Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to make to make some comments on how the government's higher education reform will expand opportunities for regional students. As Sam Seaborn famously said, 'Education is the silver bullet.' It is critical for our economic and social wellbeing as a nation. I am concerned and frustrated that the benefits have been in the shadow of headline-grabbing protests by mainly city based students opposed to the reforms. Far be it from me to critique a good student protest, as my generation was the first of the HECS generation, and many of my fellow students in the late 80s took to the streets en masse. So I would never critique that. I stand here not just as a Nationals Senator but also as someone who has taught secondary and university students. I genuinely believe these changes will be good for regional students, universities and the communities they live in. There is a good story to tell about these reforms, because we as a government are committed to sustainable higher education where we balance equity and access—equity between personal and private benefit and access both to excellence internationally with respect to our research and to a wider range of options for students in terms of pathways and support and getting those previously unable to access higher education into the sphere.

I will start with the government's multimillion dollar investment across the higher education sector. We will invest $371.5 million over three years to expand the current system and to provide support to students completing higher education diplomas, advanced diplomas and associate degrees. We will extend Commonwealth support of $448.9 million over three years to private universities and non-university higher education institutions. These initiatives mean that universities, colleges and TAFEs in regional areas, which tend to attract local students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and relatively poorer high school achievement, can offer more courses. These qualifications will provide career opportunities and pathways to further qualifications. These reforms will also encourage innovative partnerships, especially in regional areas where universities and TAFEs can work together to offer the skills and knowledge that local employers are looking for. Federation University Australia at Ballarat, for example, has partnerships with a range of TAFEs in regional Victoria to provide pathways to higher education for people who might not otherwise get the opportunity, and is producing graduates with sought-after skills for the regions.

The reforms will ensure students living in rural and regional Australia will have the same world-class higher education opportunities as students living in metropolitan areas, and will allow them to contribute to growing their local economies. Students will be supported irrespective of where they choose to study. First-generation students, those who come to higher education without high ATARs, and mature-aged students will benefit from additional access to supported pathways. More than 80,000 additional students nationally will benefit from these increased opportunities by 2018, many of them from low socioeconomic backgrounds, as confirmed by my coalition colleague and Minister for Human Services, Senator Marise Payne, in this chamber yesterday. This will potentially result in a significant boost to the number of undergraduate students from low-SES backgrounds under Labor's demand-driven system, which reported an increase of more than 21,818 from 2008 to 2012, according to higher education student statistics.

The Secretary of the Department of Education, Lisa Paul, recently told Senate estimates that an important feature of the package for regions is to increase Commonwealth-supported supply of students. This in turn will help improve course completion rates. The Abbott-Truss government will continue to support regional higher education directly through the regional loading that is provided to universities in recognition of the higher cost of operating regional campuses. We will provide $274 million in regional loading over the next four years.

Fee deregulation, a hot topic at the moment, will see universities able to set their own course fees from 2016 . This will enable regional universities to successfully compete to attract more students, potentially leading to lower fees at some uni versities . W e are also continuing to support 24 structural adjustment and infrastructure projects worth $683 million that ar e benefiting regional and outer metropolitan areas.

The Abbott-Truss g overnment will introduce new Commonwealth s cholarships at Australia n universities to ensure students from disadvantaged backgrounds do n o t miss out. One dollar in every five that universities and other higher education institutions receive in additional revenue raised through student fees will fund these scholarships. The scholarships will provide tailored, individualised support to students from low- socioeconomic background s . These Commonwealth s cholarships have the potential to benefit regional students in particular.

Under the Higher Education Loan Program, students do not need to pay a cent up - front for their education. They only have to start repaying their loan when they start earning a decent income, currently $53, 000 per annum. HELP loan fees, which were as high as 25 per cent of the course fee, have been scrapped. This will level the playing field for students. The only other changes to HECS/HELP are that students will now be asked to pay, over time, 50 per cent of the cost of their course instead of the 40 per cent which applies now , and the interest rate will change from the C PI to the ten - year bond rate. Students will be borrowing at the same rate it cost s the government to borrow money. The Department of Education estimates this will mean an extra $3 to $5 a week in repayments for the average graduate. Given that graduates will earn around a million dollars more over their lifetime than other school leavers, this does not seem like an unreasonable burden.

