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

It's been a long time between drinks, as they say. When I first started speaking on the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 on 12 September, I had the opportunity to highlight some of the key parts of the original bill, and I'm delighted to be supporting the original bill, rather than the amendments. This bill is going to do a number of things. Let's take ourselves back there.

The first change is around HECS or HELP debt, making it fairer for students and wiping out $3 billion of student debt. That means that last year's horrible debt that students incurred will actually, because of the backdating, be rebated to them. If someone has a debt of around $26,500, the debt will be cut by about $1,200, so it will actually make a real difference there. The second thing that I mentioned was the Commonwealth payment to support students doing their prac. I'm going to come back and say more things about that, but that is such a significant change, and I'm really pleased that we're looking at how hard it is to do university and have jobs and then go and do full-time placements. The third thing is around fee-free uni-ready courses. These can change people's lives. I gave an example of one local resident who said she wouldn't have even considered doing it if it had meant taking on debt, but she's relishing it and there's a high possibility that it's going to lead her into further university education.

I want to talk a bit more about the prac payments. I'm going to give a really personal example here. It matters to everyone at uni who is doing teaching or nursing or studying to be a social worker. It also matters to the old people in their families, their parents. I'm one of those mums who has a son currently studying primary school teaching, and Harry said I'm allowed to tell you about him. He has had a pretty incredible career as a musician from quite a young age, and that led him to do only a year of uni straight out of school and then to abandon his university music-degree studies to actually play music around the world. But during COVID things changed, and, having done that for many, many years, he came to a decision that it was time to go back to university and do a primary-school-teaching degree—a profession that he hopes is going to sit alongside his continuing music career.

Now, anyone who's gone to uni as a mature-age student, having lived independently—in Harry's case, for more than a decade—knows that the decision to go to uni means not only a drop in your income on a weekly basis, and the accumulation of significant debt, but also a total absence of income when you do your full-time prac. That's certainly what Harry has experienced, for weeks at a time. He sees his friends experiencing it as well. Harry makes the point that, while I know he hates asking for help, he knows he has access to assistance to get him through those weeks, but he also knows that some of his mates don't and just how hard it is for them.

So to have a bill that establishes the Commonwealth prac payment, to support those eligible nursing, midwifery, teaching and social work students who are doing those required placements, is a real game changer. It's an equaliser. Like a lot of things Labor does, it just makes the whole thing a bit fairer. Placements, we know, are really important parts of qualifications. They make sure those graduates have the skills and experience to actually be in the workforce and to test that they're happy being in that workforce.

I recognise that there are other qualifications, aside from the ones that we've started with, that do require mandatory placements. Where we've started is based on the Universities Accord recommendations that we focus on nursing and the care and teaching professions. So that's the advice that we're taking. They are all areas where we know we need people to finish their teaching degrees, nursing degrees, social work degrees and midwifery degrees.

It is the first time any Commonwealth has provided financial support for mandatory placements, so it's a really significant step, and I look forward to seeing how it supports young people. It won't be everything. It won't suddenly provide them with the equivalent of a salary. But it is a tax-funded help to allow them to continue the work that they have made a commitment to through their degrees.

Providing a help for students is also what we're doing with the changes to the way HELP debt is indexed. When we talk about $3 billion being wiped off student debt, it's a really big number. I'm very aware that, for each student or person who is still carrying a HELP debt, it might not translate to wiping out your whole debt, but it is, again, something we can do that practically assists people, certainly with the current cost-of-living pressures that they're facing, but it also lessens that load and recognises the importance of having people finish their uni degrees. So I'm really pleased about that.

I wanted to talk through how this was going to work. We talk about indexation, and I know a lot of people talk to me about the interest rate they pay on their debt, but we all know that that is indexed. It's indexed each year, so that it matches, relative to what it started out as—otherwise, you'd have a really unequal system where the person who took the longest to pay it off would end up not paying the equivalent of what they were effectively loaned by the taxpayer. So indexation just keeps it to the right level, but we know it has got out of whack and there have not been any real limits on it.

This bill caps the HELP indexation rate to the lower of either the consumer price index or the wage price index. It will take whichever one is the lower. And the backdating will go back to 1 June 2023. So, once this legislation passes this parliament, individuals will get a credit towards their outstanding student loan debt balance for the difference between the indexation rate under the current legislation and the new indexation rate.

These changes are going to apply to HELP debt as well as to VET student loans, Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans and other student loan accounts that existed on 1 June last year. They will benefit all Australians who have a student loan, will fix the issues from last year's spike in the CPI indexation rate, which was 7.1 per cent, and will prevent growth in debt from outpacing wages in the future. It's about putting that fairness back into the system. I'm really pleased to be supporting that, and I congratulate the Minister for Education for recognising the need for that and prioritising it.

In the first part of my speech I spoke about the Fee-Free Uni Ready courses. I want to stress how important they are in giving people a taste of what a university environment is like and also their capacity to do it, and to do it in a way that prepares them for what's coming. They a real game changers, and I'm so pleased to see that we're improving the quality and consistency of Fee-Free Uni Ready courses. Some people might know them as enabling courses. We're uncapping those courses and replacing the current mixed funding system. All of that means that these courses are more easily available to people. The changes are expected to increase the number of people doing these courses by about 40 per cent by the end of the decade, and by 2040 they will double the number of people doing the courses. This is how our young people get their feet into that world of tertiary education.

The last thing I want to touch on is that the bill that sits alongside this one and in fact has now just passed this parliament is also key to the Universities Accord changes we're making. That legislation is to establish an independent national student ombudsman. These two bills sit closely together, because improving the student experience at university for young people as well as older people is so important. The National Student Survey of 2021 showed that one in 20 students had been sexually assaulted since they started university. We need a better system for our university students, who pay a lot, who sacrifice a lot, for their qualifications. They deserve a safe place, and if something goes wrong they deserve an ombudsman they can go to who can help with the response to the complaint and have stronger investigative powers. This parliament has done some really good work in progressing these changes so that we can encourage more people—who'll become nurses, teachers, social workers and all the other professions we need—to get into the education system.

