Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Calm down, Member for Bass. I know you are upset about how I pinged you before. The other problem we have about education is the unfairness for women who take time off to start and to raise a family. They know these costs are impossible for mature age students. The students of Australia and their families, they know this government is fundamentally changing access to universities. They understand Australians. They understand exactly what this government is doing. For months and months, this education minister has been asking the divisive dog-whistling question: why should the 60 per cent of taxpayers who do not attend university contribute to the 40 per cent who do? Why should those who have not been to university contribute to the fees of those who do? The answer is simple, Minister for Education. Not all Australians are like you. They do not believe that education is just a private privilege; they believe it is a public benefit.

Australian university graduates also pay for their education not just through HECS but through their economic and social contribution. They pay to their countries and they pay to their communities. Now we see that the changes the government are making are indeed creating anxiety. The numbers at open days and the numbers of potential enrolments are down. Why should the future doctors and nurses who will keep us healthy, the teachers who will educate our children, the architects, engineers and city planners who will shape our infrastructure, the scientists who will make discoveries that will determine our future health and opportunity all be slugged with doubling and tripling of their university fees?

Australians are smart enough and generous enough to reject Liberal ideology. They understand that greater access to higher education is in fact an advantage to all of us. I have never met a parent or a grandparent who had not gone to university who begrudged the chance for their child or their grandchild to go to university. I have never met a parent or a grandparent who complains about the taxes they pay because their loved ones are getting a better start in life than they had. Anyway, we are in this debate now and higher education is absolutely one of the issues for the next election. The next election will be a referendum on the best ideas and the real vision for a prosperous and fair Australia—absolutely.

Nothing is more important to the future prosperity of our nation than education. We believe in affordable education which is accessible to all Australians. That is why we will fight to stop Tony Abbott's plan for $100,000 degrees and more. We will never support a two-tier, Americanised higher education system which divides between different levels in our society and entrenches disadvantage. This Minister for Education loves to talk about 80,000 scholarships. But he never talks about the 700,000 domestic students currently enrolled. He is proposing to provide 80,000 scholarships, but students in the remaining difference between 700,000 and 80,000 are going to pay more fees. This is not a bargain. This is a tricky, slippery Minister for Education who loves to talk about one aspect of his package but never tells the full picture.

Let's look at what the government want to do in higher education. We have seen the Minister the Education propose doubling the rate of HECS repayments. Imagine if what we did in Australia on home interest rates before an election was say, 'No problem,' and after an election, upon forming a government, we said, 'We want to double the rate of payment.' That is what this government, this education minister and Tony Abbott have done. They are changing the interest rate for HECS payments for nearly one million Australians.

This government love to talk about debt and deficit. They never talk about the debt and deficit they are putting onto ordinary Australians and their families. Labor will never consign Australians to generations of debt on higher education. Labor will never tell Australians that the quality of their education depends upon their capacity to pay. I love hearing the government members crow in disagreement and feigned outrage. Because what they know and we know and the Australian people know is that this government cannot be trusted on higher education. However loudly they complain about what we say, it does not change the truth of what we are saying.

Make no mistake: for higher education, the game is on. We will talk to every student. We will talk to every family member of every student. We will talk to the parents of secondary students. We will talk to everyone who is interested in higher education. There will be a choice at the next election. There will be a choice between this government issuing students a debt sentence by deregulating universities to the point where students simply cannot afford to go to university—shame, government, shame— (Time expired)

See this speech in context