Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Rhiannon for her question. I did not quite get the end of the question that Senator Rhiannon asked, but what I can absolutely guarantee to the Senate and Senator Rhiannon is that if the Senate is minded to support the legislation—as the House of Representatives has done and as groups like Universities Australia have encouraged the Senate to do just today, albeit with some amendments—then there will be chances for significantly larger numbers of young Australians to take part in higher education in this country.

For the first time, there will be Commonwealth funding for sub-bachelor places in private institutions and for diplomas, associate diplomas and so on. For first time ever we will open up those pathways to increase and encourage greater participation for Australian students. We will provide more choice. We will follow on from the opening up of the demand-driven approach that the previous government adopted to make it demand driven across the entire sector. That is a glaring gap that has been commented on in several reports.

Those changes will enable significantly larger numbers of students to participate in higher education in this country. It will give them more choice, it will give them more opportunity and it will give universities a chance to really showcase the sorts of things that they can do through the Commonwealth scholarship scheme, which will also enable larger numbers of students—particularly those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds—to attend our higher education institutions. All of that, as part of this reform package, will bring to Australia's young people, those wishing to study and those who may not otherwise have been able to go to university before the opportunity to follow that path, to follow it across Australia and to follow it with far greater opportunity and choice.