Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This debate goes to the very heart of what kind of country we want to be. It's not just a conversation about universities, about commissions or, indeed, about funding models. It is a conversation about opportunity, about fairness and about the future of young people in our communities. For generations, education has been an important driver of social mobility in Australia. It is how children from families across the country become doctors, teachers, engineers, scientists, nurses, social workers and leaders. It strengthens our community, it helps our economy grow, and it makes sure that we have people working in the industries that we need.

Despite its importance, our government is very aware that, for too many Australians, higher education does still feel out of reach. Cost-of-living pressures, rising rents, insecure work and student debt make university feel like a risk instead of the opportunity that it can be, and that is why these reforms matter. Because Labor understands that tertiary education is not a luxury. It is nation-building infrastructure. Labor understands that investing in skills today is how we secure prosperity tomorrow. Labor understands that education changes not just individual lives but whole communities.

The universities accord, which our government developed, is a blueprint for a stronger and fairer Australia, and these bills that we have before us—the Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025 and the Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025—give that blueprint a permanent institutional foundation. They establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission as a steward of our tertiary system—a body that will ensure our system is fair, coordinated, forward looking and focused on people—not just providers.

As I mentioned, our government commissioned the universities accord because we knew that the higher education system really is the bedrock of so much in our country, but it needed help. After a decade of those opposite—who really had no plan for higher education and who certainly had no plan for how students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds would access higher education—we knew that we needed a systemic look at how this system operated, so we commissioned and we released the final report of the Australian Universities Accord. We need to be very clear that this is not a short-term fix. It's not just political slogans. This is a long-term national plan for the next decade and, indeed, for the decade after that.

The accord we received tells us something stark and unavoidable, which is that the jobs of the future will require more skills. It tells us that, over the coming decades, about 80 per cent of jobs will require a certificate, diploma or degree. That means more Australians, not fewer, will need access to TAFE and to university. It means more people will need the chance to retrain, to reskill and upskill throughout their working lives, and it means, if we do nothing, skills shortages will grow, inequality will widen and economic growth will stall. These are things that I have conversations about over and over again with people in my electorate, with grandparents and parents who are looking at their children and thinking about what their future will be, who want to see that those young people do have the opportunities that a good education provided them and who want to know that the industries and jobs we need for the future will have the workers that should be there.

These are very important reforms, and that's why our government has not waited. We have implemented 31 of the 47 recommendations of the universities accord, in part or in full. We have already doubled the number of university study hubs, with 20 new regional hubs and 14 new suburban hubs. This brings higher education closer to students who cannot easily relocate or commute. We do have one established in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, in Epping, not far from my electorate. Again, the idea is that we are spreading the benefits of higher education, making it accessible to people who otherwise would not be able to reach these places to study. We've expanded free university bridging courses, opening the door for people who may not have had the chance to go straight from school to university.

We have introduced paid prac for the first time for teaching nursing, midwifery and social work students so that people are not having to choose between paying their rent and completing their degree. Again, I have heard from my community how important this reform has been for so many people, particularly women, who often are studying to be part of these caring professions and who, in fact, find themselves being economically disadvantaged by taking up a profession that all of us rely on. That has been a very important reform—to have paid prac. We've required higher education providers to direct at least 40 per cent of student services and amenities fees to student led organisations. We've made demand driven, Commonwealth supported places available to all First Nations students who meet entry requirements, and we've established the National Student Ombudsman and a national code to prevent and respond to gender based violence, ensuring campuses are safe and respectful environments.

We have also done a lot of work to make HECS better and fairer. Again, I know this has been felt in my community. We have cut 20 per cent off all student debts. We have capped indexation to the lower of CPI or WPI, lifted the minimum repayment threshold and moved to a marginal repayment system. On top of all of these recommendations, we've made free TAFE permanent, ensuring people in our communities can skill-up for the jobs of the future.

Locally, I've been really pleased to see this being accelerated by our $50 million investment to establish a TAFE centre of excellence for housing construction at Melbourne Polytechnic in Heidelberg West, supporting local jobs, addressing skills shortages and helping to deliver the homes our community needs.

