Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Brown is an extremely wise woman and was absolutely knowledgeable about the fact that there were only five students who graduated from the course. These examples that I have just referred to indicate that this happened after they had 'fixed it' on 1 April. If that was their fix on 1 April, you can understand why I am sceptical about their fix on 1 December. On 1 December they have come in here to fix it, and the fix that they are offering, as I said, is extremely late in arriving and really does not allow the Senate to properly consider, in careful detail, the implications of what they are proposing.

We know that there are a number of issues that will, hopefully, get some consideration as we move to the consideration of this bill in detail. I see that the minister has come in here in the last few minutes, and he will have some remarks to make here. Whatever the minister might say, let us just get it on the record that when it comes to education there is only one party in this country, the Labor Party, that has advanced the interests of public education consistently for decades. There is only one party, the Labor Party, that is going to stand up to make sure that that lot on the other side does not put a 15 per cent GST hike on all elements of education. The Labor Party will hold this government to account.

We will consider the amendments that are coming forward, but we have to note that this has been a shoddy process. It is a mess, as Senator Xenophon said. It is an inadequate piece of legislation, as Senator Lines said. This is sloppy work in a policy area that this government has sought to destroy from the minute it has come in: $30 billion taken out of school education; who cares less about what happens in the VET sector; and let us see if we can take out the higher education sector and put $100,000 degrees on students. Today they have had a go at every single way they could break education in this country. This piece of legislation and the shoddy amendments they have brought in here at the last minute reveal yet again the contempt that they really have for education, their ineptitude as a government and their failure to take seriously the terrible implications of not looking after this on their watch. That is a characteristic of this government every single day.