Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also acknowledge this, and I wish to assure our former, distinguished Senator Barnett that I am still carrying the pedometer which he gave me, and as of this moment I have done 1.582 km around Parliament House today.

But that is not the reason for me rising this evening. What I do wish to speak to is the very lamentable widening gap now in education opportunities in Australia. Obviously we are all well aware of this gap and we focus often, as we should do, on the difference between those in low-socioeconomic areas and those in higher socioeconomic areas. But I want to focus, if I may, in my contribution this evening on those in rural areas of Australia. Only last week, in an inquiry by the Education, Employment and Workplace Relations References Committee into teaching and learning, did we learn these figures from the Isolated Children's Parents' Association in New South Wales, if I may explain them.

The NAPLAN New South Wales 2011 figures for year 9 students show for writing skills that 11 per cent of metro students failed to meet the standards, whereas in remote areas of New South Wales, it was 47 per cent, four times the number. And in the very remote areas, 50 per cent failed to meet the standards. The numeracy figures are better for metro New South Wales with only five per cent of year 9s failing to meet standards, but 25 per cent of remote students and 37 per cent of very remote students are failing to meet the required standards under NAPLAN.

I want to focus again tonight on the ever-widening gap that is occurring between urban Australia and rural Australia in so many areas, particularly at this moment in education. We hear quite often in this place, led by my colleague Senator Fiona Nash, of the tremendous and gross inequities that are now occurring, particularly in relation to financial support at the tertiary education level. I am an example, as many others are. I could not study veterinary science in Western Australia. My parents were in a low-socioeconomic sector and had it not been for either Commonwealth scholarships or, in my case, cadetships I would not have been able to study veterinary science at the University of Queensland, which is in your home state, Madam Acting Deputy President Moore.

We are seeing across the board now that there is a wide gap between those students who can reside at home to undertake tertiary and other postsecondary studies and those who must travel. There are serious inequities and they must be addressed. The government, of which you are a member, Madam Acting Deputy President Moore, quite rightly addresses the question of those who do not have access to higher education, tertiary education and VET skills education. It is those from rural and remote areas who are missing out.

I will give you another statistic. In 1984 four per cent of those residing in rural areas in Australia had tertiary qualifications whereas 10 per cent, two and a half times that number, of those residing in metropolitan communities had tertiary qualifications. Let me go from 1984 to 2007. By 2007 the number of people in the wider community with tertiary qualifications jumped two and a half times—the number went from 10 per cent up to 25 per cent. A quarter of the wider community had tertiary qualifications by 2007, but that lamentable figure of four per cent for people in rural communities who had tertiary qualifications had only risen to seven per cent. If time permitted I could give you the equivalent figures for those in the VET sector.

In June 2012 it was my privilege as the Chairman of the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations References Committee to present to the Senate a report and recommendations on higher education and skills training to support agriculture and agribusiness in this country. Tomorrow I hope a motion will be before the Senate that actually recognises that report and its recommendations. There were a number of recommendations that I will go through in the next few minutes. The regrettable point is that at this moment, nine months after that report was tabled and six months after the time when the government should have responded to the report and its recommendations, we still do not have a response from the government, although this was a report that had complete support across all sectors. The Greens political party supported the report and recommendations and my colleagues from the Labor Party did not oppose any of the recommendations in the report, although they did put in additional comments. So this was not a controversial report, and its recommendations were I thought resoundingly supported; and yet, six months after the required time for a response from the government, we do not have one. In the motion I gave notice of, which hopefully will be presented tomorrow, I want to address that in some more detail.

The report highlighted again that with the demise of interest in higher education in the agriculture and agribusiness sector in Australia we now have only some 700 graduates a year going into a market where there is demand for in excess of 4,000—I think it is estimated to be for 4,300 graduate positions per year. That is a good story. Graduates from school going into university and higher education would say that quite clearly there is demand in that sector.

The recommendations of that report went to issues like encouraging greater understanding by children and teachers in metropolitan and regional centres of the importance of agriculture in our community, the cost-effective delivery of postsecondary skills and higher education in this country and options for more effective collaboration between institutions and their relations between federal, state and other providers. As I think it is known in this chamber, I had the privilege of lecturing at an agricultural university in Western Australia in the 1970s and 1980s. At that time there were very proud agricultural and agribusiness organisations and colleges, but we find today that very few, if any, exist. Muresk in WA, about which I speak, is no longer there. Roseworthy in South Australia is now mainly a veterinary school. Glenormiston in Victoria has gone. Marcus Oldham, the privately owned agricultural institution, is looking at what its future might be—possibly associated with others. The Hawkesbury Agricultural College in New South Wales could not attract first year students last year. In your home state of Queensland, Madam Acting Deputy President Moore, the once Gatton Agricultural College is now principally a veterinary school. So this report and its recommendations went to the reasons, opportunities and options that the government should be looking at. I really do hope that, as a result of the debate that will go on, we do see some focus by government.

In my concluding remarks I wish to draw attention to the launch tomorrow of the Agribusiness Council of Australia that will take place in the main committee room here in Parliament House. People might say that agriculture is well represented—and of course it is—but the Agribusiness Council of Australia will be looking more at representing the interests from the farm gate to the consumers' plate. Most of the organisations associated with agriculture in this country are focusing on the production side of agriculture. But we know that probably 80 to 90 per cent of the entire agricultural budget is really beyond the farm gate. It is that area that the Agribusiness Council of Australia will come into existence to represent. If we look around the world, we will see that agribusiness is the largest industry in the world. It is the third largest industry in this country. We are talking, of course, about everyone associated with the supply chain, its logistics, the transport, the storage, the examination of foodstuffs, the placement of food and the retailing of food—all of those areas of immense importance to consumers.

One of the objectives of the Agribusiness Council of Australia—in concert, I believe, with the recommendations that I have briefly outlined this evening of the report that we placed before the parliament—is to bridge that gap between urban Australia and rural Australia, to bring to the consumer the importance of all of those aspects associated, firstly, with production, and, secondly, with all of those aspects that take place beyond production to the point where the product reaches the consumer.