Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for her contribution. I have heard those comments by the member for Curtin before. You are quite right: she did say that; but it was not in the context of a bill that seeks to uncap student places. This bill uncaps student places and, by getting rid of the student learning entitlement, means that students can study for as long as they like as an undergraduate. The import of this bill—and I am now repeating myself, but this bears repeating—is to uncap student places so as many students as want to can now study at Australian universities for as long as they want to. That is the implication, the result, of this bill. Of course that has imposts on Treasury. It is fair to say that while forward estimates indicate base fund­ing being made available for new students who will commence as a result of the uncap­ping of student places, the government has not thus far made allowances for infra­structure and other costs over the forward estimates that will also be required to fully implement an uncapping of student places.

To cut a long debate very short, the prob­lem simply is this: the government really has not done its homework about how much the uncapping of student places will cost the Australian economy and the Austra­lian Treasury. Now is not the time for this debate, but I do want to emphasise that the reason the opposition is seeking to amend the bill is simply that we do not believe the taxpayer should have to fund an unlimited amount of students studying for an unlimited amount of time. With the greatest respect to the minister and the government, the govern­ment has not answered that. The administra­tive convenience of universities, while very important—I accept that—is not the only consideration certainly so far as the taxpay­ers are concerned.