Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

But we are not calling those; we are not calling the private providers to Senator Carr's Senate inquiry on Friday, because they do not matter. Senator Carr has to be the most elitist Labor Party senator when it comes to education policy that I have ever come across. He is elitist: this is about the very students who Senator Carr should care most about—those from first-generation university families, those from rural and regional Australia, those from lower-socioeconomic families and those who struggle to get into university . They struggle not only with the ATAR but also with the aspiration. They are exactly the students who are the beneficiaries of the former Labor government's plan to have a demand-driven funding system. And we want to assist to make that system financially sustainable.

We want to make sure that system can continue. Professor Peter Lee is Vice-Chancellor of Southern Cross University and that is a university with a very high proportion of exactly the types of students that those opposite talk about. Senator Rhiannon also talks particularly about them, although as she is more concerned about inner urban areas maybe there are not so many lower socioeconomic families and poorer families. If those opposite cared about those kids they would want to ensure that they can continue to have access, like they do now.

Senator Carr's secret plan! The only secret plan that needs to be debated today is Senator Carr's secret plan to recap university places and ensure that white, grammar kids get to go to university. That is not good enough. It is not good enough for my kids out in regional Australia and it should not be good enough for the Western suburbs of Melbourne or the Western suburbs of Sydney and the like.