Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

Unfortunately, the 1.30 cut-off is going to prevent me from correcting a lot of the misinformation we just heard from Senator Hanson. One thing that is important to talk about is the number of Indigenous students at our universities. The accord interim report makes clear why this recommendation has been made.

The starting point for this was what the previous government introduced, which was demand driven funding for regional and remote Indigenous students, which we supported and is important. What we know about the Indigenous populations of Australia is that the fastest-growing Indigenous populations are actually in the greater cities—for example, greater Brisbane and greater Sydney—where there is significant population growth amongst Indigenous Australians. The accord interim report makes clear why this recommendation was necessary, because Australia isn't on track to achieving the Closing the Gap target that, by 2031, 70 per cent of First Nations people have a tertiary qualification. At the moment, 47 per cent of First Nations people aged 25 to 34 have completed a tertiary qualification. The interim report says that addressing these targets is crucial and recommends that the current demand driven funding arrangement, which is already operating in regional and remote Australia, is expanded to all Indigenous Australians. That's why we're doing it—because that is where a significant percentage of the Indigenous population of Australia lives.

The other important thing to correct from Senator Hanson in the time I have is that a Commonwealth supported place is exactly what the name suggests—the Commonwealth helping make a university place available by making paying part of the cost of making a place available to a student. The student remains responsible for their student contribution amount, which they will usually cover through a HELP loan, just like every other Australian had to do and I had to do when I went to uni when it was called HECS. That is what is proposed here. The government will guarantee the Commonwealth funding to Indigenous students who meet the academic requirements for entry, but the student will remain responsible for paying their share, most likely through a HELP loan like everyone else has. That is why we think that it is significant. That is why I hope it gets the support of the chamber. We are confident that it will enable more Indigenous students in this country to obtain a degree, and that will be a great outcome for the country.

The other thing that is clear that Senator Hanson didn't understand the full breadth of the bill is what we're doing in relation to regional university study hubs. Not everything the previous government did was a negative. The one thing that they did get right, even though it was done in an ad hoc way, was with regard to regional university study hubs. The interim report said that we would establish 20 additional regional university study hubs across the country. The first 10 of those are open. I've been to a number of them that have already opened around the country. I think we're up to 34 that are open. I've seen firsthand the opportunity that that's providing people in regional and remote Australia.

We know there's a shortage of teachers and nurses across the country, but that is felt acutely in many regional and rural locations. My hope from these study centres is that the next teacher or the next nurse is already living in those communities but that the establishment of these centres gives those people the opportunity to study and stay in their local communities. That's important for a number of reasons. One is the cost of moving away or moving to a capital city in the current environment would be quite daunting for many Australians. The ability to stay and study at home in your local area is fantastic.

The other significant part is that, if you are able to study in your remote or regional location, you're much more likely afterwards to stay and work there. When you think about those challenges that we're facing in health, in education and in other care industries across the country, having the ability for those people to study and stay in their local community means they're actually going to help meet that workforce challenge of the future. So you can see, from the interim report and the trajectory of the government in regard to higher education, the direction that the government are going. We're doing what we can to tackle disadvantage and give people an opportunity. We're giving more opportunity to those students in regional and remote locations. We know that the final report, when it comes down, will be focused on how we can make it more affordable as well. So there is a clear government direction. I really encourage people to support this bill.