Sophie Scamps (Mackellar, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024, which is to implement the first tranche of recommendations from the Universities Accord. As former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said: 'Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress in every society'. So I was very pleased when the government announced it had commissioned the Universities Accord, showing commitment to improving and modernising this sector. After all, not only was tertiary education ignored by the previous government but the case can be easily made that it made wilful efforts to undermine it. In their 2014 budget the coalition announced removing caps on student fees and imposing fees for higher degrees by research or PhDs. Thankfully, that did not succeed. The coalition cut operating grants again in 2017 and university research funding again in 2018.

In 2020 the coalition unveiled its signature tertiary education policy, the Job-ready Graduates program, which again cut funding. The program did lower fees for degrees deemed likely to lead directly to particular jobs, but it increased the fees significantly for humanities subjects: the arts, law, communications and economics. In this rapidly changing world, including dramatic technological advances, such as generative AI, and amid a rapid global energy transition, critical and agile thinking is more important than ever. It is not comprehensible to me that, at this watershed time of change in human history, the coalition would have set out to stymie critical thinkers and critical thinking. In fact, as the higher education policy expert Andrew Norton of the Australian National University explained, course fees have very little impact on course preferences. Demand for society and culture courses actually increased by nine per cent in the years following the introduction of this policy. If only the coalition had looked at the evidence before saddling a cohort of students with a much higher HECS debt.

Finally, who can forget that during the pandemic the coalition government repeatedly and inexplicably excluded public universities from government support? I've watched the progress of the Universities Accord Panel with interest. I was very pleased to attend briefing sessions with Professor Mary O'Kane, the chair of the Australian Universities Accord Panel, who was generous with her time and genuinely open to new ideas. It was a process that was overdue, there having been no broad review of the tertiary education system in 15 years. Unfortunately the government announced in May this year that in this term it would be responding to only 29 of the accord's 47 recommendations. Four of those recommendations are before the House today and are being implemented with this bill.

Given the substantial rises in the CPI that occurred over the last couple of years, the first step for this bill is to cap the HECS and HELP indexation rate to the consumer price index or to the wage consumer price—whichever is lower—backdated to 1 June 2023. This is a measure that I and many on the crossbench have been calling for in this term of parliament and one that is welcomed by students across the country. My crossbench colleague the member for Kooyong in particular played an important role in advocating for this measure, presenting one of the biggest petitions ever presented to the federal government, with 288,000 signatures calling for this specific reform.

It's clear that HECS indexation at the CPI levels seen over the last several years is an unfair additional burden on young people. Many people have been finding that over the last few years, despite a year of working and paying off their HECS debts, once it was indexed it was higher at the end of the year than it was at the beginning of the year. This is not how HECS was intended to operate. This change by the government provides for our young people a small breathing space that they need so badly right now as the cost-of-living pressures, housing prices and intergenerational inequality overall continue to grow.

Another important aspect of this bill concerns the introduction of payments for mandatory placements that many tertiary education students must undertake to complete their degrees. To date students in many courses have had to undertake prac placements without being paid. With this bill, from 1 July 2025 the Commonwealth government will provide grants to higher education providers to pay students in teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work courses for the duration of their mandatory practical placements. Students in these courses will receive a payment of over $319 a week, benchmarked to the single Austudy rate. This is a very welcome step. For students who are just scraping by financially while studying, having to leave their part-time job or having to move away to complete a placement may be the straw that breaks the camel's back. It may be the end of their university studies.

Teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work are fields where there are dramatic workforce shortages. These prac payments will allow more students to undertake study in these fields. This is good news. However, there are many other courses where students will miss out and where they won't have their often lengthy practicums remunerated. These courses include veterinary science, psychology and medical and allied health. I recently met with a representative the Australian Medical Students Association, who outlined one of their concerns about this submission. They explained that the rising cost of living and the lengthy practical placement requirements limit the diversity of the people that take up medical studies, because medical students would often come from wealthy families that could support them while they undertook these lengthy prac placements.

I'm supportive of two other reforms in the bill: the requirement that 40 per cent of student service fees are to be directed to student led organisations and the creation of a new Commonwealth Grant Scheme for fee-free uni ready courses, to provide that important bridge between school and university for students who need it. These uni ready courses are so important for people who may be eager to undertake tertiary education but, for one reason or another, are not ready to go straight there. They may not have completed high school, they may not have achieved the necessary ATAR, or they may have completed school many years prior and need a study skills refresher. We should be enabling these very students to go to university. These are the students who have grit and the tenacity to pursue tertiary education despite not having a linear path.

To conclude, I want to stress that I'm a big believer in the importance of equitable access to education. Education can lift people out of poverty. It can take them to places they only ever dreamed of and can create new opportunities for all generations to follow. Education that is accessible to all allows our country to make the most of all our human potential. But access to education does need to be equitable; otherwise, we risk further entrenchment of inequality in our society. This bill takes some steps towards that and I urge the government to do more in this parliament while there is still time. I commend the bill to the House.

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 represents a key step forward in our efforts to improve, and futureproof, Australia's higher education system. The Albanese Labor government understands that receiving a higher education can be life-changing. It's life-changing not only for the individual but also for their families, their communities and the nation as a whole. Quality higher education is about more than just gaining the essential knowledge needed to complete a course; it is about empowering individuals to reach their full potential. A good education opens doors to opportunities that might otherwise remain closed. It equips individuals with the skills and critical thinking necessary to navigate the world that we live in. It also ensures that our workforce remains agile, innovative and capable of tackling the challenges of tomorrow. Investing in higher education is an investment in the future prosperity of our nation and in regions like the Illawarra.