Supporting young apprentices is a key component of our program. The Abbott-Truss g overnment is delivering on its commitment to introduce t rade s upport l oans for apprentices to encourage more young people to take up a trade and complete their qualification. From 1 July 2014, the government will offer loans of up to $20,000 over the life of an apprenticeship. Like HELP loans for tertiary students, the loans will be repayable once the apprentices are earning a sustainable income. A gain, this will benefit apprentices in rural and regional Australia.

The Abbott-Truss g overnment will invest $11 billion to build on Australia's world-class research capacity . Research priorities include $200 million to accelerate research into dementia , $42 million to expand the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine at James Cook University in North Queensland for research into tropical diseases , and $24 million to support the Antarctic Gateway Partnership as part of a strategy to enshrine Tasmania's position at the centre of Antarctic research. There will also be $139.5 million for the Future Fellows hips s cheme , where we encourage mid-career young researchers to stay and focus their research on national priorities.

In conclusion, i t is a fact that t he Abbott-Truss g overnment's reforms will benefit regional students and un iversities. Professor Peter Lee, t he c hair of the Regional Universities Network, or RUN , said at the time the reforms were announced in the b udget that the network was pleased that the importance of equity and participation of students in higher education had been recognised in the higher education measures and that RUN was keen to work with the government on the detail of the reforms. That is a key point to make—that the government is now going out and consulting with the sector to ensure that the details of these programs are bedded down in a way that makes very real and sustainable our commitment to equity and access. Professor Lee said:

We are particularly pleased that the government has decided to keep the demand driven system for bachelor places and extended it to sub-bachelor places. This will assist in providing pathways and lift participation in higher education …

He, like the Nationals, notes the significant contribution regional Australia makes to our national prosperity and productivity, with a third of the population living in the regions.

Senior e ducation d epartment officials also confirmed at estimates that the new direction for higher education will help regional students and regional universities in a number of ways. The recent report, Review of the demand driven funding system , found people living in regional and remote areas are less likely to go to university than their metropolitan peers . The Bradley r eview of higher e ducation found that those from remote and regional areas and from low- socioeconomic backgrounds are the ' most seriously underrepresented groups ' participating in higher education over the last decade. Despite low access rates to higher education — around 16 per cent since 2002 — the report says the success rate of low - socioeconomic status students is 97 per cent of the pass rates of their medium- and high- socioeconomic status peers and that this has been very stable over the last five years. We must therefore ensure these students get every opportunity they can , as well as the financial support and the pathways they need to further their education.

F ee deregulation will potentially benefit regional students , with universities now able to price their courses according to market demand in a positive way . Indeed, there may be the opportunity for reverse migration, as low-socioeconomic students and those that are more price sensitive see the opportunity of studying at a regional university. Not only will this provide a boost to regional economies by ensuring there are more skilled workers, but the education institutions themselves will be able to grow, employ more people and invest back into their communities.

Why were regional students left behind by the former government? We are getting the balance right. We are increasing participation for those seeking— (Time expired)

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This year's Abbott-Truss federal budget is a vicious attack on our community. The cuts to health, education, pensions and family benefits have been widely canvassed; but the cuts in this year's budget go much further. I want to talk about the significant cuts to community legal centres.

This cruel budget delivered a further $6 million in cut s to Australia's community legal centres on top of the $43.1 million cut to legal assistance services last December. People who cannot afford a private lawyer rely on their local community legal centre to get the free legal advice they need. It is impossible to plan for when legal issues might arise. People do n o t plan for marriage breakdown, unfair dismissal, eviction, discrimination, getting ripped off or debt problems. People do no t plan for police charges, fines or summons es . When pe ople face such serious problems, they need someone who can help. The Federal g overnment cuts announced in the budget will force centres to turn away needy clients. In 2012-13, community legal centres funde d under the Commonwealth Community Legal Services Program provided 248,970 advices and , in total , assisted 211,896 clients across Australia.

