Jason Clare's recent appearances (OpenAustralia.org)
Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025; Third Reading | Bills | House debates
by leave—I move: That this bill be now read a third time. Question agreed to. Bill read a third time.
Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025; Third Reading | Bills | House debates
Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025; Consideration in Detail | Bills | House debates
I have two words for the member for Kooyong: thank you. Thank you for your engagement on this bill and your sincere and genuine commitment to this area of public policy. Thank you for bringing...
I have two words for the member for Kooyong: thank you. Thank you for your engagement on this bill and your sincere and genuine commitment to this area of public policy. Thank you for bringing this amendment forward. Thank you for the work that you have done in this area for as long as you've been a member of parliament. As you were speaking, I was reflecting on the campaign that you led and the work that you did around the changes to indexation for HECS. That helped to create the environment for the reform that we passed through this parliament a couple of years ago now that lowered student debt by about $3 billion and helped to address the unfairness that existed with the way in which inflation interacted with student debt. So thank you. Thank you for the work that you led there. And thank you for this amendment. As I've said to you in private conversations—and I'm very happy to say in the chamber here today—I will consider this amendment in the context of the debate, which we will have in the Senate once we've seen the report of the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee. Their inquiry is up and running right now. This is one of those areas where I'm expecting them to present recommendations to us, amongst a range of others, including perhaps some of the areas that the member for Curtin flagged in her amendments. They've got their public hearing on Friday, and we're expecting their report before parliament returns in March. And therefore, whilst I'm not in a position to insert those two words into the bill as we debate it here in the House of Representatives, I do look forward to continuing to work with the member for Kooyong as that debate occurs in the Senate next month. I indicate that the government will not support this amendment that is about to be put. Question negatived. Debate adjourned.
I'm sorry to disappoint the member for Berowra and the member for Wentworth, two individuals in this chamber that I hold in very high regard. I thank you for your thoughtful contributions in this...
I'm sorry to disappoint the member for Berowra and the member for Wentworth, two individuals in this chamber that I hold in very high regard. I thank you for your thoughtful contributions in this debate. The national tertiary education objectives in the bill were recommended, as the shadow minister pointed out, by the Universities Accord Panel. It's actually recommendation 1 of the accord—to set a clear vision for the tertiary education system. It's an objective for the whole system and the role that it must play to support Australia's resilience, fairness and prosperity. The changes proposed in this amendment appear to set an objective for the ATEC itself rather than for the system, and the government is not in a position to support this amendment.
I thank the member for Curtin for her engagement on this bill and for her amendments. I acknowledge, like she has generously done, her sincere interest in this area of public policy and...
I thank the member for Curtin for her engagement on this bill and for her amendments. I acknowledge, like she has generously done, her sincere interest in this area of public policy and particularly her desire to make sure that this commission that we're seeking to establish, the ATEC, is strong and independent and has the scope and capacity to do this important work. I share that intent. Therefore, I give you the undertaking publicly, as I did in my concluding remarks in the debate and as I've said privately, that I'll consider these amendments alongside the Senate report. We're expecting to receive that report on 27 February or thereabouts, and there's a Senate hearing that will take place later this week, which will provide an opportunity for many of the people that you've mentioned to provide evidence. I do sincerely look forward to seeing that report as well. Therefore, as I've said, the government is not in a position now to support these amendments, but I do look forward to working closely with you and with other members as debate proceeds in the Senate. Question negatived.
Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025, Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
I thank all members for their contributions to this debate. The Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025 is a bill to establish the Australian Tertiary Education...
I thank all members for their contributions to this debate. The Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025 is a bill to establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, the ATEC. Establishing the ATEC is a key recommendation of the Australian Universities Accord, and it will be the job of the ATEC to help drive and steer the big reforms in the accord, like demand-driven equity places and needs based funding. It'll also independently negotiate compacts with individual universities. It'll get the sector to work more like a system and build connections between the vocational education and training and the higher education systems. It'll provide independent, expert advice, and it will help to drive real and lasting reform. That's what the ATEC is about. I acknowledge in particular the members of the crossbench who've engaged with me in my office on this bill. I note the amendments circulated by the member for Kooyong and the member for Curtin; I know that tertiary education is an important issue for them and for their stakeholders. Although the government is not in a position to support the amendments offered at this time, I'm grateful for the thoughtful engagement on this and the universities accord reforms more broadly. I can indicate publicly, as I have privately, that I'll consider these amendments alongside the report of the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee when we receive that report, in just over two weeks time, and I note that their inquiry is currently underway. With that, I commend the bill to the House.
Tertiary Education and Training | Questions without Notice | House debates
I thank my friend the legendary member for Aston for her question. School is back, and university will be back very soon too, and this year more Australians will start a university degree than...
