James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank senators for their helpful advice and assistance in this matter. I have to say that I am very glad that the topic of higher education has been raised. I am looking forward to discussing it today, particularly in the context of the opposition's capacity to estimate expenses and revenue in the future. We know that the errors that we have exposed today in their budget for the upcoming election of $19½ billion is not the only area in which they have made predictions which have not turned out to be correct. For example, opposition leader, Bill Shorten, says that he has a plan to provide free education for 100,000 STEM graduates. On the day that policy was announced, he initially stated that the cost would be $45 million over the estimates—a laughable costing, which he himself had to quickly correct. He subsequently stated that it might be $350 million, but the Department of Education and Training estimated the costing to be $2.25 billion.

Those opposite cannot be trusted on higher education, in the same way that they cannot be trusted with the budget. You cannot deliver a world-class, high quality higher education system if you cannot deliver the funding that is necessary to make it work. Only the coalition has demonstrated that it has the capacity to manage the economy and the budget in a way which ensures that all of the important activities of government, including funding the higher education system, can be comfortably done. We cannot rely on people who predict that their revenue from cigarette taxes will be $37 billion when in fact it will be $19½ billion less to deliver anything for the higher education sector, to deliver anything for universities. It was, in fact, their changes—their incomplete reforms when in government—which uncapped the number of places that universities were allowed to admit in each course, which has caused a skyrocketing and a massive increase in costs for universities.

I am a relatively recent product of the university education system, and I am very grateful for the time I spent at university. I think it is appropriate that whilst I was there I was required to make a financial contribution to my education, because I am the primary beneficiary of the education that I received. Andrew Norton, the pre-eminent higher education policy expert in Australia, who is at the Grattan Institute, has estimated that students who attend university are, on average, $1 million better off over their lifetimes than students who do not. It is entirely appropriate that we contribute to the cost of that education.