Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I hear what the minister says about targeting of welfare, and of course he is quite right on some levels. But the minister, and indeed the government, too often make a mistake when they speak about access. The opposition agree about access—access to higher education is critical. Included in access and social inclusion is the idea that Indigenous students or students from low socioeconomic backgrounds should have access to universities. We agree with that and the minister is right. But also, and this is Senator Fielding’s point, kids from rural and regional Australia frequently have to move away to go to university—in fact, nearly always. They are disadvantaged and are part of a disadvantaged community with respect to access to higher education.

I know Senator Fielding was a member of the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee that looked at this bill. While not agreeing with the honourable senator’s amendments, the opposition agree with the spirit of the amendments. We think that people who have to move away to go to university should be assisted and should have access. That is what the opposition believe. In particular, we believe in support for students who live in rural and regional Australia. While we agree with the spirit of Senator Fielding’s amendments, we have some problems with their application. We think that the recommendations of the committee that Senator Fielding participated in are better reflected in the opposition’s amendments, which are more flexible. Rather than specifically talking about 100 kilometres, we say that guidelines should be developed by the secretary of the department which are more flexible and which would be audited. For example, if someone had to move just 80 kilometres away rather than 101, they would miss out. We think that is a bit arbitrary. While the opposition agree with the spirit of Senator Fielding’s amendments, we will not be supporting them. However, I foreshadow that the opposition will move amendments in that same spirit.