Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm really pleased to be able to make some remarks today on the Higher Education Support Amendment (Response to the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report) Bill 2023, particularly because these amendments form part of the package of reforms by the Albanese Labor government in response to the Australian Universities Accord interim report. I come to this debate with two key concerns and specific issues that I wanted to raise.

First and foremost, it's the support of students that I am coming to this place concerned about, and I think that this bill will lead to students being supported more on university campuses. I'm also keen to talk about what our government is doing to support students and the action that we are taking—which has never been taken and was not taken by the previous government—when it comes to supporting students. I'm also very proud of the work that our government is doing, particularly through the work of Assistant Minister Chisholm, to support regional universities and regional students. That is some of the work that is done in this bill.

I don't think anyone in the community would ever consider that the Liberal and National parties are supporters of students, are on the side of students or have, in the very long time that they've been around, put forward policies that would lead to better student outcomes. We absolutely know that's not the case.

What we are doing here today is the methodical work that is required to support students and to build a university sector able to deliver for our country and for our economic future. The accord was commissioned by Minister Clare and led by Professor Mary O'Kane. It's the largest review of the higher education sector in 15 years, and the size of this review is for good reason. Projections suggest that the proportion of Australian workers with a university degree could jump from 36 per cent to 55 per cent by the middle of this century. We are going through a very important transition where we are going to need more university skilled people in our workforce.

That kind of pace means that we need to be intentional about the skills that we will need from future workers, and the quality of their university experience right now will lead to the quality of the workforce that we have in the next generation. What the accord report tells us is that people currently underrepresented in our universities will be central to this increase. The people that aren't getting access or don't feel supported are the exact people that we need to support through the universities to increase the number of people getting that skill qualification.

It comes as no surprise to me that university enrolment is stratified by geography, family income and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status. Meeting our future skill needs and bridging the enrolment inequality gap are mutually assured propositions, but they are very big tasks. What we are doing through the accord is responding to the recommendations by these highly qualified experts. This bill responds to parts of those recommendations because we want to start that work right now. We know that there is a lot of work to do. We are starting the work today.

The Accord Interim Report, handed down in July, made by five recommendations. I want to go through those quickly, because they are incredibly important to the overall work that this government is doing. The recommendations were: to create more university study hubs not only in the regions but also in outer suburbs; that we scrap the 50 per cent pass rule and require better reporting on how students are progressing; that we extend the demand-driven funding currently provided to Indigenous students from regional and remote areas to cover all Indigenous students—an incredibly important step that this bill takes; that we provide funding certainty during the accord process by extending the Higher Education Continuity Guarantee; and that we work with states and territories through the National Cabinet to improve university governance. They are five really important recommendations. They are interlinked, and we are working to progress through them, particularly in scrapping the 50 per cent rule to support students and make their experience a better one and to ensure we are supporting Indigenous students from all across the country, not just remote and regional areas.

Minister Clare has confirmed that the Albanese Labor government will implement all of these recommendations, and I'm really pleased that we are starting that work today. In the case of recommendation No. 1, the Albanese Labor government will establish 20 additional regional university student hubs. This is of particular interest to me because I live in regional Queensland and I know how important it is for us to have strong universities in the region so that people can stay in the regions, study in the regions and end up working in the regions. At the moment, around 25 per cent of 20- to 30-year-olds in the regions have a uni degree. That's 20 per cent lower than the national average.

There are already 34 regional university hubs across Australia, and evidence shows that they are really worth investing in. In regions where these hubs exist, more people enrol in university and attrition rates decrease, meaning students have more success in graduating. These hubs give students a place to study but they also provide wraparound support—academic assistance, health and wellbeing services and a sense of community. I am proud that the Albanese Labor government is making record investments in our regions through these university hubs.

In places lucky enough to already have some higher education options, I see the way that this can transform communities for the better. Regional Queenslanders love where we live. The investment means that more people don't have to choose; they can live where they love and also get a university qualification. So, again, I want to commend the work of the minister but also our assistant minister, a Queenslander himself, Minister Chisholm, on the work in rolling out these regional university hubs and the commitment that our government has taken to the regions to deliver those.

In relation to governance and the work that we are doing to make sure that universities are best placed to take care of students, the accord report shows that getting people into university is just one part of the puzzle. We also need to make sure that universities are operating at their highest standard. This feeds into recommendation No. 2, which is to scrap the 50 per cent rule and require better support of students. In addition to this important recommendation, we are also working with states and territories to initiate a working group on this really important work, to make sure students are safe and to ensure that university governance is placed around making sure that students can be protected on campuses and have their complaints dealt with.

In his second reading speech to the chamber, the minister outlined three priority areas for the working group, including that universities are good employers, providing a supportive workplace; making sure that they are a workplace where staff have the confidence that they will not be underpaid for the important work that they do; and making sure that governing bodies have the right expertise, including in the business of running universities of critical importance. The third priority that he outlined—one that is very important and dear to my heart—is making sure that universities are safe for our students and staff.

The urgency, the importance and the success of the working group was highlighted earlier this year by the Senate inquiry, which I initiated, into sexual consent laws across jurisdictions. It was a broad-ranging Senate inquiry, but, naturally, we were drawn to some of the awful statistics that we have seen as to campuses around this country. In 2022, the results of the National Student Safety Survey were released. It found that one in six university students had experienced sexual assault and one in 20 had experienced a sexual assault since they started their degree. Of those students who had experienced sexual harassment, only three per cent had made a formal complaint.

Sharna Bremner, the founder and director of End Rape on Campus, gave the following evidence to the Senate inquiry on sexual consent laws about the experience of victim-survivors that EROC had supported to make complaints. She said:

A really common theme among the students we've supported over the last eight-nine years now is, 'My rape was bad, but the way my university responded was worse.' We hear very often the effects of re-traumatisation once students have reported. They feel incredibly unsupported, even if they can find where to report in the first place …

When they are reporting, we are still seeing extensive delays in responses by universities, oftentimes of up to three, four or five months, sometimes even longer.

What we heard from the inquiry was that, when complaints are made, the response from universities is wholly inadequate. The inquiry found that, even when victim-survivors did try to seek support from universities, support wasn't easy to find. Consistently, half of all students reported that they didn't even know how to access support or reporting mechanisms from their university.

As EROC explained to the committee, the data and figures are likely underestimated. The national student survey data was collected at a time when most students were learning from home during the pandemic. It is concerning to consider that the next survey, which I strongly encourage Universities Australia to follow through with, will deliver data that reflects a regular return to campus life.

The best data that we have tells us that over 14,000 students will be subject to sexual violence in a 12-month period at Australian universities. Those are horrifying numbers. And it's not because universities don't want to help. They haven't been able to. You can't fix a problem without complete information. You can't fix a problem when some people declare that they have sorted it out, but they won't tell you how. And you can't really fix a problem with inadequate repercussions.

This is what advocates in the sector are up against, and it's why action is needed. It's why we talked about it through the Senate inquiry. These issues have been raised by these advocates for years and, yes, during the term of the previous government. We know that they have not been listened to, until now.

I'm very proud that our government is listening to these advocates and is taking action. I am pleased that the minister has announced that the working group on university governance includes Ms Patty Kinnersly, the CEO of Our Watch. I note that the working group has already started to meet, and I look forward to watching their progress. They have discussed a number of potential actions, including the idea of a standalone national student ombudsman. Final recommendations of this group will come to the education ministers in November—that is very soon, and that is really good, because we need to make sure that we stay on top of this.

I also want to note that this work intersects with the Minister for Social Services and the Minister for Women on the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children. Together, all of our ministers have taken this issue seriously and are responding with action, because this is no longer a time for these victims and their stories to fall silent. They were not listened to under the previous government, and that has to change. It is changing, under our government. This plan will go a long way to the addressing causative factors that led to such adverse findings in this inquiry.

Finally, I'll say why the accord is important and why these overall reforms are really important—why this legislation is important today. It's all about supporting students and providing a better university sector. Whether it's improving governance, making sure that we can have access for Indigenous students or giving regional students the opportunity to go to university, this is what this Labor government has committed to and what we are delivering through this legislation.

It is exciting and a welcome development that more working-class, regional and Indigenous kids will have an opportunity to go to university because of these reforms. As the accord outlines, getting kids to uni is just one part of our job here. We have to make sure that universities are set up in a way that keeps students there until they've got the qualifications that they need. We also need to make sure that universities are places where academics and the other people who work there feel supported and have good working conditions.

It's not just the students of today that we must act urgently to protect—it's the kids that will be there tomorrow and for generations to come. That is why I support these reforms and why I commend the minister on the work he is doing. I support this legislation, and I commend it to the Senate.