courses, but one of the barriers for them is the fact that they have to do months and months of prac work. And that's good because, if you want to become a teacher, social worker, nurse, midwife or early education teacher, it's crucial you do that prac work, but the challenges of geography are matched by the challenges of finance for them.

This bill will massively expand the fee-free Uni Ready courses, which also act as a bridge for students in those regional communities who aspire to go to university. These courses help Australians get a go and have a crack at university. It amends the Higher Education Support Act to implement the first stage of the Universities Accord. I've spoken to the University of Southern Queensland. I've got the privilege of having two campuses in my electorate, with one at Springfield and one at Ipswich. That accord was led by Professor Mary O'Kane AC. The Universities Accord was the biggest and broadest review of the higher education system that we've seen in 15 years. The final report was released on 25 February this year. It's a blueprint for higher education reform. There are 47 recommendations, 29 of which the government has agreed to implement in full or part in this year's budget.

First, the bill makes the HECS-HELP system fairer by improving the way indexation is calculated. That will impact 23,000 people in my electorate. Just imagine that: 23,000 people. That number sounds like a lot. If you were to put them in Suncorp Stadium, imagine how full Suncorp Stadium would be. About half the stadium would be filled. That's just in my electorate alone, one of 151 electorates in this chamber. This is going to help a lot of people and their families. The 23,000 is just the individuals concerned. If you add their families, well more than 50,000 people in my electorate alone will be benefiting from this change. The new methodology is really critical and goes back to 1 June last year. It's going to apply to all HELP loans, VET Student Loans, Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans and other student support loans and ensure that outstanding loans never grow faster than the average wage. Up to 68,000 people will benefit from the Commonwealth prac payment that I've talked about. That's for the nursing, teaching, midwifery and social work students. That will make a big impact in regional Queensland.

Third, the bill establishes a new Commonwealth grant system, funding a cluster for fee-free Uni Ready courses, which act as a bridge between school and university to provide foundational support. And I'll come to that soon. The bill effectively uncaps fee-free university-ready courses across Australia, helping students make the jump to university.

Fourth, the bill supports students by requiring higher education providers to allocate a minimum of 40 per cent of their student services and amenities fee revenue to student led education organisations, ensuring the students have a significant role in deciding how their services and amenities fees are spent.

This is crucial. The legislation is the first step in our reform agenda, and it's critical work that we're undertaking. As I said before, these are the most extensive changes we've seen. The government set a national target of 80 per cent of the workforce having a tertiary education by 2050. I can remember how few students graduated from high school just a generation ago. We're lifting our aspirations from high school to university. If the broader accord targets are achieved, about $240 billion in additional income will be added to the economy over the period to 2050.

We've got many changes in this bill. We're developing a new managed-growth funding system for Commonwealth supported places to meet student demand and support sustainable growth and increased opportunity, particularly for people from underrepresented backgrounds like my own. We'll make needs based funding a core component of funding for higher education teaching and learning.

I can remember when the Liberals and the National Party linked funding to WorkChoices under John Howard's reign and regime. I can remember that they'd linked university funding and that they had to bring in those workplace agreements. The only way universities would get the funding they needed is if they put AWAs in. That's the attitude of those opposite in relation to university funding. Once the party of Menzies, who valued education, they thought, 'We'll use higher education to impose our ideological right-wing agenda,' and they haven't changed. They've still got the same mentality. You can still see it from those opposite.

We're going to fund a number of organisations—for example, Charles Darwin University to establish and operate a new medical school in the Northern Territory, subject to the finalisation of exploratory work. We're commissioning an independent strategic examination of research and development across government. There are a whole range of reforms that we're undertaking in relation to that. We've established an implementation advisory committee to undertake further engagement with the sector to inform legislative design of the Australian Tertiary Education Commission and new managed growth funding system. The advisory committee is being chaired by Tony Cook PSM, the secretary of the Department of Education.

One thing we're undertaking which I think has got real benefit—and I've been speaking to the minister's office and the minister personally about it—is the proposal to establish a network of suburban university study hubs. This is where it comes in, giving more people from the outer suburbs of major cities an opportunity for tertiary education. We're investing $66.9 million to double the number of university study hubs across the country and bring those hubs to the outer suburbs of our major cities for the very first time. This builds on the 34 existing regional university study hubs located across the country, which support 4,000 students. Of those 10 regional university study hubs recently funded—that's in response, by the way, to the Australian Universities Accord interim report.

