Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

Following on from that dorothy dixer on steroids and the question from the member for Bean, the Morrison government has turned its back on universities during their hour of need. At the peak of the COVID pandemic, when universities were crying out for assistance, the Morrison government gave JobKeeper to private providers but changed the rules three times to exclude public universities. This has led to more than 17,000 jobs being lost, hundreds of courses being cut and regional campuses closing. We are talking about academics, tutors, admin staff and cleaners—everyone who keeps a university up and running. There are now 17,000 people without jobs, all with families and bills to pay. The Prime Minister could have prevented thousands of livelihoods from being destroyed but he callously and deliberately said no. A prime minister who cared about jobs would have prevented 17,000 uni workers from losing their livelihoods. A prime minister who cared about Australian families would have supported families relying on our wonderful universities so that they didn't lose their jobs.

Australian universities used to be this nation's third-biggest export earner. Those universities lost $3 billion last year. The recent Morrison budget made it worse for universities by including a 10 per cent real funding cut in coming years. Despite still being in a global pandemic, emergency funding to keep researchers in their jobs was cut off. It's very short-sighted to lose our world-class researchers. We've never appreciated them more than during this pandemic. Brian Schmidt, vice-chancellor of ANU, has raised concerns about losing research capacity in universities that will take decades to recover—when people go they don't come back.

With the rise of gas exports, education is now Australia's fourth-largest export earner. A government with vision would care about protecting fair dinkum exports like this, instead of just having photo ops with Boris and a Tim Tam. The Mitchell Institute's research indicates that a third academic year of no international students would cost Australia about $20 billion, or half of the pre-pandemic value of the sector. That $20 billion is enough, with $3 billion over, to cover the annual interest on the Frydenberg debt. This hit isn't just a problem for universities. The economic value of international students is far wider.

See this speech in context