Australia is home to an effective education system, delivered by remarkable institutions, such as the University of Wollongong. But there is more that we can do to make our education system better and fairer for more students. One way the Albanese Labor government is making our education system better and fairer is through this bill. This bill is in response to the Australian Universities Accord Final Report. The report contains 47 recommendations and targets to reform higher education and to help set it up for the next decade and beyond. The report recommends that at least 80 per cent of the workforce will need a VET or university qualification by 2050. Currently, we sit at 60 per cent. That means more Australians from the outer suburbs—regions like the Illawarra—disadvantaged backgrounds and more Indigenous Australians will be going to university. However, we are currently feeling the impact of significant skills shortages, particularly in trades, in technical roles and in the healthcare sector. RDA Illawarra Shoalhaven are completing a two-year research project which will identify skills demands and future opportunities in the Illawarra. The first round of the survey, which surveyed 185 employers, showed that 56 per cent of Illawarra businesses rate the level of skills shortages as either high or extreme.

The Australian Universities Accord:final report also emphasises the importance of innovative education models and comprehensive support for students. Recovery Camp is a social enterprise that was born from research at the University of Wollongong by Dr Lorna Moxham and Dr Christopher Patterson. Their program epitomises these principles from the report by bridging the gap between academic learning and real-life application. Since its inception in 2013, the program has revolutionised mental health education and care. The program's success is a testament to the power of university led initiatives to address critical gaps in health care, education and social services. Students from nursing, psychology, dietetics and other health disciplines engage directly with individuals with lived experience of mental illness in a therapeutic recreational environment. This experience allows them to develop critical clinical skills while challenging and reducing the stigma that often surrounds mental health. A five-year study involving 753 nursing students demonstrated significant improvements in clinical abilities, while another study, involving 874 students, showed a marked reduction in stigma. These outcomes are crucial not only for the future of mental health care but also for increasing interest in mental health nursing, an area that often faces challenges in recruitment and retention.

In addition to the educational benefits, Recovery Camp has a significant impact on participants' mental health outcomes. A 2019 study found a reduction in hospital admissions, bed days, ED presentations and community mental health service contacts among participants, compared to a matched control group. It showed that Recovery Camp participants showed a 42.7 per cent average reduction in mental health service contacts three years post-camp. The camp fosters key recovery outcomes, including increased self-advocacy, hope, confidence and autonomy. The personal stories of participants such as Andy, who has avoided hospital admissions for over a decade thanks to the camp's supportive environment, and Kaylene, who overcame severe social anxiety and depression, highlight the life-changing nature of this program.

By fostering a new generation of empathetic, skilled healthcare professionals and reducing barriers to mental health care, Recovery Camp serves as a model for how universities can lead meaningful social change. They have hosted 44 camps, with plans to host many more, and have provided 1,630 pre-registration health students with more than 130,000 hours of clinical placements. Not only do students and participants benefit from this incredible program; carers also gain the valuable opportunity for much-needed respite.

These students and the many more after them will have gained valuable skills and experience from attending Recovery Camp. However, these and many other clinical placements are currently unpaid. One of the key features of this bill is the introduction of the Commonwealth prac payment. This payment is a targeted financial support scheme for students undertaking mandatory prac placements in essential fields such as teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work. For years students in these fields have been required to complete unpaid placements as part of their degrees. Unpaid prac placements have not only placed significant stress on students but also acted as a barrier to entering these crucial professions. There are far too many students dropping out of these essential courses because of the burden of receiving no or very little income on placement. The Commonwealth prac payment will address the issue by providing eligible students with $319.50 per week, starting from July next year.

In addition to this payment, this bill includes significant measures to address the issue of student debt. The rising cost of higher education has left many graduates burdened with substantial debt, which can take years, if not decades, to repay. The bill proposes a new approach to the indexation of HELP debts, ensuring that they will be indexed at the CPI or the WPI, whichever is lower.

On this side of the House, we want to ensure that indexation doesn't go up faster than wages. On 1 June 2023, the indexation rate was a staggering 7.1 per cent. On 1 June 2024, the indexation rate was 4.7 per cent. These indexation rates make it extremely difficult for anyone with a student debt to pay off that debt and gave the feeling that it is becoming impossible to get ahead. I and many other members in this chamber have sent many letters to the Minister for Education on behalf of the constituents of Cunningham regarding this issue. The minister has listened, and this is why we have also backdated the indexation credits to 1 June 2023. This means that the indexation rate for 2023 would be reduced to 3.2 per cent. The indexation rate for 2024 would be reduced to the WPI figure of four per cent. To put this in perspective, a graduate with a HELP debt of $50,000 will see more than $2,200 wiped from their outstanding balance. This measure is designed not only to support students today but also to provide relief well into the future. With this change, we are expecting to help over three million Australians get rid of an estimated $3 billion of student debt across the country.

Another way this bill will help more students is by expanding the number of fee-free uni-ready courses. These courses are designed to provide foundational skills and academic preparation to students who may not have had access to higher education. Many potential university students face barriers, whether it's inadequate academic preparation, socioeconomic challenges or a lack of support. These uni-ready places are tailored to address these obstacles, helping students build the confidence, skills and knowledge that they need to thrive in their university studies.

The University of Wollongong is not just an educational institution; it is a vital part of our community and our local economy. It has consistently ranked among the top universities in Australia, and globally it is known for its cutting-edge research, high-quality teaching and strong connections with industry. I have spoken with a number of students from the University of Wollongong who have said that the introduction of the Commonwealth prac payment will be a welcome relief to anyone completing teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work courses. As I've mentioned, prac payments can be financially stressful for students, who are required to complete full-time placements with limited or no income. For students in healthcare fields such as nursing or psychology, the practical experience gained during placements is invaluable, particularly when they are given the opportunities to engage in innovative programs like Recovery Camp. These measures will not only alleviate financial pressures on students but will also enhance the quality and accessibility of higher education. This will ensure that our universities continue to produce the skilled professionals and innovative thinkers that our nation needs.

