House debates

Monday, 27 May 2013

Private Members' Business

University Funding

6:51 pm

Photo of Deborah O'NeillDeborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I find myself in a rather peculiar situation as I consider the comments of the member for McPherson and the member for Ryan. My understanding of the budget reply speech, and the press I have seen since then, indicates that those on the other side reserve the right to adopt all of these changes that are mooted and yet they decry them. It is a very different position perhaps for the member for Melbourne, who has proposed this debate on university funding—I am sure he is very sincere, but let us get a few of the facts on the table.

I will draw to a degree on my own personal experience at one of the local universities at which I taught before I entered parliament. I did work during the Howard era, which according to those opposite was an era of great enlightenment and incredible spending in the sector. Can I say how incorrect that is. The manifestation of the Howard years of investment in the Ourimbah Central Coast campus of the University of Newcastle is represented in the shape of one large demountable building that cooks in the summer and is freezing in the winter. That was the investment in capital that went into my local university.

In contrast, since a Labor government has been in power over $12 million has been invested in new infrastructure in that university. There is a new library with 24-hour access to deal with the needs of people trying to return to study while working, and balance that with their family responsibilities. They need to access the university safely at any time. There is a new teaching and nursing building, there is a new psychology building, there is a new sports science building—there is a new feel of passion for what higher education genuinely offers that has been inspired and has had life breathed into it by the dollars invested by this Labor government in tertiary education. So let us not for a second believe the mythology that has been perpetrated by those opposite.

The facts are that this government has absolutely committed to a strong university system. We have announced, in the budget just a couple of weeks ago, a two per cent efficiency dividend in 2014 and a 1.25 per cent efficiency dividend in 2015 on university funding. Would it not be wonderful if in this world there was always every resource that you needed, but the reality is that we have made a call—and I deeply understand this from my years as a teacher—that to ask for this from a sector that has received a 75 per cent increase in funding since 2007, from $3.5 billion to over $6.1 billion under this government, is to ask for a small thing, from a sector that has seen its assets and opportunities grow, in order that money might go to schools which we can no longer deny are sites of terrible inequity in this country.

Ten years ago, children in this country started school in kindergarten. Now those children who are from low-SES backgrounds, are Aboriginal or are in remote areas or who had language from another country in their background as they were approaching school are far too often hitting grade 9 but performing at year 6 or 7 level, behind their friends, behind kids who have had advantages that they were just unfortunate enough not to be born into. The reality is that we need to address that need right at the very early part of school education. The fact is that there are children in classrooms where teachers can absolutely diagnose, where parents can diagnose, where kids can diagnose, that they need assistance but who are currently unable to get it.

In the last seven years, we have looked over a new golden age, a Labor government inspired golden age, for the tertiary sector. We have invested money and grown the sector, grown the opportunities, massively increased participation, with 190,000 more places open, 190,000 young Australians who are studying. The reality is, though, that behind them is a group of students whose literacy, numeracy and capacity to end up getting into university is so compromised by underfunding that is only going to get worse and worse as the old Howard broken model continues. We have made a decision for two years to ask for the big brother, the big sister, the university sector, to forgo a two per cent and then a 1.25 per cent dividend while its fees are still increasing to allow us to make sure that young Australians starting school will be guaranteed a decent education no matter what school they go to. It is the Labor way. It is fairness. It is stronger. And it is smarter.

Comments

No comments