Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Ryan for her excellent question and the way she put it to the House. It was hard to hear it over the enthusiastic agreement from my colleagues around me!

The simple truth is that if these reforms are not passed it will have a very deleterious impact on higher education in Australia, and Labor is standing in the way. The simple fact is that if these reforms are not passed, the demand-driven system will not be expanded to courses like associate diplomas and degrees. It will not be expanded at non-university higher education providers, and that means that 80,000 fewer young Australians—and mature-age Australians—will get the opportunity to go to university by 2018 every year. Eighty thousand Australians will miss out on the chance to get a higher education qualification because the demand-driven system is not expanded to sub-bachelor courses and not expanded to the non-university higher education providers.

The most generous Commonwealth scholarships scheme in Australia's history in higher education will not be implemented. The 20 per cent and 25 per cent loan fees currently slugged on vocational education and training students and students in private institutions will continue, making it harder for them to get the life-changing higher education qualifications that allow them to improve their skills and to get better jobs.

The National Collaborative Research Infrastructure scheme, that was a funding cliff left to us by the former government, will not continue, meaning that terrific research infrastructure will not be rolled out in our universities. The Future Fellowships scheme, which is a scholarship for midcareer researchers and which was another funding cliff left to us by the former government, will not go ahead, meaning that up to 1,500 Australians will lose their jobs in the years ahead in research in Australia because Labor opposes the reform bill. That means that the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy and the Future Fellowships will end.

To put it in perspective, in the electorate of the member for Chisholm, who I know has always been a hard-working member in this place while I have been here—in spite of her being on the wrong side of the House—211 Australians will lose their jobs at the Australian National Data Service, the Australian Synchrotron and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. They will not have the funding necessary to continue to work in those particular ventures. That is 211 in one electorate alone. And those 1,500 are spread throughout Australia.

So I call on Labor to become part of the conversation about the reform bill; to stop standing in the way and to stop being irrelevant on the sidelines and to bring about great reform to our universities.

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