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

It gives me much pleasure to rise today to speak to this motion about the effect of the government's higher education reforms on communities that I represent as a National Party senator—on regional students; on the universities, which play a significant role in the communities we represent; on our industries; and on our communities more generally. Senator Carr, we do not support an American style of higher education. That is a system borne out of the cultural experiences of the American state. That is very different from how universities in this nation were set up and, indeed, it is very different from the whole culture of our education system in Australia, which is based on egalitarian principles. The government is opening up the higher education system to an additional 80,000 young Australians by 2018. The great proportion of those students will be from low-socioeconomic families—first-generation students seeking to take advantage of all that a higher education degree can bring you as an individual and to contribute significantly to our economy and our communities.

You would think the Labor Party would be celebrating the fact that we will be increasing the number of young Australians accessing higher education. Instead, they roll out Senator Carr, the man responsible for ripping out so much from our higher education system. And, I tell you, they do not want him back. Under Labor we saw the system opened up and increased without the subsequent changes that had to happen on the other side of the equation. The coalition government has committed to implementing the reforms from the Kemp-Norton review, which look at increasing the supply of university places throughout higher education. This includes not just bachelor degrees but sub-bachelor degrees, diplomas and associate diplomas—postsecondary qualifications.

The majority of young people in regional Australia do not go into higher education. I do not think it is because they are not as clever as their urban cousins and I do not think it is because they cannot get into university or do not want to. I think it is a combination of factors. Some of it, obviously, is the financial barriers that many families from regional areas face in ensuring that their young people can move away from home and access higher education in urban centres. These are things that we are addressing within our reforms.

It is quite disappointing that Senator Carr is not onboard to further develop and reform the higher education system. As a developed economy in the 21st century, with developing economies snapping at our heels, we need to be innovative and we need to be competitive in a global market. That only comes from an education system which is world class. We are not going to have world-class institutions operating on every street corner. That is just not possible, it is not sustainable and it should not be what we are aspiring to do.

But we need to create an environment where some institutions and some universities are able to go out and take it up to the best in the world and where others are able to meet our domestic requirements in terms of research, vocational supply of teachers, nurses et cetera and the professions more generally. That is the type of education system that we need in this country in order to be globally competitive going forward. That is the type of higher education system that our government seeks to create through these fundamental and historical reforms which, as a whole package, seek to strike a balance between equity of access and global competitiveness. To actually strike a balance is tricky. You cannot go to the lowest common denominator, as Senator Carr would seek to do. You have to have diversity within the system, which means that some will be better than others at different things. And that is okay.

Obviously, within a system like that we also need to ensure that student mobility is increased. One of the exciting things about our package is that not only will we be seeing regional students studying locally—and thanks to our Commonwealth Scholarships program, starting at the best universities in the nation and the best universities in the world—but we will see reverse migration where regional universities are able to compete against those urban universities, those 'sandstones', if you like, where they can actually say, 'Getting a quality education in this country is about a variety of criteria and you as a student have to make up your mind what matters to you.' That will mean different things for different students. We need to give people choice and we need to allow an environment where universities can decide what they are going to excel at.

It is our fourth largest export industry. We want to be the best. It is important. Our government has committed $274 million in regional loading over the next four years to support regional universities. I just want to briefly touch on some of the fabulous research that is occurring at our regional universities. A couple of weeks ago I was at Deakin University, in Geelong, where we celebrated the opening of the Carbon Nexus centre. We have world-class researchers who have created fibre that will change the way we communicate and the way we construct everything from racing cars and beyond. It is very exciting, particularly for that area in my home state, which is undergoing such challenges at the moment, to have such a fabulous research program going on at Deakin University.

Similarly, James Cook University, in North Queensland, is world renowned when it comes to marine biology. Thanks to the government's investment into that regional university it will now take on the world when it comes to tropical disease research.

La Trobe University, again in my home state of Victoria, is looking at the Murray-Darling Basin and how we can better use our water more efficiently. Those are fabulous things that regional universities can be good at. You can be a world-class regional university. Harvard University is not in a capital city. Oxford University is not in a capital city. This reform package as a whole, if taken with all the measures that the government has been able to put together, can actually result in regional universities taking on the world in their area of specialisation. I think it is very exciting.

I am quite disappointed, again, with Senator Carr's rhetoric. We heard it in estimates and I will not repeat it here because it was quite unparliamentary. But check it out in Hansard. Again, he talks about the biggest losers being the universities that my constituents attend and the universities whose research programs address the issues that my community needs addressed. He calls them the biggest losers. We have to stop the myth and stop the rhetoric. It is a bit like with agriculture: you have to stop talking it down. Let us start talking about the positives that are occurring in regional universities, the positives for regional students and regional communities rather than going on about being the biggest losers. It is absolutely incorrect.

Senator Carr talked about pressures being put on the university sector. I can tell you that the pressures under the previous government were horrendous. The ALP policy settings were the things that put pressure on our university system: extra students, no extra money. Anyway, we will not go into that at the moment, because there is too much good news in the coalition's higher education package for regional students, regional universities and regional communities.

If you had been listening to Senator Carr, you would have thought that all regional universities were against our changes and that there was a lack of understanding or collaboration. The minister has been touring throughout Australia over recent months, attending higher education universities in urban and rural areas. He has been getting firsthand experience of the type of education and research that you can undertake in a regional community. The Regional Universities Network fully supports the federal government's budget. The chair of the Regional Universities Network, Professor Peter Lee, is pleased that equal participation is such a high priority for the government. I quote Professor Lee:

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 in regional Australia for less well prepared students.

I think that is exciting and that the government has actually listened to the concerns of regional universities in the construction of this package. Again, I turn to Professor Lee's comments:

We welcome the simplification of the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program, and look forward to working with the Government on the detail of its implementation.

Prior to that, regional universities were calling on us as a government to make the tough decisions, to go ahead with the reforms that the sector needs in order for us to become globally competitive and to ensure that access and equity of participation are balanced against our desire to be the very, very best in the world.

The Regional Universities Network called for the government to turn to lower socioeconomic background and regional students, who have been largely ignored by previous governments. The fact that we are debating this as a result of a motion by Senator Moore and Senator Carr is fabulous. If only they had paid a little more attention to regional students and regional higher education providers when they were in government we would not have seen the youth allowance debacle and the lack of access that that precipitated and the changing of rules every five minutes. That was absolutely deplorable. So to have you in here championing the interests of regional Australia is something I wish we could have more of, Senator Carr.

We have listened to the regional universities when they called for us to be focusing on levers and initiatives that would actually increase participation for low socioeconomic students and regional students. To ensure that, we have extended the Higher Education Loan Program to encompass such things as sub-bachelor and associate diplomas. That is a positive thing for regional students because they are more likely to access those sorts of programs. I find it quite interesting that the Labor Party is making a very loud ruckus on the back of those parents who are unable to pay those fees up-front now. Is that the issue? Why should regional Australians, who typically earn less than anybody in urban Australia—