I thank my friend the legendary member for Aston for her question. School is back, and university will be back very soon too, and this year more Australians will start a university degree than ever before. That's good news because we need more teachers, nurses, doctors, scientists, engineers and lots more. In the years ahead, more jobs are going to require more skills—the sorts of skills that you get at TAFE or at university. That's why we're funding free TAFE, and that's why we're funding more spots at university. We also want to make it easier, faster and cheaper to get those skills, and that's why we've cut student debt by 20 per cent, the biggest cut to student debt in Australian history, taking a massive weight off the shoulders of three million young Australians. The average student debt has been cut by $5,500. We're not just doing that; we're also cutting the amount of money that you have to repay of that debt every year. For example, if you're on 70 grand a year, we're cutting the amount that you have to repay every year by $1,300. That's real cost-of-living help. It means an extra 1,300 bucks in your pocket rather than in the government's. These aren't the only things that we're doing. I told the House last year that the University of Canberra has cut the length of six university degrees by 12 months and cut the cost of those degrees by an average of $6,000 if you've done a TAFE course in the same area. I can advise the House that Western Sydney University has just announced the same sort of thing. If you've got a TAFE qualification in nursing, construction, IT or a range of other areas, they'll cut the length of your degree by a year and the cost of that degree by up to $18,000. That's the sort of thing that I want to see more of this year, and I know Australians want to see more of that too—a real partnership, a genuine coalition between TAFE and university, a tailor-made coalition that stands for something and that gets things done, that'll help to make sure that your degree is shorter and cheaper and gets you the skills that you need. That's the sort of thing that Australians want—a coalition that's focused on them. By gosh, surely it's not too much to ask.
Early Childhood Education and Care | Questions without Notice | House debates
I thank my friend, the absolutely magnificent member for McEwen, for his question. A year ago today we passed laws through parliament to enact the three-day guarantee and a month ago today we...
I thank my friend, the absolutely magnificent member for McEwen, for his question. A year ago today we passed laws through parliament to enact the three-day guarantee and a month ago today we delivered it. It means every child who needs it can get access to the child care subsidy three days a week. We know how important child care is for mums and dads—it helps them to get back to work—but it's also important for our children. This is a time when most of the brain develops. We know that a child who goes to preschool is 1½ times as ready to start primary school as a child that doesn't. Ask any primary school teacher, and they'll tell you they can identify the children who have been in early education and care. This is not babysitting. That's why it was the Productivity Commission that recommended this change—the three-day guarantee. Their advice to us is that it's children from the most disadvantaged families—the poorest families in Australia—who get the biggest benefit from early education and that they are the ones who are least likely to be there in early education and care. That's because of the old activity test that meant their mums and dads couldn't get access to the government subsidy, and so it's their children who missed out and started behind. That now changes with the three-day guarantee. It means, for affected families earning between $50,000 and $100,000, they will save about $1,500 a year, and it means that their children will get access to the same sort of early education and care that other kids can. I've also been asked about safety, and I can advise the House that personal mobile phones in centres have now been banned, that Commonwealth compliance officers are now up and running and doing unannounced spot checks, that the national CCTV trial has started, that the Australian Federal Police is now also part of the advisory group on that, that the national educator register will start at the end of this month, and that mandatory safety training for all staff in centres will start at the end of this month. Members will also remember that we passed legislation through this place last year to give us the power to cut funding to centres that aren't up to scratch—that aren't meeting minimum safety standards. So far, we've sent notices to more than 60 services across the country. For some of those 60 services, that deadline that we have set for them is fast approaching. I'll have more to say about that in the next few weeks.
Education | Questions without Notice | House debates
Last year, we signed agreements with every state and every territory to fix the funding of our public schools. That funding, and the reform that's tied to it, starts to roll out this year. A big...
Last year, we signed agreements with every state and every territory to fix the funding of our public schools. That funding, and the reform that's tied to it, starts to roll out this year. A big part of that reform is reading. The reading wars are over. We know what works. A big part of that is phonics. A big part of that is explicit teaching. A big part of that is identifying early children who are falling behind and giving them extra support. And part of that is a phonics check for kids when they're six—when they're in year 1. That rolls out right across the country, in every state and every territory, this year. To give you an idea of how important this is, South Australia has been doing this now for almost a decade. When they started doing it in 2018, 43 per cent of six-year-olds met the expected standard. When they did that test last year, 66 per cent of six-year-olds met that standard. That's why it's important. That's why we're rolling this out now in every state and every territory. That's why we're now going to do the same thing in maths—a year 1 numeracy check that starts to roll out this year. I will also use this opportunity to give a quick shout-out to our teachers, people who do the most important jobs in the world. This year, there are going to be big changes to teacher training to better prepare students to teach children to read, write and count and to manage classroom behaviour. Some good news I can advise the House of is that this year the number of applications from students to start a teaching degree at university is up 6.5 per cent, and university offers are up 6.3 per cent. This is all good news: more funding for our schools, more teachers for our schools and more focus on the basics to make sure more of our children get a great start in life.
