Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Higher Education Support Legislation Amendment (A More Sustainable, Responsive and Transparent Higher Education System) Bill 2017. What can one say about a government that is hell-bent on deliberately cutting funding to university education? It is hard to believe that the Abbott and Turnbull governments have done and are doing to Australian universities and university students.

When the Turnbull government announced they were going to cut university funding by $3.8 billion over four years and lower the payment threshold for students, I thought the member for Warringah, Tony Abbott, was Prime Minister again. This is the same outrageously unfair university package that the Abbott government tried to sell in 2014. All the Turnbull government has done is wrap up the same unfair package in glossy paper and put a fancy tinsel bow on top. No-one is fooled. Everyone can smell this bill for what it really is: an attack on the less fortunate in our community because it promotes elitist education.

Time and time again, coalition governments want to attack universities and university students. For the life of me, I simply cannot understand why, especially when the majority of the Turnbull government front bench have benefitted from a free university education thanks to the Whitlam Labor government. The majority of coalition frontbenchers attended university between 1974 and 1988, when students did not pay any fees. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and front bench members such as Attorney-General George Brandis, Minister for Defence Marise Payne and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott are among those who attended university when a university education was free. In total, eight Turnbull government ministers were at university when students were not charged fees, while another eight would have had at least one year of free university education. Why is this noteworthy? It points to the absolute hypocrisy of the Turnbull government frontbenchers who have benefitted from a free education at university but who want to make savage cuts to universities and students by raising the costs of their degrees and lowering the income threshold.

The Turnbull government will not allow anyone else to reap the same benefits from a university education as they have done. Their degrees have given them greater earning capacity and career opportunities than those people who have not had the opportunity to gain a university qualification. Universities Australia's chief executive, Belinda Robinson, said:

… the Australian community could see it made no sense to cut university funding at a time of rapid and dramatic economic change.

Ms Robinson also said that the government's plan to cut funding to universities is 'way out of kilter with community sentiment'. She went on to say:

Voters don’t want to see cuts to universities – which are key drivers of economic growth – because they create new jobs, reskill Australians and secure $24 billion a year in export income.

Universities and their students have already contributed almost $4 billion to repair the Budget over the last six years. Clearly, the Australian community is saying enough is enough: no more uni cuts.

According to a 2012 report by the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, based at the University of Canberra, people with university qualifications are likely to earn more than $1 million more than those without degrees. The irony of this is that a number of the Turnbull government's members started their careers in politics at university. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott enrolled in a combined economics/law degree at the University of Sydney in 1976 and became president of the student representative council in 1978. Nine years later, former treasurer Joe Hockey also became student representative council president at the University of Sydney. Minister for Environment and Energy Josh Frydenberg was President of the Monash Law Student Society. Most politicians have had access to a quality university education that has delivered them myriad benefits, and it is time the Turnbull government put all of today's students at the heart of their policies.

The Group of Eight comprises Australia's top eight universities. A number of the Turnbull government members have attended a Go8 university, so one would think that they would take recommendations made by the Go8 very seriously. Recently, the Group of Eight made a number of recommendations as a result of the independent review into regional, rural and remote education. Not surprisingly, the No. 1 recommendation was

That the Senate block the current Higher Education Reform Bill as this puts at risk a broad range of university capacity-building, including highly successful equity programs.

The same university that Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull attended is recommending that the Senate block his own legislation—recommendations wisely given but, sadly, falling on deaf ears.

The Group of Eight have also recommended that the federal government ensures that policies to support higher education outcomes for regional students are well designed and adequately and consistently funded. The federal government continues to invest in equity programs over the long term to support regional and remote students, including by increasing the value of the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program to $205.1 million per year as was forecast in Labor's 2012-13 budget for the 2015-16 year. They recommended that the federal government review eligibility criteria for youth allowance and other linked student income support programs to ensure that they provide an appropriate level of support for students from regional areas. There is absolutely no mention of cuts to university funding and no mention of drug testing for those people on Newstart or youth allowance. The members of the Turnbull government have received a big fail on their policy, a fail on their cuts and a fail on their plans for university, which were handed down by the universities that they attended.

The Turnbull government is cutting $401.8 million from Queensland universities. James Cook University in North Queensland will receive a cut of $37.1 million over four years. Teaching, student programs and university facilities will suffer as a result of these cuts. These cuts will damage Australia's research effort. There is an implicit cross-subsidy to research, accepted throughout the higher education sector, through the Commonwealth grants scheme and this comes on top of the government's attempts to abolish the $3.7 billion nation-building Education Investment Fund. Australia has the second-lowest level of public investment in universities in the OECD. These cuts will only make our record worse.