We're going to establish these suburban university study hubs in areas without a significant university campus and where there are low rates of university qualification. The hubs will provide safe spaces for students, including those from low-socioeconomic backgrounds, First Nations students, people with disability and people from multicultural communities. This is also where it's critical for my electorate. They'll provide computer facilities, internet and study spaces as well as in-person administrative and academic skills support for tertiary students. Applications have now closed. I know I've encouraged the University of Southern Queensland to apply for a network of hubs across Ipswich, Logan and south-west Brisbane as part of this process. I've attended a number of roundtables with the University of Southern Queensland and Griffith University, as well as councils across South-East Queensland and other stakeholders, to discuss this proposal. It's very exciting for South-East Queensland.

Too often, someone's postcode is a brick wall that stops them from going to university, with the cost of moving closer to a campus being a major disincentive to study. The postcode you live in shouldn't be a barrier to getting a degree. The opportunity to go to university is life changing, particularly in regions like mine and particularly across Ipswich. Our suburban university study hubs will provide support close to home. The discussions I've been involved in with local stakeholders have identified a number of possible sites, including Redbank Plains, in Ipswich—a very multicultural community and the biggest suburb in Ipswich. Applications are now going to be evaluated in relation to that.

The need for TAFE or university qualifications is growing, and more people in the workforce will be required to upskill and reskill. Almost one in two young people in their 20s and 30s have university degrees, but not in my community—not in Blair. This has to change, because in the decade ahead more and more jobs will require TAFE or university qualifications. As I've said before, I was the first person in my family to go to high school, let alone university, and I want to see more young people in Ipswich and the Somerset region get the opportunities that I did. One way to do it is by providing higher education services closer to home, closer to the students, and providing that financial support for them when they are doing prac. It's bringing education and financial support to the students where they're located.

So I'm excited that we're doing this. This bill is a very important piece of legislation for my community and particularly for regional communities and outer suburban communities. I am very keen to see one or more of these suburban hubs established in my electorate. This will help, for example, young people in Logan, Ipswich and south-west Brisbane, across electorates like Oxley, Rankin and Blair, which we on this side of the chamber have the honour to represent—and also the electorate of Wright, Deputy Speaker Buchholz. It will help people in the Lockyer Valley, which I used to represent and which you represent now.

In closing, I want to acknowledge the Minister for Education for bringing forward these reforms. These are major changes. We sometimes don't quite realise, when we're debating legislation, the kind of impact this will have. This is not legislation that will be forgotten. This legislation that we are debating today will have impacts on people for generations. People's lives will be changed by the bill that we are going to pass. They will be changed, their families will be changed and their generations will be changed. That's how important this legislation is.

I want to thank our government officials and public servants who worked on this legislation—the whole Universities Accord team. I've read this report. It's an excellent report, and I commend it to anyone to read. I want to thank all the stakeholders for their valuable input in these reforms. This is about building a better but also a fairer system. It's not just about supporting rich schools; it's about filling universities with kids from low-socioeconomic backgrounds—the Bradley reforms, as we used to call them years ago. This legislation will help with the cost of degrees and the cost of living, and it will help a lot of young people—and older people too—who would have missed out on opportunities in life. It's that ladder of opportunity, which we often talk about. This legislation is absolutely vital, but it's only the first step in what the Albanese Labor government is doing to assist young people in the outer suburbs and the regions.

Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That all words after "reading" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"the House:

(1) notes that:

(a) students are being shackled by a lifetime of debt which is making the cost of living crisis worse, locking people out of the housing market, causing people to delay having families and crushing dreams of going to university;

(b) the Government's plan to provide student debt relief will still see student debts rise by 11.5 per cent in their first term and arts degrees costing over $50,000;

(c) the student debt system cannot be fixed because student debt should not exist and higher education, like education at every level, is an essential public good that should be free, universal and provided by the government;

(d) mandatory unpaid placements are causing students to forego paid work, choose between groceries, rent and medicine, drop out of universities and are taking an immense toll on students' health; and

(e) students experiencing placement poverty need urgent relief and should be paid for every hour of work they are required to do as part of their degree, at least at minimum wage, not a lesser supplementary amount; and

(2) calls on the Government to wipe all student debt, make university and TAFE free, and pay all students doing mandatory placements at no less than minimum wage rates".