The Albanese Labor government is committed to ensuring that every Australian, regardless of their background, has the opportunity to access quality higher education. I would like to thank the Minister for Education for truly listening to the concerns of my community and other communities around Australia regarding reducing student debts and the introduction of the prac payment. Concerns were raised particularly around reducing financial barriers, expanding access and ensuring our regional institutions, like the University of Wollongong, continue to thrive. This is all reflected in this bill. By supporting our higher education students, we are building a stronger, more equitable Australia where education serves as the foundation for a brighter future for all.

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 is a welcome first step in alleviating some of the unfair and unnecessary pressures facing Australian students and those with ballooning HECS-HELP debts. Great pressures they certainly are, which is why I've been lobbying the government to reform the HECS system for years. In fact, hearing from many of my constituents about the impacts of inflation on their HECS debts, I first asked the Minister for Education to review HECS indexation arrangements way back during question time in July 2022. So for me it was personally heartening to see the government subsequently include HECS arrangements within the scope of the accord review. Though, lamentably, change comes slowly. Subsequently, as inflation took off, I then also called on the minister to freeze indexation in May 2023 and have since consistently argued that more support should be given to those struggling with the surging price of indexation. Now we finally have some movement. While it hasn't gone as far as I'd like, I do applaud the government and the minister for this important first step because today's changes to the indexation arrangements and the limited debt forgiveness will in fact give some much-needed relief to students. But of course much more needs to be done.

For instance, I've long argued for a return to fee-free first degrees for Australian citizens, an idea which I'd hope deeply resonates with the current federal government because it was of course the Labor government led by Gough Whitlam that introduced fee-free degrees in the 1970s. Back then it spoke well of the government and indeed of our country that we valued education so highly that we strongly prioritised investing in and educating Australians. Some of us in the chamber were the beneficiaries of those free degrees or of free degrees in other ways, like the tertiary qualification I was so fortunate to obtain during my time in the military. It's a legacy that has shaped our country, though it's also a legacy that excludes younger Australians who look at us and rightly question why, having benefited from this policy ourselves, we now tell them it's too costly and that their education is no longer our country's priority. Of course, there are those who argue that we can't afford a return to such government largess. Well, I say we can afford it because we are one of the richest countries in the world and more than capable of making higher education accessible and affordable for any Australian with the desire and aptitude to pursue it. Again, it's all about priorities.

I know I don't have the government or opposition support on this, so for now at least there are other changes that could be made—for example, further changes to the indexation arrangements, including fixing the current nonsense where a person's regular compulsory HECS repayments don't actually get subtracted from their debt until they file their tax return the following financial year. There are also the 47 recommendations of the Universities Accord report, many of which still have yet to receive a government response. These recommendations crucially include higher and more accessible income support for university students to support them while studying and ditching the previous government's Jobs-ready Graduates scheme, which raised the fees for many students, particularly in the humanities, which are so important to our nation, not least because of the way they encourage critical thinking.

I look forward to working with the government to address these matters and to ensure that student debts and the cost of university are no longer a barrier to higher education for many people who seek it.

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 is a piece of legislation that I absolutely support, along with all of my Labor colleagues of course. We are talking about making it easier for young people to engage in their tertiary education knowing that their HECS payments will be indexed into the future to whichever is cheapest: CPI or wages. This is a change coming in the middle of tough times for most Australian families. We've heard young people around the country tell us of their shock at the indexation that they have seen happen to their HECS debts over recent times.

This is the Albanese government's very responsive reaction to that, bringing in legislation to assist those former students or current students in a time where people are doing it tough. This is part of the Labor government's commitment to our young people. We understand that education is an absolute asset. We understand that education changes lives. We understand that young people being supported through educative processes to reach their potential is one of the most important things that a federal government can do. It's part of the Labor Party's DNA to see equity of access to higher education in this country.

The previous speaker liked to quote, and many in this place like to quote, the great Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam's introduction of free education, which broke open the sandstone universities around this country to working class children for the first time. As I was just saying to someone in my office as we were discussing this, one of the first things it did was change attitudes about girls and higher education. That was one of the first things we saw change, that suddenly families perceived that their daughters might pursue higher education, where in the past they may not have. It didn't necessarily impact on working class families immediately, but it did over time. It is a hallmark of Labor governments since Gough Whitlam that equity and access in the higher education system is always stronger under a Labor government.

This legislation is more grist to that mill. It is a commitment from the Albanese Labor government that young people can be assured that we support them pursuing their potential. We support the young people in this country to engage in higher education and become the most skilled that they can become, to support their curiosity and to create the great scientists that we hailed today after question time. To have that curiosity piqued and to have it channelled in our universities sector is something that is in the Labor Party's DNA. I'm very pleased to rise to stand and support Minister Clare in the introduction of this piece of legislation today.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 strikes at the very heart of how difficult it is for students, particularly regional students, to make ends meet at the moment. Higher Education Loan Program, HELP, indexation has reached record levels under this government as a result of soaring inflation. You could ask any student in Australia whether they're any better off now than they were 2½ years ago and you would get an emphatic no. Under Labor, student debts have increased by 16 per cent just over the past 24 months. The impact of such high indexation is that the average loan, which is $26,494, has risen by more than $4,000.

The best loan that anyone in Australia can get is the HECS loan, the student loan, because university graduates on average earn more than those Australians who do not go to university. Those are the figures. That's just how it is. We need sparkies, chippies, brickies and all those labourers who do such wonderful things in our nation, but you get those student graduates from Charles Sturt University; UNE, the University of New England, in the member for New England's electorate; any other regional university; or any of the eight sandstone universities in Australia. Those graduates are going to earn, on average, more than those who do not go to university and do not get a certificate or diploma with the university imprimatur on the bottom of it.

Interestingly, in contrast to what's happening under Labor, indexation averaged 1.7 per cent per annum under the coalition. Student debts have increased by 16 per cent in the past two years; under the Liberals and Nationals, indexation averaged 1.7 per cent per year. This is having a big effect on students' ability to repay that debt. Whilst that loan will, on average, provide them with a better life and more income going forward, they still have to pay it back. I appreciate there's also a threshold to reach before they have to pay back that debt. Nevertheless, student debt is going up and up. How is this fair?