Our students already pay the sixth-highest fees in the OECD. The fee hikes in this bill will only make that record worse as well. Students will be put under pressure with higher fees and paying off larger debts sooner. Students will have to start paying back their loan when they are earning $42,000 instead of $54,869. The Higher Education Loan Program repayments will hit students at a time when they are trying to save for a house or start a family. Forty-two thousand dollars is approximately $6,000 more than the minimum wage.

Lowering the HELP repayment threshold, in combination with tax and transfer measures included in the 2017 budget, will mean that some graduates will face an effective marginal tax rate of more than 100 per cent. Graduates caught between these policies will experience considerable fiscal and financial stress. Graduates earning $51,000, most of whom are likely to be women, will have less disposable income than someone earning $32,000.

The Turnbull government's disastrous policies go beyond attacking university students. They are also attacking TAFE students. As a TAFE teacher in a previous life, I know just how unfair that truly is. But the government doesn't like to talk about this. The lower repayment threshold for HELP debt will also apply to TAFE and vocational students who took out VET FEE-HELP or VET student loans. This means that some of the hardest working but most modestly paid people in the country will be affected—for example, people with a diploma or advanced diploma qualification, such as early childhood educators, enrolled nurses and technicians.

What is even worse is the move by the Turnbull government to introduce fees for enabling courses, which provide essential skills and confidence to prepare students for university. Students who finish these courses have gone on to become nurses, accountants, doctors and lawyers. These students are overwhelmingly from disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds. These courses have been free, as they do not lead to a formal qualification. However, this government is trying to make these students pay $3,200 to sit in an enabling course. This shift is mean and unfair because we know that, for a majority of these students, fees and debt are a barrier to study.

And what impact will these cuts have on jobs? Universities support more than 130,000 jobs across Australia. Cuts to universities will put jobs at risk, especially in regional areas—like in James Cook University and Central Queensland University in Townsville. No-one, absolutely no-one, is in favour of the Turnbull government's university cuts. The peak body for universities, Universities Australia, said that an overwhelming majority of vice-chancellors could not recommend that the crossbench support this bill. The NTEU, the sector's union, is opposed to the bill because of the impact that the cuts and fee hikes will have on students. TAFEs are deeply concerned about the impact that changes will have on their ability to offer certain enabling and pathway courses. Student groups are fiercely opposed to increases in fees and changes to loan repayments.

It seems as though the only plan that the Turnbull government has for universities is to cut, cut, cut. It's simply in its DNA to cut education funding—for example, $17 billion in cuts to schools; $2.8 billion in cuts to TAFE, with a further cut of $637,000 in this year's budget; a $3.8 billion cut to Australian universities; and increases in fees and debts for students. The question is: why is this government so hell-bent on these cuts? It is because it wants to give a $65 billion tax cut to big business.

Labor governments are the only governments that will ever fight for a fair and properly funded education system. It is only Labor that has a history of delivering accessible and affordable education for all. Labor understands that governments are supposed to support universities to support students to support the jobs of the future. When Labor were last in government, we lifted investment in universities from $8 billion in 2007 to $14 billion in 2013. Labor also opened the doors to our universities for an additional 190,000 Australians, many of whom were the first in their family to attend university. Why did Labor lift participation in universities? It was because Labor understands that education is the cornerstone to innovation and our economic future. We know that many of the jobs of the future will require a postschool qualification. That's why cutting funding to TAFE and universities is one of the worst decisions a government can make.

Many parents across Australia see a university education as a necessary opportunity to give their children the best career options. Tertiary education is not only the right of a privileged few. If we are to be a nation that is ready for the challenges, innovations and jobs of the future, we must invest in education. The Turnbull government is out of touch in creating a situation where students are required to pay even more for their education while the government gives corporations making millions of dollars a tax cut. The Parliamentary Budget Office is predicting that student fees will soar by 40 per cent as universities recover the costs as a result of the Turnbull government's planned 20 per cent government funding cut.

The Turnbull government must stop recycling former Prime Minister Tony Abbott's policies. Nobody wants the zombified Abbott policies—they were scary enough the first time! Education is a human right. It is not for the few who can afford it. Education is for everyone. In particular, aspiration and access should not be based on your earning capacity or your parents' credit card. In the words chanted by some of the many passionate university students, 'BS, come off it. Our education is not for profit.'

See this speech in context