I'll tell you a story. There are a lot of kids changing schools, changing classes, changing teachers and changing seats. There's a bit of that going on over there as well! There are kids in...
I'll tell you a story. There are a lot of kids changing schools, changing classes, changing teachers and changing seats. There's a bit of that going on over there as well! There are kids in classrooms right now that are learning how to read and are learning how to count. There's a bit of that going on over there as well! No doubt there are a few kids yet to get back to school. They might be still on a European holiday. They'll get back late and no doubt expect to get elected school captain. But this is a big year for school education.
I thank my friend the glorious member for Gorton for her question. School is now back across the country. That means a lot of relieved mums and dads and a few nervous kids—not as nervous as...
I thank my friend the glorious member for Gorton for her question. School is now back across the country. That means a lot of relieved mums and dads and a few nervous kids—not as nervous as a few people over there!
If I can thank my friend the brilliant member for Bean for his question, I might just do that! I told the parliament in November last year that we'd cut the student debt, by 20 per cent, of...
If I can thank my friend the brilliant member for Bean for his question, I might just do that! I told the parliament in November last year that we'd cut the student debt, by 20 per cent, of 1½ million Australians, but I can inform the House that that is not correct—at least not anymore, because now it's double that. Now we've cut the student debt of more than three million Australians by 20 per cent. We promised it; now we've delivered it. It's the biggest cut to student debt in Australian history. To put it in perspective, for the average Australian with a student debt, we've taken now $5,500 off their back. That's a lot of help for a lot of young Australians who might be just out of TAFE or just out of university or maybe just out of home. They're just getting started. And this isn't the only thing that we're doing. We're also cutting the amount that they have to repay of their debt every year. For example, if you're on 70 grand a year, we're cutting the amount that you have to repay every year by $1,300. Now that's real cost-of-living help. It means an extra 1,300 bucks in your pocket rather than the government's. And there's something else that we're doing to help Australians with the cost of living. That's paid prac—financial help while you do your practical training at university—because, as many people do, if you have to give up your part-time job to do your practical training or you've got to move a couple of hundred kilometres away and rent, then it can be tough to pay the bills. That's why we're doing this. It's real cost-of-living help. We're now rolling that out for teaching students, for nursing students, for midwifery students and for social work students—people who've signed up to do some of the most important jobs in this country, like looking after our kids and looking after us when we're ill or when we're old, or women fleeing domestic violence. That's what we're focused on: helping Australians with the cost of living, unlike those on the other side who are just focused on how much they hate each other. They make the Beckhams look like a happy family. They're like a couple who bought a non-refundable holiday and then they broke up and now they've just got to sit there and suffer through it. They don't like paid prac. They don't like cutting student debt by 20 per cent. They don't even like each other.
Bondi Beach Attack Victims | Condolences | House debates
When the shooting started, Jessy knew exactly what it was. Jessy is a friend of mine and a dear friend of my wife's. Our kids are about the same age. She was there on that awful day with her...
When the shooting started, Jessy knew exactly what it was. Jessy is a friend of mine and a dear friend of my wife's. Our kids are about the same age. She was there on that awful day with her little girl, Shemi. They were there to get sufganiyot—jam doughnuts—for Shemi and for her big brother, Lev. In that split second, Jessy did what any parent would do. She picked up her little girl and she ran. She hid, and she jumped on top of Shemi. She held her so tight she was worried that Shemi had stopped breathing. She remembers hearing the shots getting closer, the bullets hitting people near her and the spray of blood as it landed on her. And then it stopped. She ran again, this time until she found her husband, Nadav, and her son, Lev, who'd raced to the beach desperately looking for them. In Shemi's little hand was her big brother's doughnut—or what was left of it. I want to believe that what happened that day in December wasn't Australia. But the truth is it was. In the most Australian of places, 15 Australians had everything taken from them, one of them a little girl with the most Australian name possible. All of them were victims of an unfathomable hate. They were hunted down and killed because they're Jewish—murdered because they're Jewish. In the short time that I have, I offer my deepest condolences to everyone who loved them and who must still be drowning in their own grief. I also thank everybody who ran towards the danger that day and whose actions that