There is a significant demand for legal services in our community, and centres will struggle to meet demand over this year and into the future as the Liberals' budget cuts hit. These cuts will leave vulnerable people without proper legal advice and support when they are in crisis. This could lead to bankruptcy, jail or other significant complications.

But, critically, as well as cutting frontline services, the government also plans to stop community legal centres from working to change unfair laws, policies and practices. Through the thousands of people they see each year, community legal centres are perfectly positioned to see how laws, regulations, policing and the legal system impact upon our community. Working to address wider problems, through submissions to government, test cases and public advocacy is a critical part of the work of community legal centres. Through this work they can help hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people.

Labor foresaw that one of the likely actions of an incoming coalition government would be to insert gag clauses in funding agreements. Last year the federal Labor government passed the Not-for-Profit Sector Freedom to Advocate Bill 2013. Any clauses in Commonwealth agreements that restrict or prevent not-for-profit entities from advocating on Commonwealth law, policy or action will be prohibited by that legislation. The coalition government is trying to get around this piece of legislation and silence community legal centres. After the budget, community legal centres were notified of a new clause to be inserted in their agreements:

The services funded by the Commonwealth will, in the period of the new Agreement, not include law reform or policy advocacy.

This is a blatant attempt to curtail advocacy work.

There is a long history of important legal reforms being initiated by the work of community legal centres. For example, new domestic violence laws introduced in Victoria in 1987 addressed many of the issues that had been raised by local community legal centres, such as Essendon Community Legal Centre. And just recently the Flemington and Kensington Community Legal Centre helped to transform practices of the Victorian police force toward the African migrant community.

Between October 2005 and August 2009 the Flemington and Kensington Community Legal Centre received over 50 reports of human rights abuses against African Australians in Flemington and surrounding suburbs. The centre was so concerned about the sheer number of incidents that they established the Police Accountability Project to track and respond to these incidents. The legal centre made official complaints to the Office of Police Integrity, the OPI, which is the body responsible for reviewing complaints made against police. In 2006 alone the legal centre lodged 17 well-documented complaints to the OPI about the treatment of local African Australian males by police. In three of those matters, the complainants themselves had been charged with resisting, hindering or assaulting police, charges that were subsequently thrown out by the courts. In every instance, after a long delay, the OPI returned the same verdict: 'not substantiated'.

In 2007, concerned by the number of formal complaints the OPI was receiving about the Flemington police station, senior police commissioned an internal investigation into the Flemington police station. As a result of the internal review the lead officer and another officer were moved from the station. However, the complaints continued.

In 2008, after the continual failure of internal complaints to solve the matter, with the support of the community legal centre and lawyers acting pro bono, sixteen young men lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission. They alleged that they were repeatedly stopped, harassed and abused by members of Victoria Police, sometimes violently. Lawyers detailed 140 incidents constituting a systemic pattern of racial profiling, a breach of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975.

Nearly two full years passed in delays and conciliation. The commission had no power to decide whether or not discrimination occurred. It could only help parties reach agreement, and these parties could not agree, with police unwilling to accept the basic premise of there being a problem.

Victoria Police's LEAP data, analysed by eminent statistician Professor Ian Gordon, revealed that between 2006 and 2009 Africans in the Flemington and North Melbourne area were 2.5 times more likely to be stopped by police than were other groups, despite having a lower crime rate. All this evidence appeared to confirm the use of racial profiling by Victoria Police. They singled out these individuals due to the colour of their skin, not due to any actual crime.

In 2010 a case was lodged in the Federal Court of Australia. The case, Haile-Michael and Others v Commissioner of Police and Others, concerned the daily treatment of seventeen young men by the local police. The case stemmed from allegations that the young men were regularly stopped by police, mostly in Flemington and North Melbourne, for no legitimate policing reason, and were subjected to racial discrimination, including assaults, racial taunts and abuse, and racial profiling.

Part of the evidence of racial profiling comes from internal police documents themselves. Operation Molto was conducted by the Flemington Police Station in 2006 and, to quote from the Molto operation order:

There have been a spasmodic and yet continual increase in the number of robberies and armed robberies occurring in and around the Flemington Housing Estate.

The as yet unidentified suspects for these serious offences are primarily young African males.

