Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Forty-three years as a veterinary surgeon enables me to give Senator Cameron a bit of advice, which is that if you flog a dead horse often enough, it still remains dead. What Senator Cameron seems to have overlooked is that 12 months ago this weekend the people of Australia, in 150 electorates around this country, actually voted for a coalition government with the very polices that poor old Senator Cameron stands up here and so badly maligns. The people of Page and the people of Cowper had as much brains last year as they will have in two years time, Senator Cameron. The Labor Party risks dealing itself into the world of irrelevancy in higher education and health, as indeed it was rendered irrelevant on the mining resource rent tax earlier this week. Senator O'Neil was going on about the mining industry and small business and I gave her the challenge that Senator Sterle might want to take her to Hannan Street, Kalgoorlie, where he could walk her up and down Hannan Street to look at all the empty businesses that were occasioned as a result of the shocking, rotten mining and carbon taxes that befell that very, very proud mining community. I do not know where the Labor Party is when it talks about protecting Australian jobs.

We have just heard the usual rant from the dead-horse flogger Senator Cameron, when he was talking about the Australian people believing that what the coalition has been saying are lies. He has now brought the entire Universities Australia sector into that. Let me quote from a 28 August release—only a couple of days ago—from Belinda Robinson, the Chief Executive of Universities Australia, in which she said:

The peak body representing Australia’s universities has called on the parliament to support the deregulation of Australian universities with changes to the government’s proposals that will assure affordability for students and taxpayers.

No dead horses there. That is what Universities Australia is talking about.

… a once in a generation opportunity to shape an Australian higher education system—

and these are Belinda Robinson's words, not ours—

that is sustainable, affordable and equitable in serving the best interests of students and the nation.

It was Senator Carr, the shadow Minister for Education, who made the allegation about regional universities. I had the pride and privilege of being on the faculty of a regional university for 13 years in our state of Western Australia so I do speak with some authority on that. It is very, very deeply disappointing—and I would urge the leadership of the Australian Labor Party to think carefully about this—that Senator Carr has been out there saying in the education space, 'We do not care what the coalition's policies are in higher education. We are going to oppose them and oppose them and oppose them because we want to force the coalition to a double dissolution election.' That man over there in that seat is the alternative Minister for Education. If he is so politically driven and so policy starved that he is not prepared to examine, to accept and to listen to the views of the very universities charged with responsibility in this field, then the man ought to submit his resignation.

But let me tell you about the opportunities for regional universities as one who was in them. He made the comment 'let it rip.' Well, if I was still at the Muresk Institute—then part of Curtin University—I would be saying the same thing. I would be saying, 'Deputy President, look at these new policies'—through you to Senator Brown—with funding for diplomas and funding for sub-university degrees and that whole vertical integration from skills development right through to degree courses and higher education. They are all funded through the HECS scheme. What cost to a student starting their course—zero. No dollars. All paid for by the Australian taxpayers—people like yourselves up there. Absolutely not one dollar being paid at the time and nothing paid until that person is earning $55,000 or probably $60,000. And even then—to pick up the points about nursing—

Senator Carol Brown interjecting—

please, Senator Brown, some courtesy—to have that figure capped for someone earning $55,000 to $99,000 a year. And the maximum? Four per cent—not a bad deal. Not a bad deal if you are going to earn a million dollars over your career with a degree initially funded by the Australian taxpayer. Only when you are at $100,000, would you be paying a maximum cap of eight per cent. This is the best opportunity that young Australians have ever had. It leaves us internationally competitive. I am proud to support it. (Time expired)