We all can remember Labor members—certainly the then opposition leader and now Prime Minister—running around saying that they would be better for young people, that they would provide more hope for university students. I'm the proud father of three graduates of Charles Sturt University. One did a teaching degree, one did accountancy—my eldest son—and my other young fella did policing. I'm very proud to say that Charles Sturt University made its major campus in Wagga Wagga. I know it's headquartered in Bathurst now, but certainly the origins of CSU were at Wagga Wagga. The late Wal Fife, who was the member for Farrer and the member for Hume, played a big role in RMIHE becoming Charles Sturt University in 1989, as did Dr Cliff Blake. They built Charles Sturt University north of the river. At the time, they were criticised for putting it so far out of town. I well remember that people said, 'Why would you want to build a university campus out there?' It is a magnificent setting, and they provide magnificent outcomes for young people—and some who are not so young.

Charles Sturt University put in a submission in relation to this bill, emphasising the uniquely high financial barriers faced by regional students. I had a meeting just last week with Professor Renee Leon PSM, the CSU vice-chancellor, about all matters relating to Charles Sturt University. She's concerned about the cap on international students and how that will affect the bottom line of CSU. I understand that. I was pleased today to be able to broker a meeting between her and the education minister, the member for Blaxland, whilst we were in the Federation Chamber discussing another Universities Accord bill before the House, which we voted on a little earlier.

In her submission in relation to this bill, Professor Leon quite correctly indicated that it's not just the cost of the degrees but also the cost of getting to, staying in and succeeding at university. That's an impost. Members who will stand up and speak on this bill may not understand the uniquely regional effects and the uniquely regional disadvantages that some students face in wanting to get their diploma at a regional university.

The great thing about regional universities is that 75 per cent of those who do a degree there stay in the regions, and quite often it's the region where the university is providing the course. Seventy-five per cent of them will stay regional. That's why I was so proud to be able to put in place, through UNSW, the Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network, which I know is already a success. I know that just in Wagga Wagga there are more than 30 students studying at what will soon be a big new shiny building in the medical precinct, right there next to the Wagga Wagga Base Hospital. Seventy-five per cent of those graduates from UNSW—the rate is probably higher; UNSW says it's about 90 per cent for that particular course—will stay and become the general practitioners and the specialists of the future in rural communities. That is what it is all about.

CSU supports without caveat the creation of fee-free uni ready courses. That's part of their submission. Professor Renee Leon states:

Preparatory programs have proven to be an effective way of boosting higher education access and attainment for students from disadvantaged, First Nations and regional backgrounds. Charles Sturt University has a proven track record in providing such programs …

Indeed, it does.

As a proud advocate for regional education, I'm very supportive of initiatives which help open new pathways and careers for people living in regional Australia. I know and I re-emphasise just how difficult it is in this cost-of-living crisis for students, particularly for students who might come from remote areas to study in other areas of regional Australia—other areas which are less remote—but also for those city students who want a country lifestyle along with their university education. Why wouldn't you? If you were sitting in traffic every day, why wouldn't you want to go out to Armidale or Wagga Wagga or Orange—

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Danglemah

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm not sure there's a university at Danglemah, member for New England. There's one close by. But why wouldn't you want to go out and study and have all the wonderful benefits of regional living and have your degree still worth every bit as much as any degree you'll get from a sandstone university? I will always be an advocate for regional universities, as I know my Nationals and regional Liberal colleagues will be. We will always push the point that you're going to get every bit as good an education at a regional university with every bit of opportunity that comes with it.

CSU believes that changes to student services and amenities fees are not fit for regional universities and students. That's the submission that they put in. This bill requires 40 per cent of student services and amenities fees to be provided to student led organisations. Such organisations could be anything from sporting organisations to cultural or political clubs or other university organisations. Perhaps it's a good idea in theory, but regional students and students studying online must also pay these fees but may not be able to access the benefits of those fees. I know I've had a bit to say on this in the past, and certainly it's something that obviously CSU are passionate enough to put in their submission. We respect that. CSU's submission states:

Charles Sturt University cannot support the measures relating to the use of the Student Services and Amenities Fees … without significant amendments. The intent of the Schedule 2 of the bill seems to be to impose a single model for SSAF across all universities regardless of their differing characters and demographics.

Therein is the nub of the problem. Therein lies the heart of the problem, and that is that CSU, UNE, CQU and other regional universities often get compared to and are expected to do the same and have the same provisions as the sandstone universities, but the landscape is vastly different. The CSU submission went on to say:

The model may be well suited to universities with a single major campus and a large on-site daily student presence but may not be workable for regional and/or multi-campus institutions, or those with a high proportion of part-time or online students.

Geography and our student demographics make it difficult for Charles Sturt University to foster the kind of on-campus student life envisaged by the Government's goals for SSAF, however desirable it may be.

I just wonder—I do earnestly wonder—about the level of engagement that the government has had with universities and particularly with regional universities. I know they'll come into the chamber and spruik their stakeholder engagement. I appreciate that the minister, Minister Clare, told me that he'd had a discussion with Professor Leon just a couple of weeks ago, and that's to be admired and encouraged. That's basically what a minister should be doing, and that is negotiating and talking with universities, with his stakeholders—or her stakeholders, as the case may be. But CSU state in their submission:

Two-thirds of our 35,000 full-time equivalent students are online. More than half are part-time and therefore pay a proportionally smaller SSAF. Those studying on campus are spread across six main campuses in regional NSW, in numbers varying from less than 70 in Dubbo to more than 2,000 in Wagga Wagga. Two of our campuses, Albury and Port Macquarie, are almost 1,000 kilometres apart. The University's campuses are nonetheless host to around 60 sporting, cultural, recreational and discipline-focused clubs similar to those at other universities, though with much smaller memberships than is the case at metropolitan universities. The activities of these clubs are in part support by SSAF.

So that needs to be considered.