Even though they are yet to be identified. It continued:

The increased level of visible police presence will assist in the identification and targeting of offenders.

Individual police reports help reveal the mindset of police officers at the time. One of the individuals in the court case was stopped with a friend late one night in the car park at the flats. The police report noted that they were 'known criminals loitering in the area'. Just downstairs from his own home in the high-rise flats, another individual was checked by police with two friends at 8:30 pm one evening. He was 16 at the time. The police record read:

Checked loitering around park bench near basketball court. High criminal area of robberies and assaults. All wearing 'home boy/gangsta' clothing.

In November 2007, Flemington police station conducted Operation Square, targeting anti-social behaviour. The operational order stated that local police had identified about 30 youths responsible, most of whom:

… identify themselves as the ‘Flem Boyz’.

The legal centre again approached senior police about the stream of young African-Australian males being stopped. Senior police advised that:

The station had a multicultural liaison officer and a youth officer, who organised the activities with the local community. One day, the whole station was required to attend a training session about people from the Horn of Africa.

However, this internal police training appeared to actually exacerbate the problem.

'African/Sudanese community cross cultural advice' was delivered to over a thousand members of the force between 2007 and 2010. In this training, police were informed that Sudanese males:

… are typically inducted into a rebel army or warrior tribe as part of their teen years and consequently, develop a strong ‘warrior’ ethic.

And that they will:

… openly challenge anyone who threatens them regardless of potential consequence.

Among the final words of advice of the police training was:

… despite not even knowing you, they may hate you.

The training was shelved after a complaint from Kot Monoah, an unsworn liaison officer who was born in South Sudan. He had attended a session and described the seminar to senior police as gross professional negligence and not cultural awareness but misinformation and ridicule. Internal police attempts to deal with excessive policing of the African-Australian community were not effective. Police efforts completely missed the mark and the practice continued.

Police were unable to see the fault in their approach to the African-Australian community. As Anthony Kelly, CEO of the Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre said:

Our clients say they were continually trying to explain to police they weren't part of a gang, they were just hanging out.

Complaints properly referred to the OPI and appeals directly to senior police did not change police behaviour. It was the work of the Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre, through the courts, that finally had a result. In February 2013, two weeks before the case was scheduled to begin in the federal court, they reached an out-of-court settlement with Victoria Police. The African-Australian males agreed not to go to trial, providing Victoria Police agreed to widespread institutional change. As part of the settlement, Victoria Police launched a three-year action plan to address community concerns about discriminatory policing.

The December 2013 report Promoting equality inVictoria Police engagement and enforcement outlined their response to the issue:

It is expected that police members make objective, evidenced-based decision-making in the field, and that this is clearly communicated to the individuals affected by these decisions.

We commit to reviewing our training and education to address unconscious bias and how it can impact police practices.

As part of these reforms, officers will receive clearer guidance on when they can legitimately stop people and definitions of what is meant by grounds of reasonable suspicion and high-crime locations. The force will revise its data collection so it can analyse disparities among the ethnicities of people being stopped. The force agreed to conduct a six-month trial of a receipting policy, where individuals stopped by police are given a written receipt outlining why they were stopped and by whom they were stopped.

Commander Sue Clark is responsible for a new division in the Victoria Police that has been established as part of police's response to the court case. It is called the Priority Communities Division. Clark is renowned for her work on cultural change both in her earlier stint at Victoria Police and then at the AFL, where she was responsible for reshaping the code's attitude to women, vilification and racism. The 20-odd staff members in the Priority Communities Division are tasked with managing reforms of the police force.

This is just one example of how a community legal centre can help change unjust behaviours through advocacy. The work of Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre since 2006 has helped a significant and growing community have their voice heard. The internal police processes failed at every step to address the problem internally. It was not until the Federal Court case, brought on by the community legal centre and lawyers, that the issue was properly addressed by police. Community legal centres have been undertaking advocacy since their inception. Their advocacy is a critical part of our vibrant democracy.

I condemn this mean-spirited government. Their attempts to silence community legal centres is in breach of federal legislation passed in 2013. I call on the government to repeal these clauses and let our community legal centres continue with their work unhindered. I call on the government to reverse their cruel cuts to community legal centre funding.