day and in the days after must have saved the lives of dozens more people—people like Jessy and Shemi. I want the House today to hear their voices. In the week after, Shemi came to her mum and asked her, 'Can a kid die?' She'd found out about Matilda. As they walked home one night from the Bondi Pavilion, she said to her mum, 'So I could have been a photo, too, like Matilda, and you would have had to put a rock and a flower for me.' Jessy's helping her little girl to understand all of this. I told Jessy that I was going to speak today and that I wanted to tell her story and Shemi's story. She's written something for all of us. This is it: My name is Jessica Chapnik Kahn. My five-year-old daughter and I are survivors of the Hanukah Bondi Beach massacre. On Sunday 14 December, 2025, my daughter and I ran, along with hundreds of children and adults. We threw ourselves to the ground. We covered our children with our bodies. And as the gunshots came closer and closer, as flying bits of flesh and bones sprayed over us, there was no mistaking it. This was a massacre. I realised I was no longer preparing to survive. I was preparing for how I wanted my daughter and I to die. I leaned into her ear and spoke the only words that came to me. "Go inside yourself, my darling. Go to your heart, where all the love is. Stay there, my baby; stay there." I speak to you today as someone changed. I am still returning from that concrete deathbed, still learning how to walk familiar streets with unfamiliar fear. And I speak as someone who has experienced a place that no horror, no terror, no gunmen could steal from us. As we return to our lives, our beliefs, our ambitions, I ask myself and I ask you: What would heart have us do? What would heart have you do with your position, your power, your politics, your laws? What would heart have us do with our anger? Bondi has shown us what anger does when it is heartless. What would heart have us do at such a time as this? Many brave things happened at Bondi that day. But right now, this moment feels like the very new brave part. Much of this work is entrusted to you. Let your actions be guided by conscience, care, and compassion. Let your leadership honour life, safety, and belonging. Let your decisions reflect the value you place on the innocence of our children. Let your relationships with one another be rooted in respect, so that we too may treat others the same way. Let your leadership be rooted in humanity. If heart and horror can coexist, heart can guide politics too. It has come at a terrible, terrible cost, but may we now have the courage to carve a new path of heart. May we create the country we've always dreamed of, a country where all people live and breathe in peace. It is not impossible. Heart can take us there. Lead us with heart. Stay there. Stay there. Stay there.
Valedictory | Constituency Statements | House debates
It has been a big year in 2025, and I want to thank the people of my electorate of Blaxland for putting their trust in me again. It's the privilege of my life to represent our community in this...
It has been a big year in 2025, and I want to thank the people of my electorate of Blaxland for putting their trust in me again. It's the privilege of my life to represent our community in this place. I take the opportunity to thank them for their support, and, in particular, I thank the hundreds and hundreds of people who volunteered on my election campaign. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. In particular, I want to thank my team led by Korena Flanagan, Chris Zogopoulos and Christine Kalivitis for all of their help over almost 18 years now. In the case of Chris, it's even longer. I would not be here without you. This has been a year of wins. We've fixed the funding of public schools, cut student debt by 20 per cent and, in my local community after 12 months of hard work, we got Auburn Post Office back and reopened. But it's also been a year of losses in my community. We've lost some local Labor true believers, some dear friends of mine—Tony Re, a former school principal; Grant Lee, a former mayor of Bankstown; Uncle Rex Sorby, a great Indigenous elder; and Vanessa McNeill, a former Holroyd councillor. Local legend Laurie Ferguson, a former member of this place, has been really unwell and is still in hospital. Laurie, we're all here with you, Maureen and the whole family. I wish everybody here a very, very merry Christmas. This is a time that we spend with the most important people in the world—our families, our kids and our mates. Every year, on the Sunday before Christmas, I get together with the fellas that I played cricket with for years. We call it clay day, for reasons that I don't have time to explain here. We catch up, reminisce, talk about the old days and remember just how important we are to each other. To quote that old Irish proverb, 'We live in the shade of each other.' When I get together with my mates, I live in their shade for sure. So I give them a quick shout-out—Gav, Macca, Corz, Squirmer, Welster, Wyber, Bevo, Blobby, Beachie, Rinny, Choppers, George, Tink, Bert and Herbie. Merry Christmas, boys.
Universities | Questions without Notice | House debates
I thank my good friend the mighty member for Menzies for his question. In the wee small hours of this morning, between 3 am and 6 am, when I hope most of us were still tucked up in bed, something...
