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

In reply to Senator Fielding’s comments, I understand that Senator Fielding has contributed enormously to this debate over the past 12 to 14 months, and I know he has been a consistently passionate advocate for rural students. I accept that. But I have to remind the Senate that we are the opposition. My friend Senator Carr represents the government here. The government wanted to take away rights, welfare and access from rural students. That was the government’s proposal. And the coalition has secured greater access for those rural students. We have secured, over the next 10 or so years, hundreds of millions of dollars to enable those students to go to university. I accept and I think everyone in the opposition would accept that it is not perfect. I know that, and I know a lot of my colleagues are not particularly happy about it. Some of them think we could have done better. But do you know what? We are the opposition. This is the best deal we could get, and it is worth hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 10 years or so. Never forget that it was the government’s intention to narrow those pathways to independence and that we fought so hard against that. The government wanted to reduce it to one pathway. The coalition, by virtue of its negotiations, has retained those three pathways. It is very important that the Senate remember the context within which this debate has been so keenly contested over the past 15 or 16 months. I think the coalition overall has done a very good job in securing what it can for rural students. But it is not perfect.