Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, it will change under your system, Senator McKenzie. I am pleased the senator interjected at this point, because the sell-out by the Nationals of our regional universities is something that has to be documented and needs to be recognised. It is absolutely monumental. Minister Pyne has shown deception because he has said he did not expect fees to increase significantly under a deregulation system. But the minister cannot have it both ways. Either fees will increase significantly or Commonwealth scholarships will not exist. The whole issue of Commonwealth scholarships is something that is being brought forward as a scam to try and justify assistance being there for disadvantaged students. But there will only be a small number. We do not even know the form that those scholarships will take at the moment. Each university can work it out for itself, and there is no guarantee that those students who may receive scholarships will not end up with a heavy cost burden at the end of their education.

The issue of research is something where the government has also been deceptive. It has said that there will be no cuts to research. But in this bill the government is proposing a 10 per cent across-the-board cut to the research training scheme. This is an enormously backward step, placing greater financial burden on our universities, and remember that this comes on top of all the cuts that we have seen to the CSIRO, the cooperative research centres and so many other key research bodies.

Turning to the regional universities, I repeat that the sell-out by the Nationals of our regional universities is huge. Our regional universities could possibly be the most vulnerable aspect of this bill when we come to consider the various institutions. Regional universities like the University of Wollongong and the University of Newcastle are clearly from big areas. There are no universities there for them to compete with. It really shows that the whole competitive argument that so much of this bill is based on falls over when you look closely at how this works. I particularly pay tribute to the many organisations that have worked so hard to defeat this bill, including the National Tertiary Education Union, the National Union of Students, those who work with postgraduate associations, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, the ACTU, the Australian Education Union and the Australian Medical Students' Association.

If the bill were to be passed it would create a higher education system that would be inequitable and elitist with limited accessibility to the highest quality public education institutions. Australia is already near the bottom of the OECD. When it comes to public funding for higher education, despite 96 per cent of Australian students— (Time expired)