Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition government have made fixing Labor's higher education mess a priority, and I commend my South Australian colleague Minister Simon Birmingham on spearheading this effort. The approach of the Labor Party when in government could not have been more different to the coalition's. We have made a record investment in higher education, we have brought certainty to researchers, we are reversing the downward trend by prioritising STEM subjects and we are cleaning up Labor's failing VET system that left students laden with debt and no qualifications to show for it.

It is shameful to see Labor coming into this place pretending to care about students and researchers when they slashed $6 billion from higher education and research funding when in office. By contrast, we came into government with an agenda to improve the higher education system. In 2016-17 we have invested a record $16.7 billion into the sector. This is an achievement in itself but it is not what I am going to focus on because any government can spend money. The hard part is making sure it is well spent. This is the job the government have taken on and we have made real reforms to improve the system.

We have given the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency a mandate to improve standards in the sector. We will not let our education standards slip, and the agency have been given $10.1 million to support their work. We also commissioned the Higher Education Standards Panel to make recommendations on improving transparency around university admission practices. The government have accepted its recommendations and are implementing them.

The coalition are putting students first. We are ensuring school leavers and students have all the information on courses to help them make better choices about what they learn. Too often students do not know what they want to do or what they are exactly enrolling in and slip through the gaps. Trial and error is a natural part of studying at university, but the $8 million we have provided to develop the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching website will help students make the right choice the first time, saving valuable money and time. These are real improvements to the higher education system that Labor left in disarray. This is the smart policy work we are undertaking and it is very different to the work of Labor, who simply throw taxpayers' money at the problem and think their job is done.

This government are also turning the tide in the uptake of STEM subjects through the National Innovation and Science Agenda. We are ensuring Australians are digitally literate and ready to compete globally in the 21st century. The $1.1 billion agenda will support research and promote science, maths and computing in schools, which will directly feed into the uptake of these subjects at university. As you can see, we are making the smart policy decisions that will see us well placed for the future. We are spending taxpayers' money effectively and efficiently, not wasting it as Labor did in office.

Labor claim to support researchers but they left the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy in disarray. The opposition refused to fund the strategy, leaving 1,700 experts and technicians uncertain about their future. The lack of care of Labor shows just how little they actually understand research and development in Australian universities and why they cannot be trusted to take a mature approach to scientific investment in Australia.

The idea that Labor care about student debt is also laughable. The VET FEE-HELP system Labor set up in 2012 became one of the biggest rorts in recent times—and that is saying something! It will go down in history alongside pink batts, the school halls debacle and cash for clunkers. The difference with this rort is that students were the target. Under this scheme, VET FEE-HELP increased by 5,000 per cent and the average course costs skyrocketed from $4,000 to $14,000. Student loans increased by 11,000 per cent from $26 million to $2.9 billion. The end product of this was that students were loaded up with debts and, with no protections from course providers, many had no qualifications to show for it.

The coalition have passed legislation and put in place 20 reforms to fix this mess. It should be clear to Australians that: where Labor fails university students, we stand by them; where Labor abandons researchers, we will support their important work; and, where Labor implements poor public policy, as usual, we will be left with the task of cleaning up Labor's mess.

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