Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

A vibrant and vigorous higher education sector is vital to the health and welfare of any society and plays a key role in our democracy. This vitality goes beyond sheer economics. A strong sector is central to Australia competing in the global economy. Young and not-so-young Australians need to be developing skills and fostering careers that will keep us at the forefront of research, innovation and learning. We need to be utilising these skills internationally so that we might prosper as a nation. We also need to be facilitating careers that take world-leading ideas to the world so that we can compete in the global marketplace. Of course, we need the revenue that a high-quality higher education injects in our domestic economy not only through the important revenue that international students provide but also through an appropriately skilled professional workforce to support the needs of businesses.

However, there are other important contributions by the higher education sector that are vital to a democracy. We all benefit from the broader world view and critical analysis skills that higher level learning can contribute to informed and engaged democratic citizens. We also benefit from the independent and alternative views that academics can bring forth in the public domain. Sometimes, such awkward or contrary views are not welcomed by government, ministers or departments, but we as a democracy are made all the stronger by the rigorous debate around competing ideas.

There is also a benefit that comes from the production of high-quality research. In my work, I often rely on the research expertise of publicly engaged academics such as Professor Mike Young, from the University of Adelaide, who is a world renowned expert on water and water economics, and Associate Professor Frank Zumbo, from the Australian School of Business at the University of New South Wales, who is a leading expert on competition law in this country and a great consumer advocate. It is important to hear from people like that to inform my response to public policy proposals.

However, the situation facing students today has changed a great deal from the one I and others of my generation experienced. When I was at university, it was a lot cheaper to be a student. Tertiary education, for me, was free as a result of moves by the Whitlam government a couple of years before I got in to university. With the introduction of HECS and its steady increase over recent years—something, I note, that has had bipartisan support—students are no longer spending their spare time around university until they find their vocation. They just cannot afford to.

For many university students, balancing work and study is not an optional, added challenge; it is a necessity for survival. So the imposition of a new fee, even if delayed by a loan-style deferral, is no small matter. Another difference is that, when I was at university, uni life and student services were much more politicised. I disclosed in my first speech, and again last week during the CPRS debate, my youthful indiscretion of being involved with the Adelaide University Liberal Club and Liberal politics.