Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

After nine years of mismanagement by those opposite, we are working to get our higher education sector back on track. We are trying to do so in a way which advances and supports a quality international education offering and which leads to a positive experience for students when they come to Australia. We're also doing what we can to support those students in Australia for whom university is the pathway that they prefer, that they choose and that they seek to have a transformational benefit from—for Australian students to be able to go to university—and we're supporting them to do so by wiping $3 billion in student debt for more than three million Australians.

We're making higher education more accessible and more affordable for students. That follows the landmark Australian Universities Accord final report which contains 47 recommendations and targets to reform higher education and set it up for the next decade and beyond. We're already progressing this work by committing to suburban hubs and regional university study hubs and expanding access to First Nations students in particular. I visited a number of these student hubs around regional South Australia. They offer a huge benefit to students who wish to further their education but do so in a way where they can stay at home, continue studying at home and continue studying their prac placements at home.