I thank my good friend the mighty member for Menzies for his question. In the wee small hours of this morning, between 3 am and 6 am, when I hope most of us were still tucked up in bed, something very big happened. One and a half million Australians had their student debt cut by 20 per cent—and, next Thursday, it's all going to happen again. Another 1½ million Australians will have their debt cut by 20 per cent. This is the biggest cut to student debt in Australian history. To give you an idea of just how big this is, for the average Aussie with a student debt, it means $5,500 off their back, off their debt. It's all automatic. You don't have to do a thing; just wait for the 'ding'. As the Prime Minister said, the text message will come next week. But it is also important to know why this has happened. There is one reason that this has happened, and that's this man here. It's because of this Labor Prime Minister. It's because he promised it, because he fought for it and because he believes in it. It's because he believes that young Australians deserve a break and because millions and millions of Australians voted for it. As one very smart National Party MP—or potentially a former National Party MP—said, 'My kids are paying off a university debt and I reckon they voted Labor.' I bet they did. But, even now, there are still members of the Liberal Party who think this is a bad idea. On Monday, the member for Goldstein described celebrating this as 'despicable'. You've got to ask yourself: what sort of planet does this mob over here live on? It explains why there are now 42 of them over there and why the seat that Tony Abbott once represented—or Malcolm Turnbull or Julie Bishop or Bronwyn Bishop or Brendan Nelson or Alexander Downer or even Sir Robert Menzies himself—are now located up there. Young Australians see them, and they see through them. They know that the Liberal Party no longer represents them and they also know this: it's this Labor government and this Labor Prime Minister who cut their debt by 20 per cent.
Tertiary Education | Questions without Notice | House debates
I thank the marvellous new member for Moreton for her question. This is a special time of the year. Cricket is on the telly, even if it is for just two days. We have meat on the barbie, the...
I thank the marvellous new member for Moreton for her question. This is a special time of the year. Cricket is on the telly, even if it is for just two days. We have meat on the barbie, the sounds of cicadas and lawnmowers, kids opening presents, the sound of champagne corks popping and knives sharpening—and that is just over there in the Liberal Party! And this year there will be the sound of something else, the sound of millions of phones beeping with a message that your student debt has been cut by 20 per cent. Tomorrow 1½ million Australians will have their debt cut by 20 per cent, and, next week, another 1½ million Australians will have their debt cut, too. This will be the biggest cut to student debt in Australian history. We promised it, Australia voted for it and we are delivering it. But it is not the only thing we are delivering. Paid prac has now started—that is, financial support for teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students while they do their practical training. Next year more people will study medicine than ever before. We announced with the health minister more places for people to become doctors than ever before. And next year 25,000 Australians will be able to do one of those free bridging courses to give them the skills that they need to get ready to start a university degree, more than ever before. Next year more Australians will also be able to start a uni degree than ever before To drive real long-term reform here today, I introduced legislation to create the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, and part of its job is to break down the barrier between TAFE and university. Let me give you an example. The University of Canberra has just announced that it will take a year off your degree if you've completed a diploma in the same area. This is for nursing, early education, graphic design, accounting and a few other areas. This saves you time—it saves you a year off your degree—but it also saves you money, on average about $6,000, off the cost of a degree. I want to see more examples of that, making it easier for people to get the skills and the qualifications that they want and that they need quicker and cheaper—a more joined up system—because we know that things work better when they are united, not divided. And if you want proof of that, just look over there!
Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. This bill is part of a package of two bills which together will establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission. This bill makes...
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. This bill is part of a package of two bills which together will establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission. This bill makes consequential amendments necessary to implement the measures in the main bill, which I just introduced. Full details of the measures are contained in the explanatory memorandum. I commend this bill to the House. Debate adjourned.
Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. This is a bill to establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, the ATEC. It's a key recommendation of the Australian Universities...
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. This is a bill to establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, the ATEC. It's a key recommendation of the Australian Universities Accord. Before I set out the details of the bill, let me remind the House what the universities accord is about. Three years ago I appointed six eminent Australians to develop a blueprint for how we reform our higher education system: Professor Mary O'Kane as chair, a former chief scientist and engineer of New South Wales, and a former vice-chancellor of the University of Adelaide; Professor Barney Glover, who is now the commissioner of Jobs and Skills Australia and was then the vice-chancellor and president of Western Sydney University; Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt, Laureate Fellow at the Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney; the Hon. Fiona Nash, the Australian Regional Education Commissioner and former Minister for Regional Development and Minister for Regional Communications; the Hon. Jenny Macklin, the former Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and the Minister for Disability Reform; and Ms Shemara Wikramanayake, Chief Executive Officer at Macquarie Group and a member of the former government's University Research Commercialisation Expert Panel. I asked them to look at seven priority areas: I released their final report in February last year. In short, what it says is that, in the years ahead, more jobs are going to require more skills. What it says is that 60 per cent of Australians working today have a certificate, a diploma or a degree, and that by 2050 that will increase to about 80 per cent. That's a big jump. It means more people at TAFE, more people at university and more people doing a bit of both. And what the accord says is the only way this will happen is if we break down two big barriers. The first of those is the artificial barrier we've created and built up between the vocational education system and the higher education system, and replace it with a system that's more joined up. The second is the invisible barrier that stops too many young people from poor families, from