Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise also to take note of the answers to the question asked by Senator Dodson. I also congratulate Senator Dodson on his arrival here in the chamber. I, too, think he will make a wonderful contribution. But the answer was less than enlightening. Just like so many other things and ideas that come from the Prime Minister, it seems that the ideas boom was just another thought bubble and there really is nothing behind the idea of innovation and creativity that so far has propelled so much soaring rhetoric from the Prime Minister. We have heard very little detail about how this ideas boom is to be accomplished. An ideas boom, we should note, is actually more than just going to cocktail parties run by start-up incubators and meeting with tech entrepreneurs who come out from the United States.

Growing Australian ideas in Australia will, in fact, mean investing in our people and our institutions. It probably means that we will need to invest money in higher education. But that is not the answer we heard today, when the government were asked about how they intended to proceed with higher education policy. The Prime Minister remains completely committed to the former Prime Minister's plans to gut higher education. The government's goal, quite obviously, remains deregulation, and a $20 billion cut to university funding over 10 years. It seems the government's goal in this budget is the lowering of the repayment threshold for HECS, which will mean that people on very modest incomes start to stare down the impact of that $100,000 debt they have incurred simply by seeking to educate themselves. The government has not walked away from the unlegislated budget measures that outline this plan: taking $20 billion out of the public university system and transferring a very large proportion of that money to the private sector. This is not the kind of higher education policy we would have expected to hear from a government that speaks so often about innovation and the importance of innovation and education in driving the economy of Australia forward. So this government really ought to be investing in students. I do not really know who the Prime Minister thinks will come up with the innovative plans and ideas, but he seems to be prepared to write off the majority of Australians who cannot afford $100,000 degrees. I do not know where the Prime Minister expects this new generation of entrepreneurs to learn, but he seems prepared to slash funds from the very institutions that are best placed to teach students the STEM skills they need to craft world-breaking concepts.

Having an educated and highly skilled workforce benefits everyone. The way to greater profitability for Australian firms is for them to be more productive. You do not achieve that by cutting penalty rates, and you do not achieve that by slashing conditions. You do that by having a smart, educated workforce that works out better ways to do business.

In his question, Senator Dodson made reference to a report from Universities Australia that demonstrates that having an educated workforce does not just benefit those who receive the education, it benefits everyone. In 2014-15 the economic boost from new graduates entering Australia's workforce created 25,000 new jobs for Australians without university degrees. For every 1,000 new graduates entering the workforce, 120 new jobs are created for people without a degree. The impact of new graduates joining Australia's workforce lifted wages for workers without a university degree by $12.60 a week, or $655 a year. And without the entry of new university graduates into the Australian economy, the growth rate in jobs for people without a university degree would have been zero over the last eight years.

In the face of this evidence and in the face of this analysis, it is a nonsense to describe, as government members so frequently do, the provision of higher education as a benefit for the individual without acknowledging its social benefit. There is a reason that public institutions are funded by governments to deliver a high-quality workforce—because it benefits all Australians. It is to the government's very great shame that this will not be recognised in this evening's budget. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.