Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure to speak in favour of the Higher Education Endowment Fund Bill 2007 and the Higher Education Endowment Fund (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2007 and to welcome them as yet another step in the Howard government’s advancement of Australia’s future prosperity. In particular, I acknowledge in the gallery today many young Australians who are obviously studying at present and who will be enjoying the benefits of this bill in their future years. Certainly, this is the type of initiative that is an investment in their future as much as it is an investment in the future of Australia.

The world is undergoing much global and economic change, and that is why higher education is so important to Australia’s future. I acknowledge that the Senate Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations and Education completed a report on this bill, and within that report it stated:

... internationally, major investments are being made in universities and research facilities. These countries are Australia’s economic competitors, both now and in the future, and if Australia is to be successful on an international scale, then it is imperative for Australia to be able to compete in the top end of the market.

This new Higher Education Endowment Fund will ensure that Australia is well placed to compete at that top end of the education market. It injects $6 billion into a perpetual fund to ensure that our higher education facilities can have the resources, infrastructure and facilities that they deserve into the future. It is part of the Liberal-National government’s broad commitment to getting it right across the education sector, across all the aspects of education and learning that Senator Marshall referred to earlier—not a narrow focus just on universities or on any one particular area, but a commitment to getting it right everywhere. It focuses on our schools, investing in our schools and ensuring that we have the right curriculum—a curriculum that addresses basic skills in literacy and numeracy, a curriculum that ensures that young Australians learn about our history—and get the right mix of curriculum.

Indeed, the Senate only recently completed a report into academic standards in schools, instigated by the Howard government. This will be used as a driving force, I am sure, in the future to ensure that those standards are raised. This is coupled with government investment in the school sector standing at a very high level, supporting both the government and non-government sector, particularly through programs such as the Investing in our Schools Program, which again is providing the practical facilities that schools so desperately need.

It is not just about the schools sector and the higher education sector. This government has provided strong benefits to vocational education and training. This government has proudly reinvigorated traineeships and apprenticeships as an important part of that mix, which has ensured that we have more Australians undertaking such apprenticeships than has ever been the case before. These are proud achievements in getting the right mix of education throughout lifelong learning for all Australians. This will ensure that young Australians, such as those in the gallery today, have a great schooling system and at the end of that have the opportunity to choose the pathways that will suit them best, be it an apprenticeship, a traineeship or going on to university.

We have worked with TAFEs and with the vocational education and training sector. I acknowledge that in this budget we have introduced not only this Higher Education Endowment Fund but also FEE-HELP for VET students. In fact, we are providing practical support as a first and new measure to assist those undertaking vocational education and training, just as we have provided such support to university students over a long period of time.

The university sector is the focus of this legislation. The university sector, contrary to what we hear from the opposition and the minor parties, has been enjoying a resurgence and is doing extremely well under this government. We need only look at the revenues that the university sector is generating. Details were announced today by the Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop, who is doing such a good job in all of these areas of education. Minister Bishop announced that revenues for universities reached in 2006 a record $15.5 billion. That is an increase of $1.6 billion or 11 per cent over the year 2005. That represents significant growth in the revenue available to our universities to support students, and to support and develop the facilities they require.

That level of revenue has been achieved because this government has funded more public places than ever before, as well as supporting the option of up-front fee-paying places. It is that mixture of fee-paying places and government supported places that has provided universities with the surge in revenue that will allow them to achieve great things into the future.

Government funded places, as I said, have also been on the rise. The minister announced only last week 2,300 new Commonwealth supported places to help meet the demand for higher education into the future. These places are addressing student demand and skill needs for Australia. They include 560 new places for engineers, 390 new places for science professionals, 395 new places for nurses, 375 new teaching places, and 210 places for other health professionals. All up, they will contribute to around 4,600 new places that the government allocated last year, in 2006. So the Howard government is building growth upon growth in our university sector. Ultimately, it is expected that 50,000 new university places will be funded by the Australian government by 2011. This represents significant investment in university places for young Australians by this government.

We actually have historically low levels for the number of eligible students who cannot get a place. Some 92 per cent of eligible students received an offer this year, up from 90 per cent last year. So, contrary to what we hear at times from those on the other side of this chamber, it is the best result in more than two decades. If a young person qualified for a place in university, in the last year they had the best chance of getting that place in more than two decades. That is a great achievement by this government. I acknowledge that Senator Marshall in his comments recognised that enrolments in universities have more than doubled under this government. That is a proud achievement—that we have increased the number of places in universities and increased the funding in universities to match. That is why this government has something to be proud of with regard to its work in the university sector.