My electorate of Brisbane has one of the youngest populations in the entire country. We are home to many, many university campuses, including very large university campuses, with thousands of students and countless young people starting out in the world post graduation. At the same time, though, we are a community with over $1 billion of student debt.

Student debt is making the cost-of-living crisis worse and is damaging our economy, in the now and over the long term. As the cost of going to university creeps higher and higher, people are concerned about their futures. Many constituents have told me that the soaring costs of going to university are making them question whether or not they should continue at uni, with some just writing it off as an option altogether. Education should be free at the point of use. It should be the same for early childhood, primary, secondary and higher education, to break cycles of poverty, allow people to pursue their dreams, improve our economy and allow people to specialise their skills or even retrain as our economy changes in the future. Education that is free at the point of use gives people economic freedom and social mobility. We need to make uni free again, and we need to wipe all student debt.

The bill before us today seeks to do a few things—namely, to tweak and amend the HECS debt system. It retrospectively ties the student debt indexation rate to the lower of either the CPI—the consumer price index—or the WPI, the wage price index, and provides an indexation credit to reduce the 2023 and 2024 student debt indexation rates from 7.1 per cent to 3.2 per cent and from 4.7 per cent to four per cent, respectively. In short, someone who has an average student debt of $26½ thousand will see a reduction of around $1,200 in their outstanding student debt as a result of these changes.

But setting indexation to the lower of the CPI or the WPI is akin to arranging deckchairs on the Titanic. The WPI is usually higher than the CPI, so this change will make little difference. In fact, in the last 25 years the WPI has been lower than CPI indexation only four times, including in 2022 and 2023. Big student debt indexation hikes can still happen. Student debts will keep going up. In fact, even after these changes, student debt will have risen by over 10 per cent in Labor's first term in government. We keep hearing that Labor is wiping $3 billion of student debt, but when you put that up against the $78 billion of student debt in this country it really is just a drop in the ocean.

Making university free once again and wiping student debt would forever change this country for the better. It would send a signal that we value education as a public good that everyone should have equal access to, regardless of their financial standing. It would make us a more prosperous country. Universities Australia recently noted that university educated workers make our economy $185 billion bigger and underpin a higher standard of living for all Australians.

Free university courses would boost our economy, reduce economic inequality and give countless more people the opportunity to follow their passions. We wouldn't even be trying something new. University used to be free in this country, and it still is free in numerous countries around the world: France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark—the list goes on and on. But right now we see university courses becoming more and more expensive. Student debt is growing larger and larger each year, and next year punitive fee hikes that were ushered in by the Morrison government—which Labor is refusing to change in this bill, I'll add, despite the recommendation on the Universities Accord panel—will kick in, and some degrees will cost more than $50,000. Allowing Australia to continue down this path is bad for the economy and it is bad for our society. We keep hearing that a university degree today is what a high school certificate was 30 years ago. If that is the case, we have to act like it. We need to make university free and wipe all student debt.

This bill also allows for grants to be paid to higher education providers for the new Commonwealth placement payment. This payment is $319.50 per week for eligible teaching, nursing and social work students—$319.50 a week. Students are expected to be studying full time while doing placements up to full time while also paying for groceries, ever-increasing rent and all their other bills. It is impossible. I want to share the story of my sister, Emily, who had to go through unpaid placement through her time studying to be a midwife. In her first few years of studying nursing and midwifery she had to complete two eight-hour days of placement, one eight-hour day of uni lectures and one eight-hour day of tutorials, totalling 32 hours of unpaid university-required learning and placement. This left her with the ability to work one shift per week at her job so that she also had enough time to study and complete assignments so that she could pass the course.

