Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Higher Education Support (Charges) Bill 2019 and the Higher Education Support Amendment (Cost Recovery) Bill 2019. Labor supports the measures in these bills but notes that the government has damaged the quality of Australia's world-class higher education system, having cut billions from universities by effectively capping undergraduate places and slashing research funding. The Liberals' record on education is abysmal. If we continue down this path, we will severely jeopardise our future economic growth, undermine the opportunity of individual Australians to meet their full potential and, very importantly, compromise our ability as a nation to compete with the rest of the world using the skills, the knowledge, the discovery and the invention of our own people. Despite the failures of the government, Labor will support this bill.

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on the Higher Education Support Amendment (Cost Recovery) Bill 2019 and the associated Higher Education Support Amendment (Charges) Bill 2019. I'm delighted to have this opportunity to speak on these bills, because, while they offer a modest change to our higher education sector, they demonstrate our overall commitment to streamlining, strengthening and providing record investment and opportunities for young Australians. These bills give effect to the Higher Education Loan Program, HELP, cost recovery measures in the higher education sector. The 2018-19 budget included HELP cost-recovery measures through an annual charge and an application fee affecting higher education providers that are subject to these bills. Subject to their passage, these measures will provide combined savings of $11.7 million over 2019-20 to 2022-23.

In accordance with the government's charging framework and the cost-recovery guidelines, the department undertook a review of its activities in the higher education sector in 2017. This resulted in the coalition including the following HELP cost-recovery measures in the 2018-19 budget: firstly, an application fee to recover the Commonwealth's full cost of administering and assessing applications for registered higher education providers seeking approval to offer FEE-HELP under the Higher Education Support Act 2003; and, secondly, an annual charge on all higher education providers offering HECS-HELP and/or FEE-HELP assistance to partially cover the costs incurred by the Commonwealth in administering these programs. Charging for government activities already occurs in tertiary education sector regulators and in relation to administration and application processes under the VET Student Loans program.

We consider it appropriate and equitable that providers who utilise Commonwealth funding contribute to the maintenance and operation of HELP arrangements. Subject to their passage, the annual charge measure is to commence from 1 January 2020. These bills represent a reasonable change to these arrangements. As a government, we're ensuring that our higher education sector remains sustainable and ensuring that each and every young Australian is able to pursue every opportunity that comes their way. We're achieving this through delivering record investment in our education and careers pipeline. It is all made possible by having a strong and growing economy which is creating jobs and providing a strong investment environment.

Our record is there for all to see. We're delivering better education outcomes by increasing school funding, improving school outcomes, helping young jobseekers, delivering more apprenticeships, improving university education, and investing more in mental health for young people. All in all, we're investing record amounts in getting young Australians educated in the field of their choice and ensuring they're ready for their chosen career. We're doing this through ensuring schools and education providers have the resources they need to provide a world-class learning environment. We're also working with employers and peak industry bodies to ensure our education system is delivering the skills they need for their future employees to have. Just last week, the Australian government announced Scott Cam as our new Careers Ambassador—an excellent appointment which demonstrates our commitment to getting young Australians ready for and into jobs. Across government, young Australians are able to access a range of programs to get them into some of the more high-tech jobs of the future, including space, remote operations, coding, automation, robotics and artificial intelligence. These are all important industries for the nation, but they're particularly critical growth areas for my home state of Western Australia.

The government is taking a complete pipeline approach right from early learning, because we know a child's brain reaches 90 per cent of its full adult size by the age of five, through to primary school, high school and either tertiary or vocational education, depending on which direction they choose to go. As a government, we're investing record amounts in each and every stage of the education and training process, and we can do all this because we have a strong economy and because we're continuing to make our higher education sector sustainable. We're ensuring that the money that we invest into the future of young Australians is getting to where it's most needed and is delivering value and practical outcomes for students and their future employers.

Australian government funding for schools is now based on students' needs, as opposed to the patchwork model put in place by those opposite.

Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh, rubbish!

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Despite their attack ads, their interruptions from the other side of the chamber and the pamphlets they drop in letterboxes that try to scare people and parents into voting for them through their social media campaigns, school funding is not just going up; it's going up by record amounts. Our guaranteed funding commitment invests an additional $37 billion in schools over the next decade to 2029. This increases the average funding per student by 62 per cent over the same period, so our record speaks for itself, and so does the record of those opposite.

For Western Australia, education and skills funding will be increased by $171 million from 2019-20 to 2020-21. Broader investment in my home state also includes $2.1 billion for quality schools, $158 million for national skills workforce development and $46.9 million for early childhood education—an area that I'm personally very passionate about. Commonwealth recurrent schools funding for WA will also increase from $2 billion in 2019 to $3.9 billion in 2029. This is equivalent to a Perth student funding increase of 71.8 per cent for government schools and 43.8 per cent for non-government schools.

But what does this record investment mean on the ground for those local schools and families in my community in Western Australia? I can break down this investment even further. This government's commitment to education will see funding for Armadale Senior High School increase from just over $2 million this financial year to $3.4 million over the next decade. Funding for Cecil Andrews College, which has a terrific STEM program, or STEAM as they call it in their school, is set to increase by around the same amount—from $2.1 million to nearly $3.6 million. And the Challis Community Primary School—another fantastic school in the south-eastern suburbs of Perth; a brilliant school with a wonderful program reaching and helping parents and students, particularly in early childhood education—are seeing their funding increase from $1.9 million to $3.3 million.

These are the practical, on-the-ground outcomes from our investment in Australian schools. In fact, Commonwealth schools funding has grown at a faster rate than state and territory government funding. From 2006-07 to 2015-16 Commonwealth funding for government schools has increased in real terms by 78.5 per cent on a per student basis. We have replaced Labor's multiple secret funding deals with a single, needs based national model of schools funding, and the results are there for all to see.

Our agreement is fair and provides certainty over the next decade. We're ensuring that our record funding commitment gets better results for Australian students, parents and teachers. We're also backing the full implementation of NAPLAN to ensure parents and teachers get transparency on student progress. We're improving teacher quality by testing trainee teachers to ensure that they are in the top 30 per cent for literacy and numeracy before they can teach in schools. We're also refocusing the Australian Curriculum on the essentials. We've also secured the agreement of every state and territory to work with us to improve results for all students.

On top of this, we're giving parents more choice by backing those who choose the school that best meets the needs of their child, including Catholic and independent schools. This is why we've created the $1.2 billion Choice and Affordability Fund. This means, in total, an extra $4.5 billion of funding will be available to non-government schools over the decade. This extra funding is not at the expense of government schools. From 2017 to 2029, Commonwealth funding for government schools will increase by 75 per cent per student and non-government schools will increase by 55 per cent per student on average.

Debate interrupted.