Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

So that is my general summation and my thankyou to those senators who have spoken on the bill. The bill before the Senate amends the Higher Education Support Act 2003 to implement the government’s education revolution 2008-09 budget package in higher education. These measures carry through the government’s public election commitments. I emphasise that we made a series of commitments during the election campaign and I would hope that by now everyone would be very well aware of the determination of this government, in particular that of the Prime Minister, Mr Rudd, to deliver on all our election commitments. There are no core and non-core promises, as we saw from the previous government; we will be delivering on all election commitments.

The commitments delivered in this bill are complemented by the budget’s two major education infrastructure initiatives—the Better Universities Renewal Fund and the Education Investment Fund—that together will provide a much needed investment in restoring university facilities. These funds will fund major infrastructure investments in our universities. These initiatives are part of the government’s commitment to ensuring higher education plays a leading role in equipping Australians with the knowledge and skills to make Australia a more productive and prosperous nation.

This bill makes important amendments to the Higher Education Support Act 2003 to address urgent and immediate priorities. One such priority is to amend the act to provide incentives for students to study mathematics and science at university. The maximum annual student contribution amount for new students studying mathematics, including statistics, or science units will be reduced from $7,412 a year to the lowest national priority rate of $4,162 in 2009 for an equivalent full-time student load. Commencing maths and science students will contribute at the same rate as students studying education and nursing units of study. These are areas of particular workforce need. Existing students will also benefit if they transfer into a mathematics or science course.

On the issue of mathematics, whilst I am not renowned for my knowledge of education policy, I have experienced and have firsthand knowledge of the impact of the lack of mathematics graduates, specifically in the area of actuarial studies, through my work in superannuation. I will digress briefly to say actuarial studies is very important in the areas of superannuation, insurance and long-term forecasting. The critical shortage of mathematicians is making things more difficult in the policy area because actuarial studies is dependent on very sophisticated mathematical formulae, modelling and calculations. If you do not have maths graduates in that area, if you do not have mathematics graduates going into actuarial studies, you find, as with many other areas where mathematics makes an important contribution, that has significant, profound and adverse ramifications for our society.

The bill also provides incentives for maths and science graduates to pursue related careers, including teaching these subjects in secondary schools, through the new HECS-HELP benefit, which will give effect to the government’s policy for HELP debt ‘remissions’. The HECS-HELP benefit will also encourage early childhood education teachers to work in areas of particular need. The HECS-HELP benefit will reduce an eligible person’s compulsory HELP repayment. For certain eligible persons, if no compulsory repayment is required to be made, the benefit may be a reduction in the person’s accumulated HELP debt. The amendments to the act provide the framework for the HECS-HELP benefit and for the details of the eligibility requirements and the amount of the benefit to be specified in HECS-HELP benefit guidelines. The maths and science HECS-HELP benefit will be available to people who graduate from a maths or science course from the second semester of 2008 onwards, having undertaken that course as a Commonwealth supported student, and who are employed in a related occupation.

The early childhood education HECS-HELP benefit will be available to eligible people who have graduated at any time from an early childhood education teaching course undertaken as a HECS-liable or Commonwealth supported student, and who are employed as a teacher in an early childhood setting in an eligible location—regardless of whether their repayment income is such that they are required to make a compulsory repayment amount in the income year.

Another of the government’s key election commitments reflected in this bill is to ensure that students gain access to higher education on merit and not on ability to pay, by phasing out full-fee-paying undergraduate places for domestic students in public universities from 2009. From 1 January 2009, universities will not be able to enrol a new domestic undergraduate student in a full-fee-paying place, except in circumstances where the act prohibits their enrolment as a Commonwealth supported student. Additional exceptions are for students who accepted a fee-paying place this year but have deferred taking it up and for students who commenced their courses as overseas students but later become domestic students. Fee-paying students who began their courses before 2009 will be able to continue their courses on a fee-paying basis.

The Labor government will allocate up to 11,000 new Commonwealth supported places by 2011 to replace the full-fee-paying places that will be phased out from 2009. Funding for the places will be ongoing. If universities demonstrate that assistance is required to ensure the delivery of replacement Commonwealth supported places, the Labor government may provide additional funding, over and above that for the places, through the new transitional loading that is being introduced through this bill. In addition to the measures I have outlined, the bill will also provide for increased funding under the act for additional Commonwealth supported places in early childhood education and nursing; for the expansion of Commonwealth scholarships, including the doubling of the number of undergraduate scholarships from 44,000 to 88,000 by 2012 and the doubling of the total number of Australian Postgraduate Award holders to nearly 10,000 by 2012; for capital infrastructure, additional Commonwealth supported places and clinical outreach funding for the establishment of the James Cook University Dental School; and for capital infrastructure and additional Commonwealth supported places in medicine, nursing and education at the University of Notre Dame Australia.

The measures in this bill, in addition to our commitment to the $11 billion Education Investment Fund and the $500 million Better Universities Renewal Fund, which are not covered by the act, represent the start of the Labor government’s education revolution in higher education. Together with addressing these immediate priorities, the government is taking its reforms further to make the required long-term, systemic improvement in the higher education sector through our review of Australian higher education, led by Emeritus Professor Denise Bradley AC. This is important work. It will report on the future direction of the sector and its capacity to meet the needs of the Australian economy and its options available for ongoing reform. The government’s response to the review will build on this legislative package that I present to you today.

I note with a touch of sadness that Senator Kim Carr is not here—I know his long-term passionate interest in education—to have delivered the very comprehensive and summary overview of our education revolution. That will commence once this legislation is implemented. In fact, I am half-tempted to send a copy of my speech to wherever he is just to remind him of what he has missed with the passing of this legislation.

Finally, I always believe it is important to acknowledge senators who incorporate their speeches. There were two—Senator Nettle and Senator Wortley—and I do thank them for doing that, given the time limits that we are operating under in terms of the general budget. I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.