Her final year of study saw her doing 32 hours of unpaid placement a week, including night shifts. On top of this were the continuity-of-care shifts, where students were required to follow expectant parents through their antenatal visits, births and postnatal visits. Emily needed to complete 20 of these, regardless of the day and regardless of the time. She was essentially on call 24/7, unpaid. Because of this, Emily did not have time to also work a job that actually paid her. So she couldn't afford a car. She couldn't afford a place to rent in Brisbane without our family helping her. And this was back in 2017. Adding in the current cost-of-living and housing crises, I genuinely do not know how we expect anyone to be able to make this work.

The government's proposal of $319.50 a week is not enough. It is $8 an hour if you are doing a full-time placement. Students experiencing placement poverty need urgent relief. Labor has said this policy will only commence on 1 July next year, so what are people supposed to do in the interim? Every student should be paid for every hour of work that they're required to do as part of their degree, yet the government is excluding so many of them. Students should be paid at least the minimum wage for work on their placement, not a lesser supplementary amount. Wiping $3 billion out of $78 billion of student debt is measly and does not address the systemic issue of charging people to receive an education. Again, $319.50 a week for working a full-time placement is woefully low, and so many students in key fields like medicine and psychology completely miss out.

We need an overhaul of the way we do higher education in this country. We are left playing catch-up to so many economies who already experience the huge benefits of providing free university. But yet again it comes down to a matter of priorities. It is a choice of this government, of both major parties, and the priorities of this place are out of touch with the people out there in the community. There is always money for tax handouts to the megawealthy and there's always money for the fossil fuel industry. That enormous expenditure is never questioned. But when it comes time to fund education, to take a bold and courageous step towards creating a more equal and fair society and fair economy, the message from the major parties is that it's just too expensive. We keep hearing that a university degree, like I said, is now worth what a high school certificate was worth 30 years ago. If that is the case, we need to act like it in this place. We need to make university free once again, and we need to wipe all student debt.

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

Is the amendment seconded?

Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the amendment and reserve my right to speak.

Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Education is everything. It matters enormously to the families in the electorate of Chisholm, which I am so privileged to represent. I'm so pleased to be part of a government that takes education and higher education seriously and understands the opportunities that can be accessed through a university degree and a course of study.

This is an area I am absolutely passionate about. In my very first speech in this place, I spoke about my commitment to and experience of working in the higher education sector. I'm delighted that in our very first term we are making some important changes to make it easier for people to access education in communities right across Australia, including of course in my wonderful community of Chisholm, which is home to Monash University and Deakin University. Monash University is where I was able to undertake my first degree. It was always the local university and an important part of our community, where my school concerts and ballet concerts took place. I know that so many families move into the south-eastern and eastern suburbs because of the connection to excellent schools and terrific higher education institutions.

The reforms in this bill, the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024, really matter to my community of Chisholm. I undertook a survey throughout the accord consultation process in my electorate and I received hundreds and hundreds of responses. Locals wanted to see—and this came through incredibly clearly in responses—a fairer, more affordable and accessible education system. I made a submission on behalf of my electorate to the accord expert panel, and I'm so pleased that the voices of the people of Chisholm have been heard. The reforms we are getting on with implementing are exactly the sorts of reforms my electorate wants to see from our government. I've heard from students, from academics, from parents and from grandparents—even parents of children in primary school, parents who are already thinking about the education they want to set their young children up with for life.

Our government is making a really serious commitment to higher education, putting in place significant reforms in response to the Australian Universities Accord, which in itself was a really important process to undertake and which will provide cost-of-living relief and make higher education better and fairer for students, including those of low-SES or disadvantaged backgrounds and those from the outer suburbs and regional Australia.

This bill enacts many of the important changes announced in the 2024-25 budget. We're making HECS-HELP fairer for all Australians and wiping around $3 billion in student debt for three million Australians. This has been incredibly well received in my community, especially, as I mentioned, following the enormous number of responses to our survey and the clear community view that we need to make university more affordable for people right across Australia. What this means is that someone with an average HECS debt of about $26,500 will see that debt cut by about $1,200.

For the first time ever, the Commonwealth will introduce a prac payment to support teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students to do their mandatory placements. Again, the need to do this came through very strongly through the consultation that I've had in my community—with families, students, practitioners and the universities themselves. I'm really pleased that we're the first government to take this really important step because we want to make it easier for people to get a qualification, to get a job and to be able to contribute to our communities in these very important professions.

