Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The incorporated speech read as follows—

Higher Education Support Amendment (2008 Budget Measures) Bill 2008

This bill amends the Higher Education Support Act 2003 (HESA) to revise maximum funding amounts in the Commonwealth Grants Scheme; Commonwealth Scholarships and other grants to reflect additional funding for indexation increases.

This bill makes important amendments to HESA to address urgent national priorities in higher education.

This bill implements budget initiatives such as the abolition of full fees and a growth in the number of scholarships offered. Such measures will clearly help families who are doing it hard to get their kids a tertiary education, especially those in rural or remote areas such as where many of my constituents live.

From January 2009 universities will not be able to enrol a new domestic undergraduate student on a full-fee-paying basis except in circumstances where the act prohibits their enrolment as a Commonwealth supported student, or they accepted a fee paying place this year but deferred study until next, or are a former overseas student who has become a domestic student.

Furthermore this bill reduces the amount of HECS-HELP repayments for graduates working in early childhood education in rural and regional Australia, especially in Indigenous early childhood.

This will be done through use of the postcodes - where there is an Indigenous population of 20% or more, teachers in early childhood positions will qualify for reduced repayments of fees due.

There will be more Commonwealth supported places in early childhood education and nursing.

Furthermore this bill increases capital funding for infrastructure projects at James Cook University for the establishment of a Dental School and at Notre Dame University for more Commonwealth places in medicine and nursing. Both of these steps will increase the available places in skill shortage subject areas.

There will be a reduction in the maximum annual student contribution amount for subjects such as maths and science subjects for new students starting these subjects in 2009.

The maximum annual contribution for students in maths and science will be reduced from $7412 a year to the lowest national priority rate of $4162 from 2009.

Commencing maths and science students will pay the same rate as those in education and nursing. All of these being skill areas of great need nationally, and these changes will encourage more people to move into these studies.

So this bill helps families to get their kids a better education by offering more scholarships. It encourages more students to study

in nationally important areas such as nursing, childcare, maths and sciences. This will help to reduce the shortages in those skill areas.

At the same time as reducing costs for students, there will be a Transitional Loading under the Commonwealth Grants Scheme to fully compensate Higher Education providers for reduced revenue resulting from reduced student contributions for maths and science units, and for replacing full fee places with Commonwealth supported places.

So both the students and providers benefit from proposals in this bill. No body or institution will be disadvantaged in any way. Students have more chance of a scholarship and higher education bodies are compensated for any loss of revenue through removal or reduction of fees.

Universities will have 11,000 new Commonwealth supported places by 2011 and potential students will be able to compete for these places on ability —not as under the previous government on what they could afford to pay.

In total the number of Commonwealth supported scholarships will be increased from 44000 to 88000 by 2012. That is a doubling of Commonwealth supported places within the next 4 years.

It is recognised that revenue from overseas students paying full fees is important for the higher education providers and full-fee-paying places will continue to be available to them.

Australia is recognised internationally as a high quality provider of higher education, and many overseas students come here by choice. This has benefits again both for these students and for us as a nation. Nothing will be done that might reduce overseas demand for fee paying places in our higher education institutions.

These overseas students are however very much an addition to our higher education system and our own domestic students get top priority and overseas students can be treated differently but fairly in matters of entry requirements and fee payments.

So this bill implements budget measures which are an integral part of our election commitments.

It implements immediate action to address priorities in areas of skill shortages such as maths and science, early childhood education and nursing.

It helps to restore some degree of equity and access to higher education for our domestic students while at the same time in no way disadvantaging overseas full-fee-paying students or the higher education providers.

The measures in this bill are of course in addition to our commitment to the $11 billion Education Investment Fund and the $500 million Better Universities funding which will provide further great support for our higher education sector over the years.

Together with addressing these immediate priorities in this bill the government will take reforms further through the Review of Australian Higher Education being led by Professor Denise Bradley.

This bill therefore represents a start to reversing the situation of the past 11 years under the previous government where higher education funding was annually being reduced in real terms and conditions being made more and more prescriptive.

Whereas many OECD countries increased higher education spending by up to 48% over the past decade, we in Australia saw funding decline by 4%. This was done knowingly and deliberately by the previous government despite the ever increasing evidence of the growing skills shortage that now threatens our economy as a legacy from that previous government.

They did not look to the future but instead chose to ignore all warning signs of upcoming problems and follow a slash and burn policy and reduce federal funding to higher education.

The previous government not only reduced funding in real terms but also pursued ideological policies that were more and more throttling academic freedom and higher education autonomy with government regulation and a “one size fits all” policy.

This government will change all that and enable our universities to offer quality higher education to all, while at the same time following full and proper governance procedures appropriate to each institute.

Our Education Revolution will see higher education given far higher priority with more autonomy to universities to run themselves. They will have the opportunity to once again reduce class sizes and spend more time on teaching rather than on administration.

We believe in education opportunity for all and this bill moves back towards increased equity of access by abolishing full fees; increasing the number of Commonwealth scholarships; providing incentives to study and work in key areas such as maths and science, nursing and early childhood education; and funding infrastructure projects at James Cook and Notre dame universities.

While this is only one bill forming a part of the Rudd Government ongoing Education Revolution it is important. It will improve higher education access and equity for domestic students without in any way disadvantaging overseas students who as full fee payers are an important part of our higher education picture.

It will do so in a way which ensures universities are not penalised by any loss of full-fee-paying student revenue.

It will do so in a way with emphasis on higher education in areas of high national need such as maths, science, nursing, early childhood education.

I commend this bill to the chamber.