When we look at this bill and when we look at the provisions around this bill, we need to remember and always acknowledge how tough students are doing it because of the cost-of-living crisis and the sorts of things that have occurred in the past two years that have forced up the price of everything.

Accommodation is also something that is of great difficulty for our regional students. I know Charles Sturt University at Wagga Wagga has onsite accommodation and certainly helps students to gain accommodation. When I went around the country with Labor senator Deb O'Neill from New South Wales, looking into how universities were coping with everything going on post pandemic, focusing on international education, many of the universities told us that accommodation was at crisis point—and yet, again, our migration numbers are such that they are placing an impost on our universities and on society in general.

So I say this to the government in all frankness and in all honesty: try to do everything you can to bring down the costs for our students, particularly for our regional students, and please, please, please make sure that stakeholder engagement is front and centre with the likes of UNE, CSU, CQU and other regional universities because what you're doing is hurting them and hurting the students, who are indeed Australia's future.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'Education is the silver bullet.' It's a great line from The West Wing, and they are very true words. If we can provide a child with an education, their chances of success in life, of higher living standards and, ultimately, of fulfilling their dreams and ambitions are much greater if they've had a basic high school education but even better if they undertake some form of tertiary education.

The government, when we were elected, set about trying to review our tertiary education system to find out who was missing out on the opportunity of an education and what we could do to make the education system more inclusive for all Australians. The Australian Universities Accord Panel took their time to review Australia's university and further education sector, and their findings were quite interesting. They found that students from low socioeconomic backgrounds tended to not be able to afford an education and that a person's parents' wealth, position and living standards tended to dictate whether or not someone got access to, in particular, a university education in Australia. Students from Indigenous backgrounds were missing out on opportunities, as were those with multicultural backgrounds, to a greater degree than the rest of the population. That is not fair or equitable and, importantly, it's bad for our economy. We know that someone who receives a post-school education will be more productive, learn more during their working years and contribute more to national GDP. There are individual, societal and economic benefits from education. That's why this bill is so important.

This bill is a blueprint to build a better and fairer higher education system in Australia. The report contains recommendations and targets to reform higher education and to set it up for the next decade and beyond. It focuses on measures with an immediate impact on support for students in higher education. This includes HELP indexation that will wipe out $3 billion worth of HELP debts for more than three million Australians. It does this by capping the indexation rate below the consumer price and wage price indices. We're going one step further and backdating this change to 1 June 2023. The indexation change will apply across all HELP loans, VET student loans, Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans and other student loan accounts. It means outstanding loans will never grow faster than average wages. It's an important change that provides significant cost-of-living relief for students. Last year, when there was a big spike in inflation, there was a big spike in HECS and HELP indexation. A lot of Australian students and Australians with a student debt were hit quite hard by that. We heard their pleas for help, and that's why the government announced in our budget that we would wipe more than $3 billion of student debt for those three million Australians. This bill helps do that job.

The bill also introduces a Commonwealth prac payment, which will give eligible students who've signed up to do some of the most important jobs in the country a bit of extra help to get the qualifications that they need. That includes support for around 68,000 teaching, nursing and social work students a year to complete their university placements. All those courses require a mandatory practical placement. To date, those students would generally have had to undertake that training nine to five, Monday to Friday, and lose any income they were receiving from their work, putting them in a difficult financial position. It's the first time ever that a Commonwealth government will provide financial support for those students while they're doing that practical placement. It's clear that approach will help students by providing cost-of-living support. We know that, for a lot of students doing their prac, it can be hard to pay the bills and find time for a part-time job. And these are pretty important occupations. We know we have a massive shortage of nurses in Australia and a huge shortage of teachers. Many of the schools in my electorate are telling me that they can't get teachers at all levels. We want to make sure that we're providing as much support as possible to encourage people to study in those vocations and eventually go on to be the next generation of nurses, teachers and social workers that will be vitally important to our country.

The bill also helps massively expand fee-free uni-ready courses, which act as a bridge between school and uni, to help more Australians access university education and succeed when they get there. This goes to the point I was making earlier about people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds or that didn't get the results they wanted from their HSC missing out on that opportunity for a university education because they didn't have the requisite marks or qualifications. These bridging courses provide that pathway into university and tertiary education for a cohort who have otherwise been locked out. It expands the opportunity for education. It provides the opportunity for that silver bullet that education provides. It's an important change that has the potential to double the number of students doing these fee-free courses over the course of the next 15 years.

The Albanese government is now delivering on our commitment to build a better and fairer education system. It's important to note that these changes are part of a broader reform that includes strengthening integrity and sustainability in the international education sector, including those placements and courses provided by Australian universities.

We've already announced that there'll be caps on the number of international students that can be enrolled by education providers, and that is a measure that's going to ensure the integrity and the quality of educational outcomes for international students. The measure is also aimed at encouraging more international students to study in regional areas. Too many of them are attracted to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, to the sandstone universities. But the education system in Australia is diverse and it has just as good courses and quality outcomes in regional Australia as it does in the cities. We want to encourage, through that new approach to international students, more of those visiting international students to study in rural and regional areas, to work in those areas and, hopefully, eventually, once they graduate, to be employed in those local communities and to settle in those local communities and be on a pathway to permanency here in Australia. That's the subject of separate legislation. But it's all about improving the integrity and the quality of outcomes in education.

So those changes, along with the changes in this bill, reflect the fact that, while we have a good education system, it can be a lot better. We know that our universities aren't just some of the most powerful engines in our economy, or places where the world is changed; they are places where lives are changed, and that's that we want to make possible for more Australians.

Our changes to HECS help deliver relief for students, whilst continuing to protect the integrity and the value of the HECS system, by which we've massively expanded tertiary access for more Australians. This bill represents that significant step in implementing the recommendations of the Universities Accord and ensuring that we get good quality educational outcomes for more Australians and greater equity and access to a university education for more Australians.

Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of this bill, the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024, which responds to some of the key recommendations in the Australian Universities Accord final report. The Universities Accord was a long-awaited and important review into the way higher education is delivered in Australia. Over decades, the Australian university system has evolved, and the way Australians access education has changed. I commend the government for commencing and committing to this review and for commissioning this report into how we improve the quality, accessibility, affordability and sustainability of higher education.

The review looked at meeting Australia's current and future knowledge and skills needs; improving access to higher education across teaching, learning and research; exploring better alignment between VET and universities; and supporting a system of university research that delivers for Australia. The resulting report made 47 recommendations.

The bill being debated today introduces five of the 47 review recommendations and budget commitments. The two that are most significant to my constituents and about which I get the most emails and calls are: changes to the HELP indexation scheme to make study more affordable, and changes to funding arrangements for practical placements. These changes will go some of the way to improving access and opportunity for Australian students and to easing the financial burden for a small group who are studying or will study in future. But I urge the government to do so much more to make education more accessible.

I want to talk about these two changes, how they could be improved and the need for broader reform. When it was first introduced in 1989, the HECS system was the world's first national income-contingent charging mechanism for higher education. In 1989 only 12 per cent of Australians had a university degree. At that time it was considered unfair to expect all taxpayers to fully fund the higher education of this 12 per cent, as they would eventually earn more than an average full-time worker. By 2021, about 39 per cent of people aged 25 to 34 years had a bachelor's degree or higher. This is good news for the country, because a better-educated workforce is able to make the most of evolving economic opportunities, and higher-paying jobs are theoretically available to more Australians. But it also means that far more students are saddled with a HECS debt.

Over this time, government has also reduced the proportion of higher education it subsidises, with the expected student contribution increasing from about 20 per cent to about 48 per cent of student course costs. This means that HECS debts are burdening a generation of young people. Students now finish their degrees with average debts of $50,000 to $60,000. They're taking, on average, about 12 years to repay their debts.

HECS debts have been indexed by the rate of inflation, so in recent years student debt has outgrown earnings. The outstanding HECS debts owed by graduates have ballooned from $22.5 billion in 2011 to $78 billion in 2023. Many young Australians had no idea what they were getting into when they signed up to university at the age of 17 or 18. Higher inflation has resulted in indexation of 3.9 per cent and then 7.1 per cent in the last two years. This is having a real impact on intergenerational inequity. Young people are facing higher HECS debt on top of unaffordable housing and a tax system that disproportionately taxes effort.

In this context it makes sense to reduce the financial burden on young people. HECS debt will be indexed from now at the lower of the consumer price index or the wage price index. This change will mean that your debt won't grow faster than prices or wages. This is a modest but commonsense change to recognise the social benefit of higher education and stop penalising young people for investing in their future. I acknowledge and thank my colleague the member for Kooyong for her work in publicising this issue, mobilising the community and demanding a fairer approach to paying for education. I'm proud to sit with her on the crossbench that's driving positive change.

But I think we need to do more. Federal funding for Australian universities has decreased from 80 per cent in 1992 to around 35 per cent today. In 1996, student fees constituted about 10 per cent of universities' income. For some tertiary centres that figure is now 70 per cent. Our universities are relying on international student fees to fund research and domestic student fees to keep the lights on. We need to do better. Education is worth investing in. If we want a prosperous and forward-looking society, we need to support easier pathways into higher education, whether at university or at a VET institute, and that shouldn't be restricted to the wealthy.

The prac payment for those training in teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work is a welcome development. From July 2025, eligible students will be able to access $319.50 per week while they're undertaking a placement, although a means test will apply. However, the Universities Accord recommended this form of support to students in the care and education sectors, and the legislation applies it only to the approximately 68,000 students who are currently undertaking teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work studies. There's really no clear or justifiable rationale for excluding students of medicine, radiography, allied health and other health sector professions, students who also undertake compulsory placements.

A few months ago I was emailed by Dave, a third-year vet science student living in Subiaco with his partner, Jen, a midwifery student and full-time nurse. He wrote to me to describe the pressure felt by his peers, who were required to complete a minimum of 52 weeks of placements over the course of a five-year degree. He said:

It is great that the Government has decided to provide payments for placements for Teaching, Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work Students; however, Veterinary Students are also struggling. They are sleeping in cars and struggling to pay rent because of a course so demanding that paid work feels like a luxury. This is devastating for our students, devasting for agriculture and exports, devastating for our pets and wildlife, devastating for our regions and devastating for our country.

I believe this measure needs to be extended to cover more prac students like Dave. Medical students and those studying to become psychologists will miss out, and these are key industries in which we know we have major shortages.

The details of how the prac payment will be calculated have been left to regulation, and there's no detail in the bill. Because the details have been delegated to a legislative instrument it means this government or a future government could decide to change it substantially. At about $8 an hour, this cannot be compared to an acceptable wage, but it is in line with Austudy. I won't go into why we're keeping our students in poverty here; that's an issue for another day. This is a generation which now, in the face of a cost-of-living crisis and a crisis of home accessibility and affordability, is being burdened with unprecedented levels of personal debt arising from their attempts to equip themselves with the skill sets required not just for their adult lives but also for the country's future prosperity. This is a generation which understands that Australian university students contribute more to government revenue than the oil and gas revenue pays in its super profits tax.

I'd also like to note the concerns from universities that the government expects universities to administer the means test, a task they're not really equipped to carry out. The bill provides for grants to be made to universities with the intention that universities will undertake means testing and make payments on a weekly basis. As such, this legislation will result in considerable additional administrative costs to universities and will require the Department of Education to establish a grant estimating and acquittal process. It will be essential that the regulations set out a clear process and appropriate support to ensure universities can deliver this with minimal administrative burden.

In conclusion, I'll support this bill because it will make a small difference to some of the students that are studying some courses and it will reduce HECS repayments for some years. But I do not think it is anywhere near enough to overcome the many current challenges in the higher education sector. Our kids are struggling to buy a house, pay for higher education, be financially secure and eventually have a family. I urge the government to do much, much more to support university and VET students.

