Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Higher Education Support Legislation Amendment (Student Loan Sustainability) Bill 2018. Labor opposes this bill. It's an unfair piece of legislation. This MYEFO package of cuts is the government's fourth attempt since coming to office to cut universities and make students pay more. At last year's budget, they tried to make students start repaying their HELP debt when they started earning as little as $42,000. Now they're proposing a new rate of $45,000. It's still too low.

Labor believe the current repayment rate is about right. We don't want to make students repay their debts when they are starting a career, saving for a house or trying to start a family. We know that higher student debt is a genuine barrier to study for low-SES and disadvantaged students. We should be doing all we can to increase participation in higher education and not making it harder. Experts warn that, if Australia does not boost participation in postsecondary education, we risk being left behind the rest of the world. Indeed, Universities Australia Chief Executive, Belinda Robinson, said:

Universities will be moving resources around, they'll be looking at other programs they can perhaps close down, campuses they can close … anything they can do to hold on for 12 months. There will be adverse consequences.

In a time of significant economic transition, we should be investing in our people and not making it harder to get a university qualification. It's pretty clear that the government has only ever had one plan for higher education: cut and make students pay more. Australian students already make the sixth-highest contribution in the OECD to the cost of their degrees, but the Liberals can't help themselves. They have consistently tried to make students pay more. Why? All to pay for their $80 billion tax cut. They've even given themselves a $7,000 tax cut. We've seen it in schools: a $17 billion cut. We've seen it with vocational education and training: nearly $3 billion cut. And more than 140,000 apprenticeships and traineeships have been lost since the Liberals came to office. Again, we've seen it with the universities: a $2.2 billion cut.

I'd like to take this opportunity to share a story about the harsh reality of the impacts of these cuts. One of my constituents left the Territory to move to Canberra to study at the Australian National University. This is just one example of many. This student held an undergraduate degree and was looking to study Indonesian through ANU's then Diploma of Languages program. Having spent Christmas with their friends and family in Darwin, the student moved their entire life to the ACT to pursue this course. Upon realising the impacts of the MYEFO cuts, ANU sent the following email to aspiring language students:

Dear Student, I refer to your application for the Diploma of Languages. I regret to advise you that the Diploma of Languages will no longer be available for commencement in 2018 and your application has been withdrawn. This is owing to a recent notification, in December 2017, from the Commonwealth that there will no longer be any Commonwealth Supported Places available for the Diploma of Languages at ANU. You may want to consider studying language courses at the ANU on a Non-award basis or look at what other options are available to you through Open Universities Australia.

In other words, if you've got enough money to fund your language diploma yourself, then, they'd be happy to take them on. Understandably, the student was devastated. After they had moved their entire life from the Territory to the south, a move which came at a massive personal and financial cost, the government has basically said, 'You moved your whole life to pursue your dreams, but, because we're going back on our word, here's an online alternative.' This action by the Turnbull government is completely unacceptable. It is unjust and unfair.

This brings me to my next point. These cuts to universities damage the future prosperity of our nation as a whole. Cuts to courses like language diplomas restrict our ability to establish business and career opportunities for our students. They restrict our nation's ability to grow and they diminish our influence in our region. Indonesia is Australia's ninth-largest trading partner. Restricting the next generation's ability to communicate with one of our largest trading partners is simply baffling. The Northern Territory stands to be one of the hardest hit by the Turnbull government's cuts to universities. Indeed, CDU vice-chancellor Simon Maddocks has said that small, young universities such as CDU would be disproportionately affected by the freeze, as they lacked budgets big enough to absorb the cut to revenue. Only last week, Professor Maddocks was quoted in NT News as saying:

'If revenue is going down and costs going up, you can't just keep doing what you're doing …

We will inevitably have to review our capacity to sustain everything we've been doing because you can't keep paying out more and not get the revenue in.'

The university was 'only just financially viable' now, he said.

'We all understand the Government has savings to find but education is a significant pillar to the future of the country. High-performing countries invest in quality education systems …

I agree wholeheartedly. If we are to continue to develop, build and grow as a nation, we must ensure that higher education is affordable and accessible no matter where you live in this country.

If we look at the data from this government's much-bungled census, it's obvious that cuts to universities will only restrict—certainly in the Northern Territory—people's ability to further their careers and improve their quality of life. The 2016 census revealed that only 17.1 per cent of Territorians have a bachelor degree or higher. Compare that with the national average of 22 per cent. That statistic should be an indication that the Territory needs more investment in higher education, not less. These funding cuts have left the people of the Northern Territory in a dire situation.

When Labor first uncapped places, there were 484 more university places for students in the seat of Lingiari. That was for 2008 to 2016. Under Labor's new policy we'll see around 400 more students in Lingiari on their way to university. When Labor first uncapped places in the seat of Solomon, which covers Darwin and much of Palmerston, there were 649 more places for students at university for 2008 to 2016. That's a total of 3,207 students in the Northern Territory over eight years. Now, compare that to the Liberals 2,140 projected number of students under their unfair cuts to university placements between the years of 2020 and 2032—no growth there; no future there.

Labor delivers real reform to higher education in this country. Under Labor's new policy, we'll see around 831 more students in Solomon on their way to university. Certainly, when we were last in government, we lifted investment in universities from $8 billion in 2007 to $14 billion in 2013. We opened the door to university to 190,000 more Australians, many of whom were the first in their family to go to university. But under this government, with this latest round of cuts, that door is being slammed tightly shut.