Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The other side can yell all they like and they can verbal Labor figures all they like. I have heard that the former member for Rankin has been verballed today. And might I say that the former member for Rankin has made it quite clear that he believes that the Senate should knock back this outrageous bill. I stand with the former member for Rankin on that perspective because this bill and every bill that has preceded it and every attempt that this shambolic minister has made to try to change the face of higher education in this country and to wind the clock back to pre-Whitlam and every single attempt that has been made to attack the very foundations of our higher education system has been an utter disgrace not just because of the effect on the lives of individual working class and middle class kids—because we are talking about individual working class and middle class kids—but because of the effect that these changes will have on our economy as a whole.

We all know that we have a changing economy. If you just look at what is being said out there, what business is saying about the skills that are going to be needed for the future, what our science community is saying about the science needs of the future, what our information technology specialists are saying, we all know that high-skill jobs are the way of the future. In this country, if you want to get a higher education, you should be able to get one, provided you have got the hard work and the aptitude. If you want to get a vocational education, you ought to be able to get one, provided you have got the hard work and the attitude.

This country ought to be a country of opportunity, not the false opportunity, not the sham opportunity of the Liberal Party, who just mean opportunity for the very rich. They do not care about the middle class. They do not care about the working class. They only mean opportunity for their friends and themselves. It ought to be the genuine opportunity that comes from living in a strong economy, in an economy where governments actually tackle unemployment, not throw their hands up about it, in an economy where people can get a higher education, a vocational education or a quality school education—regardless of which part of the country or city they live in—and where they can get a quality early education. That is the sort of society that delivers real prosperity and real benefits. That is the sort of society where you can put a curb on the growing inequality which, as I say, threatens future growth and threatens, more to that point, peace, security, the Australian way of life, the prosperity of our people and the ability for people to get a job, regardless of whether they have got a higher education or a vocational education, because a job depends on a strong economy. A low unemployment rate depends on a strong economy.

All of these things are linked. It is not possible to take these rotten changes in isolation and say, 'It's all right. It's okay if you have to have a debt the size of a second mortgage to get a university degree. It's okay if we hold 1,700 scientific jobs hostage to get our changes that we want through the Senate.' Those things are not okay. Those things are not the way that this country does business when it comes to ensuring that our people, that the people who live and work here, get the higher education, the vocational education, the school education and the early education that they deserve as a matter of right because they are Australian citizens. (Time expired)

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