Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

Can you believe this government? They just try to find every possible way they can to outsource decision-making to bureaucracy, to regulators or to anyone but themselves because they don't like taking responsibility for making decisions, especially for making hard decisions. That's why they want to set up this body, the Australian Tertiary Education Commission.

Why can't the minister do the role that the Australian Tertiary Education Commission will do? Why can't the minister make the decisions that are needed to make sure that our public university system continues to deliver for Australians? It's because he doesn't want to. He wants to hide behind three faceless regulators. In the end he'll be facing a real dilemma. He knows that, because you've wasted so much money, there's no money that he can get for the system. So he's saying to these people, 'Okay, you're going to have to find me money so I can pursue priorities.'

What does that mean? Well, it means he's faced with some very, very difficult choices because we changed the higher education funding system in 2021. It was funny because the Minister for Education was out today in question time saying we need to do more when it comes to nurses, to teachers, to engineers and to scientists, and he said that what we need to be doing is making sure we're getting more of those graduates. Well, what did we do under the Job-ready Graduates Package? We cut the cost of degrees in all those areas where we need people to be job ready and go into the workforce—nursing, teaching, science, IT and engineering. We cut the cost of their degrees. Now this has presented a real dilemma for those of you on the government side because you don't know what to do about it now, do you? So what you're going to do is outsource it to three bureaucrats and hope that they can come up with a solution because the minister will not take responsibility for owning up and making the hard decisions that he needs to make.

Not only did we do that but we increased funding for the sector by more than $2 billion. You don't hear that said much by those opposite, but, from 2020 to 2021, funding for universities went over $20 billion. That was an increase of over $2 billion. You do not hear anything from that side about that. You do not hear about the record investment we made into research. The amount of money we put into research had never, ever been done in Australian history. You hear nothing from those on that side about that. We also increased the number of places available for Australian students. Thirty thousand new places were made available. Importantly—and this was real reform, which, once again, you never hear mentioned by those opposite—50,000 short course places were funded, so we started to change the nature of higher education. People could look at doing short courses so they could upskill in a very quick way and didn't have to spend a fortune when they were at university.

These are all the reforms that we did when we were in government. They weren't easy, and those opposite opposed them the whole way, but this was real reform which the government was prepared to take responsibility for. Yet what have we seen from those opposite? 'Oh, we don't want to be involved in real reform. We don't want to take the hard decisions, so we're going to get three regulators to do it.' In a sector which comes and says all the time, 'We're overregulated,' you're going to put more regulators in place. How does that make sense at all?

It's going to cost $54 million. Think of what that $54 million could do. Just think, for instance, of what $54 million could deliver for communities like those in Cook or Wannon, whether it be for sporting infrastructure, higher education infrastructure, looking after aged care or looking after our schools. This money, $54 million, could be used to deliver real outcomes on the ground, not to set up another commission.

What else did we do through those higher ed reforms? We set up the tertiary access payment, which meant that there were payments to enable low-socioeconomic people to go to university. What has happened to that tertiary access payment scheme? They cut it. Now the minister's putting in place a similar scheme, but he cut the scheme that was already there and was already working, the tertiary access payment scheme—real reform that we put in place so low-socioeconomic people could access higher education and, in particular, access those cheaper degrees in the areas where we actually need skills and we need people and we need to encourage demand. That's what those tertiary access payments were all about, and they were cut by those opposite.

What we now need to see is the minister actually doing something. He's great at coming up here to the dispatch box, and we all find him slightly amusing with his iterations. He tells his fireside chat stories, and we find it quite amusing, but we all sit there and say: 'When is he actually going to make a decision? When is he actually going to do something? When is he going to continue proper reform of the higher education system because the world is moving and the nature of higher education is moving?' We need more short courses. We need to make sure that, in areas like AI, we're enabling people to skill up quickly to take advantage of it and develop their career paths in these areas.

How long have they been in government now? Over four years, or nearly four years. And what have we got? We're now trying to set up a commission to do this, so for four years very little has happened, and it's about time the minister said: 'I don't need more regulators and bureaucrats doing things. I'm going to take responsibility and continue to drive our higher education system so we have the best higher education system in the world.' That's what we should be aiming for: putting money into research; making sure that our teaching standards are impeccable; and young Australians knowing, when they get a degree, that it's value for money, they're going to walk out and they're going to be wanted by employers so that they have a job. But we're not getting that.