In my home state of South Australia, some 290 of these places will be injected for this year. They will fund 95 new science professionals, 90 engineers, 75 nurses, 10 teachers, 10 health professionals and 10 psychologists—additional places in key skills areas and additional opportunities for young South Australians. By 2013 the Australian government will have funded another 830 university places in South Australia. Coupled with this was an announcement which is of great benefit to South Australia: the government is supporting our first veterinary science school, at the University of Adelaide’s Roseworthy campus. For too long young South Australians who have aspired to study veterinary science have had to leave South Australia and study elsewhere. Now we will have a new veterinary science school proudly established at Roseworthy. I acknowledge the commitment of the minister to contributing $15 million in one-off funding to allow the University of Adelaide to establish this school. That is funding for places so that by 2013 up to 270 young people will be studying at the campus for either a Bachelor of Animal Science degree or a Master of Veterinary Science degree. This is a great achievement. In addition to acknowledging the minister, I acknowledge David Fawcett, the member for Wakefield, where the Roseworthy campus is based. He is a very hardworking local member who campaigned very hard to achieve the funding for this university campus from this government. It is a proud achievement for David Fawcett and for the government that we have managed to deliver this new opportunity for young South Australians.

This is a healthy tertiary education sector with a bright future that is being made even brighter by the funding provided as a result of the Higher Education Endowment Fund. As we have heard, the fund will take the opportunities for universities to invest in their facilities and infrastructure to a new level. It will create a special account under the Future Fund, managed by Future Fund trustees. It was initially announced in the budget this year at $5 billion but was subsequently increased to $6 billion. A long-term commitment was made by the Treasurer to take that amount further, to hopefully see at least $10 billion in this fund. I hope for even more over the years, for a perpetual fund that will provide ongoing financial support to our tertiary sector. As the Senate committee acknowledged:

The HEEF is expected to significantly increase the funds that are available to be invested in the higher education sector.

It went further:

This investment has been enthusiastically welcomed by the sector.

This is good news that is well appreciated by our universities. It is estimated that the initial investment will provide some $300 million to $400 million per annum for investments. These investments will be assessed by an independent advisory committee. So we will ensure that the money goes where it is needed most. That is in addition to the ongoing investment from this government in the higher education sector. The minister has made it perfectly clear that this fund will not be in place of anything—that it is an additional boost. It is in addition to the Capital Development Pool, which has had approximately $607 million invested over the past 11 years; it is in addition to the Research Infrastructure Block Grants, which have had approximately $1.5 billion invested over the same period; and it is in addition to the Major National Research Facilities Program, in which over $59 million has been invested. Over the next five years an estimated $540 million will be invested in the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. This is not just about supporting new university places and the facilities at our universities; it is a great investment in the research and development and intellectual capabilities of Australia going into the future.

As my colleague Senator Barnett acknowledged, the fund will also be open to philanthropic donations. As a government, we hope the fund will provide a vehicle to encourage further consideration by the private sector to support these universities and to support the future potential for such excellence in Australian higher education. The Senate committee noted:

Grants from the HEEF are intended to promote the development of a world-class higher education sector with the provision of significant, targeted and strategic investments in the sector. The committee believes the HEEF has the capacity to deliver excellence in the higher education sector.

I welcome those findings of the cross-party committee. It is important that we do deliver these benefits, this additional funding and the financial gains it will provide to our universities.

The government are able to make this major social investment in Australia’s education sector because of 11 years of good economic management. This is part of the social dividend that we as a government are able to deliver that would not have been possible 11 years ago. Why would it not have been possible 11 years ago? Because 11 years ago we were paying more than $6 billion a year in interest on Labor’s $90 billion of debt. That is the reason. We were having to fork out this type of money on an annual basis as a nation just to meet debt payments. Now, 11 years later, this government has turned that around, has eliminated the debt and is making investments in the future—investments into the Future Fund that will clear up our future public sector superannuation liabilities; and investments into the Communications Fund, a $2 billion investment to ensure that into the future Australia’s rural and regional communities get the types of communications infrastructure they need.

Once again Senator Marshall, in his comments, committed the Labor Party not just to raiding the Communications Fund but to spending it all in one fell swoop and wiping it out. This is the type of attitude we have coming from the other side of the chamber. The risk the Higher Education Endowment Fund will face and the risk the Future Fund will face is that we will see a Labor government that not just starts to take little bits of it but starts to spend the whole lot on its way to placing Australia in debt again.

I welcome the establishment of the Higher Education Endowment Fund. It is a major investment into our university sector. It has been enthusiastically welcomed by our university sector. It is a demonstration, again, of this government’s commitment to fiscal responsibility as well as to investing into the future—to actually be putting money aside for perpetual investments into the future. A re-elected Howard government would no doubt be able to build on the approach of the last couple of years in the establishment of these funds to build them up to reduce the tax requirements for future generations and to ensure that we have the type of ongoing investment in Australia’s economic and social infrastructure that is required. I am confident that this will be of great benefit to many future students in Australia’s university sector, and I endorse the bill to the Senate.