our outer suburbs, from the regions and from the bush from getting to university at all. To give you an idea of what the accord is talking about, 69 per cent of young Australians from wealthy families have a university degree today, but only 19 per cent from very poor families do. And this isn't just a barrier to university. The accord peels away any misconception that it's okay if young people from poor families don't make it to university, because they make it to TAFE. What it shows is that 87 per cent of young people from wealthy families have either a TAFE qualification or a uni degree, but only 59 per cent of young people from poor families do. In other words, more than 40 per cent of young people from poor families don't have the sorts of qualifications that so many people are going to need in the years ahead. We have now implemented every recommendation of the accord's interim report and we have started work on implementing the final report. In last year's budget we bit off a big chunk of it—31 out of 47 recommendations in full or in part. Let me remind the House of what some of those are. It includes more than doubling the number of university study hubs in the regions, in the bush and now, for the first time ever, in our outer suburbs. These are places that bring university closer to where a lot of people live. They are about breaking down that invisible barrier. Most of them are now open, and the rest will open in the next few months. We're also increasing funding for the bridging courses that help prepare you to start a university degree. They are like a bridge between school and uni. Over the next 10 years we will invest an extra $1 billion to help tens of thousands of Australians do one of these courses for free. We have also introduced paid prac. This is financial support for teaching students, nursing students, midwifery students and social work students while they do the practical training that's part of their degree. It's means tested and it's targeted at people who need it the most. So far more than 67,000 students have applied for paid prac. More than 80 per cent of those applications have been processed, and more than 80 per cent of those have been approved. The accord also recommended we allocate more medical Commonwealth supported places to address the shortage of doctors in our community, and we are doing that too. Next year, we'll train more doctors than ever before. Earlier this week the minister for health and I announced more medical places to train more doctors at 10 universities across the country. Over the last three years, we have announced more than 350 new commencing medical places. We have also announced eight new medical schools. When fully rolled out, it will mean we are supporting around 1,790 more medical students studying each year. We have also scrapped the 50 per cent pass rule. This was an unfair rule that significantly and disproportionately affected Indigenous students, students from poor families and students from the regions and the bush. We have also reformed student services and amenities fees, setting a minimum amount of 40 per cent to be provided to student led organisations. We have also introduced a demand-driven system for Indigenous students, wherever they live. Previously this was only available for Indigenous students living in regional and remote Australia. This means if you are an Indigenous student and you get the marks for the course you want to do, you will now get a place at university. It's already having an impact. Last year the number of Indigenous students starting a degree increased by five per cent. This year it increased by a further three per cent. The Department of Education estimates that over the next decade this could double the number of Indigenous students at university. We have also introduced a National Student Ombudsman that started work this year and a National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence that starts on 1 January and will give the ombudsman's recommendations real teeth. This year we also established the Expert Council on University Governance, and it delivered its final report a few weeks ago. This includes a set of principles that we will put into law and require universities to report annually on on an 'if not, why not?' basis. On the recommendations of the current Senate inquiry into university governance, we will also get the Remuneration Tribunal to help set salaries for vice-chancellors and require universities to publish decisions of council meetings, spending on consultants, vice-chancellors' external roles and any conflicts of interest. We are also making major changes to reduce student debt. Last year we capped the indexation of student debt to the lower of the consumer price index and the wage price index. This wiped $3 billion off student debt. This week and next week we will wipe a further $16 billion off student debt, cutting student debt by 20 per cent. Tomorrow, 1½ million Australians will have their debt cut by 20 per cent. And another 1½ million will have their debt cut by 20 per cent next week. This is the biggest cut to student debt in Australian history. We promised it. Australians voted for it. And now it's happening. We have also made major structural changes to the way the student debt repayment system works. The way the system used to work was the amount you repaid every year was based on your entire earnings. Once you earned above the minimum threshold you paid a percentage of your entire wage as a repayment. That has now changed. Now, you only pay a percentage of your wage above the minimum repayment threshold. What that means in practice is if you earn $70,000 a year you now have to repay about $1,300 a year less than you used to. It is real cost-of-living help, when you need it most. It is another recommendation of the accord. It's also a recommendation of the architect of HECS, Professor Bruce Chapman, who said: This is the most important thing that's happened to the system in 35 years. It's a marginal collection, it's much gentler and much fairer than previously—we should have done it years ago. All of this is just the start. If we're going to hit that 80 per cent target in the accord we need more people to go to TAFE and more people to go university. That means we have to fund more places at university. And that starts next year. Next year we'll allocate 9,500 more commencing places to universities across the country than in 2025. That's about a four per cent increase on this year, and means more Australians will start a university degree next year than ever before. And even more will start a university degree the year after that. In 2027, we 'll allocate an extra 16,000 fully funded Commonwealth supported places and another 16,000 in 2028 and another 16,000 the year after that. In 2030, this increases to 19,000 additional fully funded Commonwealth supported places. All up, over the next decade we expect to fund an extra 200,000 commencing places at university. It means the number of Australian students in our universities will grow by about 27 per cent over the next 10 years. That's a big jump. Part of this also involves making sure all of these places become fully funded. And the ATEC will play a critical role in implementing it. As part of that over the next 12 months we'll implement and legislate two big changes to the way we fund universities. The first is what the accord calls 'demand driven equity'. We currently provide universities with a capped amount of funding for Australian students. The accord recommends that we uncap that for all students from disadvantaged backgrounds, like we've