Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Chair. As I was saying, this is a very important provision to support regional students. I have been very concerned, as the shadow minister for education, travelling around the country as I have been, that regional universities have not been given due consideration in the many challenges they face.

I met with James Cook University very recently and they are in a situation where, of the 20,000 new HECS places that have been announced, Commonwealth supported places, they're not able to use them all. They don't have the appropriate flexibility, in relation to how they can use that funding that's been provided by the government. They are very keen to utilise that funding in a different way by providing more enabling courses so that more students or potential students living in northern Queensland can access their university and go on to complete a course and to live and work armed with great knowledge from a university in northern Queensland.

I hope and trust that these two provisions will receive support across the chamber. We have been consulting widely, and I would commend both of these items, on page 1937, to the Senate.