We know that many students have said that when they do the prac component of the degree they've got some really difficult financial decisions to make. Unfortunately, we know that some people have had to give up their part-time jobs or have had to move away from home, and, regrettably, for a lot of people this has meant that they've delayed finishing their degrees or have disconnected from study altogether and not completed their degrees at all. It's so important that we've removed the obstacles that have prevented people from being able to be successful through their studies in these incredibly important areas.

We know we need more teachers, more nurses, more midwives and more social workers. These are some of the most important jobs in this country. These are the people who will teach our children, look after people when they're sick and old, help women during childbirth, and support people in some of the most difficult times in their lives, when they may have experienced family and domestic violence. This is vital work across all of the communities that every representative in this place has the privilege of being elected to speak on behalf of. This is really important legislation, and this prac payment provides the support for people to continue with the training that they need to complete in order to be qualified in their chosen area of study.

This bill will also uncap the FEE-FREE Uni Ready Courses right across the country so that more people get the skills they need to start a degree. This is about unlocking opportunity, because, on this side of the House, we believe that everyone should be able to pursue all kinds of possibilities and potential, no matter where they're from and no matter how much they or their parents have earned. These courses—these FEE-FREE Uni Ready Courses—are effectively a bridge between school and university, to help people get the skills they need and to help them to succeed once they get to university. These changes are expected to increase the number of people doing these free uni-ready courses by about 40 per cent—that's so significant—by the end of the decade and to double the number in the decade after that.

This bill also mandates that higher education providers allocate at least 40 per cent of student services and amenities fees to student led organisations. This will strengthen student led organisations and their ability to act in the best interests of all students. This is really important and empowering for students. Again, this need to do more to allow student voices to be heard came through very strongly in the survey I undertook in my electorate of Chisholm.

Our government have been working really hard to make sure we address the issue of gender inequality in this country, and, of course, we have seen that there has been a historic reduction in the gender pay gap recently. This bill also addresses gender inequality in this country. Sixty-one per cent of HELP debtors are women, which is around 1.8 million people. They are going to benefit from the measures contained in this legislation. The Commonwealth prac payment primarily supports female dominated occupations. Women make up 88 per cent of people in nursing, 75 per cent of people in teaching and 85 per cent of people in social work. We know that in our fee-free Uni Ready courses, over 60 per cent of the people who will benefit are women. They will benefit from the additional places and funding for delivery of these courses. So in this legislation, as across much of our legislation that we as a government have introduced, we see gender equality is at the heart of what we do.

It is significant that we are wiping around $3 billion in student debt for more than three million Australians. This will ease pressure on workers and students right across the country, providing significant relief for students while continuing to protect the integrity and value of the HELP and other student loan systems which have allowed government to massively expand tertiary access for Australians and to allow more Australians, therefore, to go to university and to seize the opportunities that a university education and degree provides. This bill caps the HELP indexation rate to the lower of either the consumer price index or the wage price index. Importantly, we backdated these changes to 1 June 2023.

Once the legislation passes, individuals will receive a credit to their outstanding student loan debt balance for the difference between the indexation rate under the current legislation and the new indexation rate. These changes cover HELP, VET student loans, Australian apprenticeship support loans and other student loan accounts that existed on 1 June last year. This will benefit all Australians with a student loan and fix the issue of last year's spike in the CPI indexation rate of 7.1 per cent and prevent growth in debt from outpacing wages in the future. This is a step that really demonstrates our commitment to fairness in the higher education loan system. This change is going to provide important relief for students while continuing to protect the HELP system and to enable people to defer their debt and study at university.

I am really proud to be part of a government that takes higher education seriously, that sees the benefit for our communities in making sure that education is inclusive, accessible and equitable. As I said in my first speech in this place and will continue to advocate for long after I leave this place, I believe that higher education and education more broadly unlocks opportunities. It is everything, I know families in my electorate sacrifice so much so that their children can receive a high-quality education. I will always defend education, from the earliest years to the possibilities through lifelong learning. I know that this side of the House, the Albanese Labor government, will always back education and do everything it can to protect and enhance the system we have in Australia.

Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are deep systemic problems that are crippling our Australian tertiary education system and thereby the students within it. This is a huge issue in my electorate of Ryan, which is proudly the home of the University of Queensland. The government pats itself on the back. There's been a fair bit of self-congratulation from the government benches today for wiping $3 billion in HECS debt. But let's be crystal clear: this debt wouldn't even have existed if they had scrapped indexation last year. Instead they let indexation continue, leading to debts skyrocketing by 7.1 per cent last year and over four per cent this year. This isn't generosity. This is gaslighting again. Three billion dollars of debt relief is a tiny drop in the vast ocean of a $78 billion debt. To put this into perspective, if you have an average student debt of $26½ thousand it will reduce by only $1,200, once only.

Imagine this—and I'm going to paint a rather sad picture here. You go to uni, you work hard and you try to get a good job. As punishment, your HECS debt grows faster than you can pay it off, because of indexation. It's a trap that's locking people out of the housing market, delaying families and crushing dreams of higher education. We all agree that higher education is absolutely critical to the health of our community.

What about Labor's so-called fix? They want to set indexation to the lower of CPI or WPI, but here's the catch: WPI is usually higher than CPI, so this change will make little difference. In fact, in the last 25 years, WPI has been lower than CPI only four times. Labor's tweaks will not provide an ounce of relief to those struggling under ballooning debts in this cost-of-living crisis.

The root of the student debt crisis remains untouched. People are graduating with bigger and bigger debts that grow every year and take longer to pay off, thanks to the LNP's disgraceful punitive fee hikes—hikes that Labor is backing against the advice of their own uni accords panel. Next year, for the first time ever, arts degrees will cost more than $50,000. We have Labor to thank for that. Let's be real here. The student debt system cannot be fixed, because student debt shouldn't exist in the first place. Higher education, like all education, is an essential public good that should be free, universal and provided by the government.

If you're one of the thousands of students who are required to attend a placement for your degree, you can expect an even greater financial burden. Tens of thousands of students across the country are working for free in unpaid placements, leaving them unable to work to support themselves. This is nonsensical; it's cruel. You shouldn't have to choose between study and paying the rent, and that's the case for so many millions of students right now. You certainly shouldn't have to choose between studying in an absolutely essential field, like nursing, midwifery or social work, or fields with drastic workforce shortages, like medicine or veterinary science, and putting food on the table. That's the situation for way too many students at the moment.

The effect of all this is that only those with more privileged backgrounds, or those who have substantial savings, can actually put themselves through these degrees. It's disgraceful, and it's not the way to invest in the future of this country. Labor once again claims to be doing something about this, but it's barely touching the sides of this crisis. Students in the fields of nursing, teaching and social work will be lucky enough to benefit from a below-minimum-wage, means-tested placement payment of about $8 an hour, and they'll have to wait until July 2025 to get this payment. It was announced in this year's budget—the one with a surplus—and could already have been introduced, but Labor has chosen to extend the suffering of these students, forcing them to keep making these impossible choices for another 12 months. Which degrees don't get this payment at all? It's a really long list, but it includes medical students, who have to do 2,000 hours of placement; vet students, who have to do 52 weeks of placement; and people studying radiography, psychology, physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

At $8 an hour for a 40-hour week, it comes to $320, which is, put simply, not enough to live on. I can guarantee you that none of the MPs in this place would be able to live on that, yet they're happy to condemn others to do it. A payment of $320 a week is well below the poverty line, as we know. It's certainly not enough to live on when students are staring down the barrel of yearly, unlimited rent increases in most of the country. To add insult to injury, Labor and the Liberal-National coalition have refused to rein in corporate price gouging, sending the cost of groceries through the roof. It's just cruel.

The government is currently trumpeting its Future Made in Australia Bill. For a truly thriving and viable future for everyone made in Australia, we need to properly invest in the education of Australians. I urge Labor to make that good investment, which should not be regarded as a cost. That good investment would see huge returns for Australia and Australians for generations to come.

Cassandra Fernando (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Higher education is essential for our economy and the future of our nation. Gough Whitlam said it best in his 1969 election pitch:

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.