already done for Indigenous students. In other words, if you get the marks for the course you want to do, you'll get a place at university. This is all about breaking down that invisible barrier that the accord talks about, prizing open the doors of opportunity for more people from disadvantaged backgrounds. It starts in just over 12 months. The second big reform is needs based funding, funding to help these same students who get in, to get through. Think about it as Gonski for universities. The school funding system provides schools with extra funding based on where they're located and the needs of the students they educate. Students who come from economically disadvantaged families receive additional support. So do schools in the regions and the bush. The universities accord recommends we do the same thing for universities. It means extra academic and other support services to help students make it through university. It's demand driven. The money follows the student. The more students a university has that meet the criteria the more funding it will receive. The more students there are at regional universities, the more funding those universities will receive as well. And it starts in January, in just a couple of weeks time. It will be the job of the ATEC to help drive and steer both of these big reforms. And that brings me to what this bill is all about. Of all the recommendations in the accord this might be the most important. As someone said to me the other day, the ATEC is the accord. The accord is big. It is a blueprint for the next decade and the one after that. And it will take more than one minister and more than one government to make real. It is a national project and it needs a steward that is there for the long haul to craft compacts with individual universities; to help improve policy, administration and coordination of the sector; to get the sector to work more like a system; to get the vocational education system and higher education system to work more closely together, more joined up; to provide expert, independent advice; and to help drive real and lasting reform. That's what the ATEC is about. Like Jobs and Skills Australia, it will be independent. It will report directly to ministers. It will be guided by a ministerial statement of expectations. Key performance indicators will be established in consultation with the minister. It will publish its work plan. It will provide advice to government and publish reports. It will be able to undertake its own research. Its staff will be directed by the ATEC commissioners, governed by a service level agreement with the Department of Education. Its operations will be transparent. It will be required to consult. An independent review of the ATEC, its role, its functions and its operations is also built in after two years and after five years. And these reviews will be tabled in the House and in the Senate. It will be led by three commissioners—a full-time chief commissioner, a full-time First Nations commissioner, and a part-time commissioner. Collectively, they will be required to have expertise in higher education and vocational education. The First Nations commissioner must be an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person with significant understanding of issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The ATEC will have its own decision-making powers. It will take on responsibility for new mission-based compacts with individual universities, setting out the number of domestic and international students in line with the government's strategic direction. This will be set out in more detail in the legislation I will introduce next year. It will take over responsibility for the Higher Education Standards Framework from the current Higher Education Standards Panel and provide advice on it to the Minister for Education and the sector regulator. The Minister for Education and Minister for Skills and Training will also be able to request advice from the ATEC on a range of matters. This includes: the costs of teaching and learning in higher education and overall higher education funding amounts, including on a per student basis; student demand, skills demands, and the capability of the system's ability to meet Australia's workforce needs; the strategic direction, governance, size, and diversity of the higher education system, and the financial sustainability of higher education providers; this obviously includes not just universities, but other non-university higher education providers; ways to improve coordination and collaboration between the vocational and higher education systems; and how to improve access, participation and outcomes for people facing systemic barriers to education, including Indigenous Australians, Australians with disability, Australians from a low socio-economic background, and Australians living in the regions and in the bush. The ATEC will also be required to produce and publish a State of the Tertiary Education System report, every year, with the first report to cover the period starting 1 January 2026. This report will set out: current and emerging trends and issues, and system level changes needed to meet these challenges; progress on tertiary participation and attainment targets; the extent to which the higher education system is meeting Australia's current and future students, skills and knowledge demands; how well we are doing in breaking down the barriers between vocational education and higher education; and breaking down the systemic barriers faced by Australians from disadvantaged backgrounds. The ATEC will also publish a work plan and statement of its strategic priorities for the tertiary education system every two years, starting 1 January 2027. I want to thank everyone who has been involved in the development of this important Bill. That includes university vice-chancellors, peak bodies including Universities Australia, state and territory ministers, my department and the Accord Implementation Advisory Committee. I also want to thank the Minister for Skills and Training, Andrew Giles, the Assistant Minister for International Education, Julian Hill, and my former colleague and great mate, the former minister for skills and training, the honourable Brendan O'Connor. I also want to especially thank the interim commissioners of the ATEC, Mary O'Kane, Larissa Behrendt and Barney Glover. They played a fundamental role in writing the accord, and now they are helping to lift those words off the page and bring them to life. This bill represents the next step in a long story of reform. The first Universities Commission was established in 1943 by the Curtin Labor government. Over the next four decades, that commission, and its successors, oversaw significant reform of our higher education system. It's important to remember that John Curtin may have started this, but Sir Robert Menzies continued it and in 1959 his government introduced the Australian Universities Commission Act which, for the first time, embedded the Commission under its own standalone legislation. This was a key moment in the history of higher education. Labor supported Menzies in this pursuit, with Doc Evatt declaring his 'enthusiastic support'. We have a similar opportunity in front of us now. To build the sort of foundations that set us up for the future. To help build the sort of skills we are going to need over the next decade and the one after that. To help open the doors of opportunity wider than they are today. To help build a better and a fairer education system. And in doing that. A better and fairer country. I commend the bill to the House. Debate adjourned.