I will say this to the minister: if you want to get an idea of what good government policy leads to and what outcomes you can get from good government policy, come down to my electorate. I had the pleasure, a couple of weeks ago, of taking the shadow health minister, Anne Ruston, to visit a couple of the universities in my electorate, and what I was able to show her is what good policy leads to. The first place I took her was the Deakin University School of Medicine. There, they have the most wonderful facilities for teaching postgrad medicine and for teaching nursing. When we were in government, we understood that, if we were to address the shortfalls of doctors and nurses in regional and rural areas, then we had to educate the students in regional and rural areas, and that's exactly what Deakin is doing in Warrnambool.

I say to all those on that side: do yourselves a favour. Come down to Warrnambool and have a look. Iain Martin, the vice-chancellor, would be happy to take you around and show you these outstanding facilities. They've done a brilliant job. If we can make sure that it continues to get funded, then we will be able to ensure that, right through western Victoria and into the south-east and South Australia, we'll have the medical workforce that we need. At the moment, we don't, so we've got to keep making sure that we're funding the Warrnambool Deakin campus to provide the doctors and the nurses that we need.

The second thing I was able to do was take the shadow minister to Willaura, where there is a wonderful aged-care facility—but it needs investment. The state government—and it's one of the few things that I can say about the Victorian state Labor government that is at all positive—has put money into redeveloping the Willaura Aged Care facility, which works incredibly well with the Ararat hospital and with the Ballarat hospital. They work in conjunction with each other, and it enables them to make sure that patient flow works very well in that area. The Victorian state government have funded the Willaura Aged Care upgrade, but they've funded it 50 per cent. One of the things I'm hoping for, given that has happened, is that the Albanese Labor government will now match that 50 per cent. I'll be making representations to the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors and the Minister for Health and Ageing so that that can happen.

We also met with two wonderful individuals, who were nominated for Australian of the Year, who have set up One Red Tree. One Red Tree is about taking people who are studying psychiatry and psychology, especially at Federation University, and making sure that they've got placements right through western Victoria. It's outstanding work that One Red Tree are doing, and it's so outstanding now that, when we get a headspace for Ararat—and we need a headspace for Ararat. One of the things which is often put is that there is a shortage of making sure you've got the psychologists and psychiatrists to be able to offer the services that a headspace needs. Well, we have no issues when it comes to psychologists because of the work that One Red Tree has done.

I was very pleased to be able to show the shadow health minister the work that they've done, and I commend her because she has also made representations to headspace, as a result, about the need for Ararat to be able to get a headspace. It's something the community has been advocating incredibly strongly for. We've got important work that One Red Tree are doing in our schools to help with the mental health of young people in the area, but we need the follow-up to make sure that we can get headspace into Ararat and those services can go to the next level. So I say to the government—and I've made representations to the minister on behalf of the Ararat community—it's time that headspace was delivered to Ararat.

So if I could just conclude by saying that we do not need another bureaucracy in the higher education sector. We do not. The Australian Tertiary Education Commission is just an excuse for the minister, who does not want to make a hard decision and who loves being loved, but does not want to make any hard decisions. Well, Minister, that's what you're paid the big bucks for—to actually make the tough decisions, not to outsource them. Not only that but think about what that $54 million could go to if it doesn't get spent on setting up this bureaucracy.

As I've said, in the communities of Wannon—and I'm sure it's the same in the communities of Cook—there are real-life outcomes that could be changed with that $54 million, and I mentioned a few, but I'll mention the one in particular that I referred to. That money could fund a new headspace centre in Ararat. That is a community that needs those mental health resources and it needs them desperately, and the community has come together and articulated that. It wouldn't require all that $54 million. As a matter of fact, it would only require about three, and the community would put resources in as well.

So forget about your Australian Tertiary Education Commission. It is not needed. Spend that $54 million on something which will change lives in communities because that's what this nation needs at the moment. The money that is being wasted by this government—which is driving up inflation, driving up interest rates and leaving communities desperate for services—has to stop. It's about time you got your priorities right.

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