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

I thank all members for their contributions to this debate. As I said when I introduced this bill, we have a good education system in Australia, but the truth is it can be a lot better and a lot fairer. This bill is an important part of achieving that goal. In February I released the Universities Accord final report. It's a blueprint for reform of our higher education system for the next decade and beyond. And in May I announced the first stage of our response to the accord. That includes the implementation of 29 of the 47 recommendations of the Universities Accord in full or in part. This bill implements a number of these recommendations.

Firstly it will wipe out about $3 billion of student debt for more than three million Australians. It will ensure that growth due to indexation on student debt, including HELP and other student loans, does not outpace growth in wages by setting the indexation rate to the lower of the consumer price index and the wage price index. This change is backdated to 1 June 2023. That will provide significant relief for those with a student debt while continuing to protect the integrity and the value of HELP and other student loan systems, which have massively expanded tertiary access for more Australians.

The bill also establishes a new Commonwealth prac payment from 1 July next year. This is expected to support about 68,000 eligible teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students in higher education to complete the practical part of their degree each year. Practical training, or placements, is an important part of these qualifications that ensures graduates have the skills and the experience they need to enter the workforce. A lot of students have told me that, when they do the practical part of their degree, they've got to either give up their part-time job or move away from home. For a lot of people that can mean delaying finishing their degree or not finishing their degree at all.

We need more teachers, we need more nurses, we need more midwives and we need more social workers. So, in line with the University Accord's recommendations, we are starting with students who are studying teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work in particular as a priority, because of the significant workforce shortages that need to be addressed in those areas.

The bill also establishes a new Commonwealth Grants Scheme funding cluster for fee-free university ready courses from 1 January next year. These are free courses that are effectively a bridge between school and university. They give students who need them the foundational skills they need in order to start a university degree and to succeed when they get there. The former government attempted to dismantle these free courses on a number of occasions. They tried to charge Australians more than $3,000 to do one of these courses. Under the system that they put in place, in 2025 universities would receive around $13,000, on average, to deliver one of these places, but it could be as little as $1,286 per place, depending on the course of study.

This bill isn't a rebadging exercise, as wrongly claimed by the member for Bradfield. This is a massive expansion of these important, life-changing courses. We've committed an additional $350 million over four years to significantly expand these fee-free university ready courses. This is an ongoing funding commitment. Our changes ensure that universities will receive $18,278 per place next year, which will be tied to CPI increases each year. This provides funding certainty for universities. It deals with the disincentives baked into the current system. Most importantly, it ensures that these courses remain free for students. These changes will help more Australians to get a crack at university and succeed when they get there. The Department of Education estimates that this will increase the number of people doing these free courses by about 40 per cent by the end of this decade and double that number in the decade after that.

This bill also requires higher education providers that collect the student services and amenities fee, or SSAF, to allocate a minimum of 40 per cent of that revenue to student led organisations from 1 January next year, with the understanding that some higher education providers may require time to implement these new arrangements. The bill provides time to transition to these new arrangements—up to three years for universities and five years for others.

Last but not least, the bill also establishes the new Adelaide University. It facilitates the merger of the current University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia and supports their ambition and that of the South Australian government to become a global education and research powerhouse.

I want to thank the members for Kooyong, Goldstein, Curtin, North Sydney, Warringah and Wentworth, and others, for their support and their advocacy for reforms to HELP indexation. I also want to thank the member for Indi, who spoke passionately and inspiringly in this debate about the positive impact that Commonwealth prac payments will have for people in her electorate, especially for students and for women, who are more likely to be working in the teaching, early childhood education, nursing and social work professions.

I also want to thank government members, so many of whom have shared the influence that education had on their lives and the positive impacts that this bill will have on the lives of the constituents they are privileged to represent—in particular, the member for Newcastle, who spoke passionately of the benefits of fee-free university ready courses, or enabling programs, and the impact they have had in her electorate of Newcastle. I also want to thank her for her advocacy over the past 11 years and for her efforts to save these programs on three separate occasions. I also thank the member for Cooper, who has been a tireless advocate for those studying nursing and midwifery and for their inclusion under the new Commonwealth prac payment.

And I thank my friend the member for Reid, who shared some of the moving stories that she has heard from students about others who started alongside them but who simply couldn't finish their degrees, because they weren't able to support themselves while they were undertaking mandatory placements, and the difference these Commonwealth prac payments will make. I also want to thank the member for Gippsland for his support for the measures in this bill and for his longstanding commitment to helping young people right across Australia achieve their full potential, particularly in regional Australia.

The government will not be supporting the second reading amendments offered by the members for Bradfield, Brisbane and Goldstein. I acknowledge the strong advocacy from members to include other professions under the new Commonwealth Prac Payments. As I've said in this debate and in my remarks replying to this debate, this is the first time that the government has provided financial support for mandatory placements. We are starting with the courses that were recommended by the Universities Accord: teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work. The government will support the amendment moved by the member for Indi. This requires a review of the Commonwealth Prac Payment after three years of operation.

I want to close by thanking the Universities Accord panel, led by the extraordinary Professor Mary O'Kane. I want to thank Ben Rimmer, Deputy Secretary of Higher Education, Research and International Group in the Department of Education, and his entire team for their work in bringing this bill to the parliament and in developing the first stage of the response to the Universities Accord. I thank the many other stakeholders who have advocated for and welcomed measures in this bill. I'd also like to thank and acknowledge the work of the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee for their inquiry into the bill and note their recommendation that the bill be passed.

This bill helps with the cost of degrees, it helps with the cost of living and, most importantly, it helps with the cost of so many young people missing out on the chance to go to university in the first place—in particular, young people from poor families, from our outer suburbs and from the regions and the bush. I commend the bill to the House.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The immediate question is that the amendment moved by the honourable member for Goldstein be agreed to.

Question negatived.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question before the House is that the amendment moved by the honourable member for Brisbane be agreed to.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question before the House is that the amendment moved by the honourable member for Bradfield be agreed to.