I thank my great friend the member for Leichhardt for his question. I'm really glad that he asked me this question, because I'm about 20 per cent shorter than he is and in a couple of days...
I thank my great friend the member for Leichhardt for his question. I'm really glad that he asked me this question, because I'm about 20 per cent shorter than he is and in a couple of days student debt will be 20 per cent smaller as well. I'm five-foot-nine; he's six-foot-11. The Liberal Party are at sixes and sevens. The kids in the gallery know what I'm talking about! And, in a couple of days time, $16 billion of student debt is going to come off the shoulders of millions of young Australians. In just two days time, 1½ million Australians will have their student debt cut by 20 per cent. And next week, another 1½ million Australians will have their debt cut by 20 per cent as well. It's the biggest cut to student debt in Australian history. We promised it and we're delivering it. But it's not the only thing that we're delivering. This year, we signed agreements with every state and territory to fix the funding of our public schools, which is something that no Australian government has ever done before, and it is not a blank cheque. It's tied to reform—the sort of reform that we know works. The reading wars are over. We know what works to teach children to read. We also know that waiting until a child is eight is too late to make sure we know whether they can read, write or count. That's why early intervention is important. That's why we're rolling out phonics checks and numeracy checks in year 1—to identify children who are falling behind—as well as more small-group tutoring, to provide support for children to catch up. Next year, something else will happen. Next year, we'll start the work of reforming the national curriculum, starting with the first three years of maths to make sure we get the basics right: addition, subtraction, multiplication and something the Liberal Party can help us out with—division. Next year, something else as well—education ministers have agreed to a reform that was talked about for a long time but never happened, and that's bringing together the bodies that are responsible for national testing, the national curriculum and national standards, as well as national research, under one roof to create an Australian teaching and learning commission. That's what delivery looks like, and that is what division looks like—no joy, just division. The Australian people know it, and they also know this—we're cutting student debt by 20 per cent.
Student Debt | Questions without Notice | House debates
I thank my friend the member for Forde for his question—and that handsome mo he's growing there and all the work he's doing to promote Movember! On the weekend, 100,000 Australians had...
I thank my friend the member for Forde for his question—and that handsome mo he's growing there and all the work he's doing to promote Movember! On the weekend, 100,000 Australians had their student debt cut by 20 per cent, and that is just the start, because, this Thursday, 1½ million more Australians will get their student debt cut by 20 per cent. Next week, another 1½ million young Australians will get their student debt cut by 20 per cent. You don't need to do a thing; just wait for the ding, wait for the text message, wait for the email that you will get from the office to tell you that it's done. This is the biggest cut to student debt in Australian history. The average Australian with a student debt will see it cut by about $5½ thousand. That's a lot of money that's going to help a lot of Australians. We promised it, Australia voted for it and now we're delivering it. And the Liberal Party, remember, are still opposed to it. In fact, they hate it. Today, earlier in parliament, the member for Goldstein described this as one of the most despicable things that he has ever seen a Labor government do. I think I know three million Australians—and their mums and dads, and their grandparents—who might disagree with him. But it's not the only thing that we're doing. Next year, we'll train more doctors than ever before. Today, the Minister for Health and Ageing and I are announcing more medical places to train more doctors at 10 universities across the country. Next year, more Australians will also start a university degree than ever before. We're funding an extra 9½ thousand places next year and an extra 16,000 places the year after that—and the year after that and the year after that. The number of Australians at uni will jump by 27 per cent over the next 10 years, to help build the sort of workforce that we're going to need: more doctors, more nurses, more teachers, more engineers and lots more. A lot of those young people will be from poor families and from our outer suburbs, from our regions and from the bush. That's what the reforms that we're implementing are all about. It's what the Prime Minister calls opening the 'doors of opportunity' for more Australians, building a country where your chances in life don't depend on how wealthy your parents are, where you grew up, what school you went to or the colour of your skin.