Today, 36 per cent of our workforce holds a university degree. Our education system is strong, but we can and must do more to make it even better. The future of Australia hinges on our ability to educate and empower the next generation. It is not just about filling classrooms; it is about equipping our people with skills and knowledge and the opportunity to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

In 2022, the Minister for Education, Jason Clare, initiated a generational review of the higher education sector. This ambitious review, known as the Australian Universities Accord, involved extensive consultation with students, industry leaders, universities and staff across the sector. The goal was clear: to create a fairer and more equitable higher education system. The accord set an ambitious target to have 80 per cent of the workforce achieve a tertiary qualification by 2050. This is not just a great aspiration; it is a practical and necessary goal that will help Australia remain competitive in a global economy. Achieving this target will add an estimated $240 billion to our economy by 2050—a significant boost that will benefit all Australians.

The Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 is a crucial step forward in realising this vision. This bill addresses four key priorities outlined in the Universities Accord. It will wipe out approximately $3 billion of HECS debt for over three million Australians. Education should be a pathway to opportunity, not a road to a lifetime of debt. This is why Labor is wiping out $3 billion in student debt and changing the indexation of loans so that student loans will never increase faster than wages. For someone with an average HECS debt of about $26,500, this change will mean a reduction of around $1,200. For someone with a debt of $45,000, it will mean a reduction of around $2,000. This is not just about numbers; it is about providing real relief to real people. In Holt alone, this change will benefit 19,600 people with student debt.

This week, the Manager of Opposition Business stated that the coalition welcomes an initiative to combat escalating student debt. While it's heartening to hear this support now, it is unfortunate that he did not show this concern when he voted with the previous government to support the Job-ready Graduates Package, which increased the cost of arts, business and commerce degrees. This was the peak of a series of attempts by the previous Liberal-National government to deregulate university fees and make students bear more of the cost. Every time Labor have been in government, we have pursued policies to support students. Every time the coalition have been in power, they have waged an ideological war against our higher education system, making it more expensive and less accessible for students. We believe that education is a public good, not a privilege reserved for the few. This is why Labor governments have always supported policies which enable more students to study and which support them to complete their degree.

For the first time, the Commonwealth will introduce a prac payment to support teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students during their placements. These are fields in high demand, which focus on caring for others—caring for our young Australians, caring for our mental wellbeing, caring for our mothers during childbirth and caring for the sick. These students are the future of our essential services, and it is our responsibility to support them as they prepare to take on these crucial roles. I have spoken to hundreds of students across Victoria about the need for this payment. From RMIT to Deakin, from Monash to Melbourne, from Swinburne to VU and from La Trobe to Federation University, students have shared their struggles to afford basic essentials like petrol and rent while trying to complete their studies. Many of these students must dip into their savings to undertake hundreds of hours of unpaid work, which is particularly challenging for those who live away from home and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. This is why we are making this change. From July 2025, these students will be paid $319 per week while undertaking their placements. This payment will not only provide much-needed financial support but will also encourage more students to pursue these fulfilling and essential careers.

There is a significant jump between high school and university, and it is our duty to ensure that these students are adequately prepared for the transition. This bill uncaps fee-free university-ready courses. These courses serve as a bridge between school and university, helping students gain the skills they need to succeed in higher education. They teach students writing, communication, maths and other foundational skills that they need to prosper at university, whether they do not achieve the entry score or are looking to upskill later in life. The Albanese Labor government is investing $350 million to expand these programs. This fund will allow 40 per cent more students to undertake these courses by 2030 and will double the number of students by that time. These programs are especially important for the underrepresented and disadvantaged communities who may otherwise be locked out of our higher education system.

Students know what is best for students, which is why our government is guaranteeing funding for student-led organisations. These organisations provide vital services on campus, including independent advocacy, training, financial aid, legal services and wellbeing programs like food banks and mental health outreach. They are run by students for students. They are the best informed and equipped to represent the interests and needs of the student body. Student organisations have done fantastic work over the last decade, bringing vital issues on campus to light. They have held institutions accountable when they have failed to act on issues such as sexual assault and harassment. In 2008, the former minister for youth Kate Ellis released a report into the impact of voluntary student—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43, and the debate may be resumed at a later hour. The member will have leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed.