Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Higher Education Support Amendment (Response to the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report) Bill 2023. I'm all for higher education. I think it's great that people should try to improve themselves and their lot in life and possibly go on to have professions. It is good for their families, good for the country and better for productivity. So, by all means, yes, I do, but I do question this bill and what's in the bill.

I want to talk about the proposal to extend the eligibility for demand-driven higher education courses to all Indigenous students rather than only Indigenous students living in regional and remote areas. Why are we again having a race-based policy with regards to this? I think that we should give a helping hand to all people in regional and rural areas who don't have the opportunity to go to university. There are a lot of Australians living in those areas who can't afford it, including a lot in the farming sector who have bad years and can't afford to send their kids to universities. If you're Indigenous, you can pick and choose which university you want to go to—some of the most expensive universities—and that is all paid for by the government. But we don't look after other Australians; it's based on race.

Now we're saying that we're going to open it up to those in metropolitan areas as well—and it's not on a need basis. If the Commonwealth is going to help pay for university course, let's do it on a need basis. Get away from the issue of race. The whole thing is that, if it's not means tested, then people, even senators in this place, can actually send their kids to universities and won't have pay for it because they're Indigenous. People like Marcia Langton or Noel Pearson—who is reported to be worth about $35 million—because they are Indigenous, will be eligible to have their kids' university education paid for. People here in this chamber who are Indigenous will be entitled to have it paid for.

In South Australia, 18 per cent of children in the schools there are living in poverty, and their parents are flat out paying for them to even go on school excursions et cetera. It's estimated that 30 per cent of people in this country are living in poverty, and they are flat out paying their bills. They would love to have the same benefits afforded to them for their children. How can you sit here and say, 'Just because you're Indigenous, there's no means test whatsoever,' when they might sit beside another child who is non-Indigenous who doesn't get that benefit? So one gets the benefits and the other child doesn't. That's causing division. It really is causing division. That is our problem. I've got no problem with supporting people, but, if you're going to do it for one, do it for all Australians; don't be selective. There are a lot of kids out there who would like a higher education if the government would pay for it.

As touched on by Senator Grogan and Senator Scarr, under this bill, the government wants to remove the 50 per cent pass rule, which, as stated in the Bills Digest:

.. requires students to successfully complete at least 50% of their units of study to continue to access Commonwealth assistance for their course.

If you want to remove that, give me a figure? What will the pass rule be—30 per cent, 40 per cent, 20 per cent? What will the pass rule be? I know people have their problems, and I know Senator Grogan talked about problems with the family. Her father died. That wasn't over the extent of her year or two years. For a short period of time, that may have an effect. But that's not over the full term of doing the course.

The fact is that you are going to dumb down these students. That's what you're doing. You're going to dumb them down. They won't have to put in the efforts to pass their courses. That's what it tells me. What you're actually saying is they're not going to put the effort in, because, if they don't put the effort in, what matters? 'Oh, we're going to prop you up, then, and we'll make sure that you get the assistance.' But you're not making them put in the effort in first place to ensure that they get the pass. What you're doing, then, is pushing people through an educational system to get a degree that they are not up to the standard of getting, so you have diluted that degree. What is happening is that these people are getting these degrees, leaving the universities and going to apply for jobs, but guess what? They're not up to standard for doing the job. We find that a lot with professional people these days. They're not up to the standard of the degree they have.

That is what's happened in our educational system, because you've pushed even teachers that aren't up to standard through the whole system. You're giving them the highest qualification—well, they don't actually have to have a very high qualification to get into university to study teaching, and they don't have to have very high pass marks to end up in our schoolrooms, teaching our kids. That's why a lot of these teachers have no idea. Even their spelling is atrocious. Their maths is hopeless. This is the new generation coming through. They don't know much about history, and they don't know much about how to teach kids. This is the new breed coming through. This is why the older teachers are fed up with the whole system and are leaving it. Our kids are being pushed through a system where we have real problems in educational levels.

I'll tell you another thing that's happening. Australia used to have a high standard for our education and universities compared to the rest of the world. Well, hasn't that dropped? It has bottomed right out. Now more foreign students are applying to go to other universities around the world because our standards in this country have bombed out. It's because of government policies. I've got to say—you want to sit there and criticise the Liberal Party of the last government? They did an excellent job, and so did Dan Tehan. He did an excellent job on education because One Nation worked with him. The Liberal Party had some good policies that they put through to address it. Don't talk to me about the courses and the skills and labour that we need. When I was in this parliament in 1996, I knew there would be a shortage of nurses. We all knew it. One of the Labor ministers was talking about it at the time and did absolutely nothing about it. That's why we've got these skills shortages. It's because you've never done anything about it.

You complained about the Liberal Party when they were in government. Where were the private members' bills from the Labor Party addressing this when you were in opposition? There was not one. You—through you, Chair—whinge and complain about what the former government did, but, when I sat in this chamber, I put up more private members' bills than the Labor Party ever did when they were in opposition. Where was your answer to all this? It was absolutely nothing. You have the audacity to sit back and complain and whinge, and you're bringing in this bill like you have brought in the family law bill. It hasn't been thought out. You're not thinking things through. You're rushing bills through this parliament when you don't even understand the grassroots. You don't understand the problems that we're having.

You want to get rid of the 50 per cent pass rule. As I said to you: what is the pass rule now? What responsibilities are you going to put on the students who continue in the universities?

Commonwealth supported places have half the cost paid for by the Commonwealth and the other half is a debt, and the debts that have been run up in this country over HELP and HECS are over $60 billion. That's what's owing to the taxpayers—over $60 billion! I'd like to know what you have done, really done, to try and recover that, because I can assure you that taxpayers are quite happy to help other Australians to actually further themselves to get the better education—it helps the country in the end and it gets people in jobs, hopefully—but, in the system we have at the moment, a lot of people are being pushed through to get their university degrees and then become professional students. They stay at university, but then, finally, when they do get a job, a lot of them that I speak to now are actually driving taxis or working at McDonalds or other retail shops. They've got these degrees, but it gets them nowhere because they don't really have the qualifications because they failed at university. They're pushed through a system where they just give you a pass. We don't have the standards. So what you've done is devalue the standards in this country for people who have these university degrees.

I'll go back to the $60 billion debt that's there. Senator Faruqi has put up an amendment where, basically, she wants to wipe the debt. It's her bill here to actually wipe all student debt. Who do you think is going to pay for this?

Go and tell the workers out there. Go and tell the tradies—they're the kids who leave school and start by getting a job and becoming tradies. They're paying their taxes and all the rest of it. But to the mate next door that they went to school with, you say: 'Listen, mate, you go to university. You have this way of life, and I'll pay for it for you. Go and do what you want to do. Become a professional student. You don't have to pay it back. We're going to prop you up.' Do you think the Australian people are going to accept that? Do you really believe they are?

You've got to put something in from your own pocket to make it worthwhile, and, if they don't pay for it and put some skin into the game, it means absolutely nothing. That's the problem. With these handouts all the time, you don't get results. When you've got skin in the game, you'll get results. So this is a stupid amendment, as far as I'm concerned.

Then, you have here: 'ensure university staff are in secure jobs and paid fair wages'. My god! Has anyone really looked at what these university people get paid? They get paid an enormous amount. Some of these chancellors are on $900,000 to over $1 million. They're paid fantastic wages. Even the staff there are not on poor wages, I can assure you. To ask that they're paid fair wages—I think they're on a fair wage system already. Again, it's a cost to the taxpayer.

Let me also say that the government funds university to the tunes of tens of billions of dollars, and these universities are classified as charities. So, they get government funding and they get funding from the foreign students, but they don't pay tax because they're charities. They're on a pretty good wicket, aren't they? And you want the taxpayers to fund them more, to keep funding and funding and funding.

One Nation will not be supporting this bill. I think it hasn't been properly thought through. You're not considering the taxpayers out there, the hardworking taxpayers who want to see a return for their money. I think that we need to rein in the $60-plus billion debt we have out there. You need to have a responsibility. And get rid of the race based policies. If you want to fund kids in this country, do it right across the board for everyone who would dearly love to go to university. Stop picking and choosing and playing your race based policies in this country, because people have had a gutful of it. That was proven last weekend with the referendum. You will come unstuck with these policies, Labor, because I'll tell you what, the people have had enough. They'll start voting for the ones that are standing up for all Australians and are standing up for equality for all Australians, not this race based stuff that you keep throwing up in this parliament.