Judith Troeth (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

After that extremely high-flown rhetoric by Senator Carr, I would like to concentrate particularly on the education segment of this matter of public importance. The actual terms of the MPI before us today talk about investment in an education revolution. I would like to suggest to the Senate that that is exactly what the Howard coalition government have been doing since our accession to government in 1996. When you think back to Labor’s New Schools policy, which put a cap on the number of schools that could be established under the Australian education framework, when you think about the way in which Working Nation was managed—which offered a dead-end road to people who were not fortunate enough to have a job but were enrolled and were recycled around and around in meaningless training programs—I think everyone would agree that, in the 11 years of the coalition government, we have done a great deal more than that.

It is no accident that cumulative budgets have put us on a much stronger economic path. If you take, for example, the population’s investment in superannuation and the government’s investment in education, it is no accident that higher employment has led to higher wages. With the addition of tax cuts, it means that people are now able to put more money into super, which in turn will benefit them in their old age and will mean that the government bears less of a burden. If that is not investment in a good economic framework, I would like to know what is.

I probably do not have time to encompass the three areas of education that I would like to talk about this afternoon, but I want to refute a couple of the myths that were posited by Senator Carr. In almost every education inquiry in which I have been involved in my 14 years in the Senate, two measures that were dealt with in last night’s budget have come up time and time again. The first is eligibility for rent assistance to Austudy recipients. As we know, many university students, particularly if they come to capital cities, have to find rental accommodation a long way from their homes, which imposes extra costs. We are providing $87 million over four years to give rent assistance to Austudy recipients, and that benefits around 11,000 students aged 25 years and over. In addition, another criticism of our education policy has been that those students undertaking master’s degrees by coursework have not been eligible for the youth allowance and Austudy in their turn. We are now spending $43 million over four years to extend eligibility for youth allowance and Austudy to those students studying for qualifications that are a minimum entry requirement to a profession or part of a restructure of existing course requirements. That money in turn will help those students maintain their studying regime so that they are able to finish their course.

As well, our package A Better Future For Indigenous Australians means that in last night’s budget there is additional support and improved access to school and tertiary education for Indigenous students. The number of Indigenous students in tertiary education is very low for a variety of reasons. We are going to provide financial assistance, scholarships, training and employment opportunities for Indigenous young people from rural and remote areas, as well as education and job placements in urban and regional areas. When you think about the fact that we are also providing increased Commonwealth learning scholarships at a cost of $91 million to assist talented students from low-income backgrounds to attend university, this is not the social exclusion that Senator Carr talked about; it is social inclusion. We would like to help every student who wishes to go to university to do so. Some may think that that is an unattainable ideal, but we have certainly moved a long way along that road in 10 years of trying to help them to do that.

I will now quickly move to apprentices and technical colleges. We have made enormous strides in the number of apprentices we see in Australia. That number has increased three or four times since we came to office. It is important to recognise that only 30 per cent of school leavers go on to university. The rest find a trade, get a job or do other study. We want to support them, because the shortage of skilled workers which exists in most Western countries at the moment means that tradespeople are very strongly required. We need to encourage students to take up apprenticeships in the first place and employers to keep them on. Eligible Australian apprentices under the age of 30 will get an additional tax exempt payment of $1,000 per year as a wage top-up. That is again something that has been raised with me time and again around the countryside. They will also receive a voucher to reimburse the course fees payable to their registered training organisation by up to $500 per year. This is something that was mentioned to us in the transport inquiry being undertaken by the Senate Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations and Education at the moment.

I wish I had more time to talk about the Investing in Our Schools Program, which has been such a success for primary and secondary schools that we are extending it to the end of the year 2008. I wish that I could talk about the literacy and numeracy initiatives that we have undertaken, the encouragement of teachers to gain better qualifications—particularly in literacy and numeracy—and the way in which our capital grants will continue for schools. As well, at least we have managed to persuade state governments to bring together core curricula for basic subjects such as English, maths, history and science. But never forget that that is the responsibility of state government.