I see and my community sees how these reforms are already playing out, already making a difference and already opening doors for students who once felt locked out of the opportunity of higher education, giving people the confidence to invest in themselves, helping us as a country to make sure that we have the workforce we need for the future and helping to make sure that we sustain what is so important in our country—that opportunity that comes with education. That opportunity should not be linked to how much the family you come from earns.

At the heart of the universities accord is the idea that Australia does need a national steward of tertiary education. We have had a fragmented system for too long. Our universities, our TAFEs and our regulators have operated in silos. For the world that I've described—a world where we will need more people with skills, where people will need to upskill throughout their working life—that sort of system no longer serves us well. Students have faced confusing pathways, inconsistent funding and uneven support, so the accord recommended the creation of the Australian Tertiary Education Commission to bring strategy, coordination and long-term planning to the system.

These bills establish ATEC as an independent statutory authority. To help deliver the future tertiary system Australia needs one that is equitable, joined up, responsive to skills needs and focused on student support. It will help us reach the 80 per cent attainment target by encouraging diversity, providing expert evidence based advice to governments, monitoring skills and equity targets and, as I said, helping to deliver a joined-up tertiary system that brings higher education and vocational education together.

This is a critical service that I think will improve our universities. Locally, I know for universities like Latrobe University in my community, with its strong focus on health education, regional outreach and first-in-family students, this will mean recognition of the vital community role it plays. For institutions like the University of Melbourne, with its global research leadership, it will mean support to continue driving innovation, medical breakthroughs and economic growth for the nation. This is not about forcing universities into a single mould, but it is about building a diverse, collaborative system that reflects our communities and our workforce needs now and into the future.

The ATEC will implement a new funding model that is fairer and more targeted. It will provide demand driven places for equity students at a system level and needs based funding based on the number of low-SES students, First Nations students and regional campus students. This is how we close participation gaps and how we lift completion rates. It is how we ensure that talent, not background, determines success. And, as I said, the ATEC will also provide advice to government on policy settings and strategic direction, making sure that we are getting that joined-up picture. It will publish a 'state of the tertiary education system' report tracking performance, identifying challenges and setting out opportunities for future reform. I also acknowledge that this is not a one-and-done situation; there is more work for us to do to make sure that our higher-education system is meeting the needs of students and allowing students to get the skills and qualifications they need now and into the future.

The conversations I have about higher education in my community are about learning, about jobs and about opportunities for the future. People in my community are really aware that higher education is also the pathway to a more secure life. It can help open the doors to homeownership. It can help people feel like they have a stable and prosperous future ahead of them. So I was very proud to see our government cut 20 per cent off all student debt, including for nearly 23,000 people in my electorate of Jagajaga. I was proud to see us make free TAFE permanent, making a real difference for students at our local Greensborough and West Heidelberg Melbourne Polytechnic campuses and right across the country. For students in my community, this means no or lower repayments, less financial stress and a real chance to save for a home, start a family or invest in the future.

I have had this conversation; I do hear this time and time again from people in my community at all generations. It is something that parents, grandparents and young people are talking to me about. This is a continuing conversation about how we make sure young people in our communities can aspire to a good life and the stability and aspiration of knowing that there are good jobs ahead of them, knowing that they can look at secure homeownership and knowing that they can play an important part in our communities going forward. This bill does a lot more than just set up a body to look at our higher education system. This bill makes sure that we are getting the foundations right for young people to have those opportunities—to feel like they have a government that understands and cares how important it is for them to have that sense of opportunity, that sense of community and the sense of a government and a community that wants them to have good lives.

It would be remiss of me to say that those opposite share this government's view of a future for young people in that way. Their record shows that they did not back our universities. They did not back opportunity. They've said that students should just pay their debts. They've called our plan elitist. They cut funding to education institutions, and they undermined equity. It was clear over the decade that those opposite were in power that they see education as a cost, whereas we on this side, Labor, see education as an investment. They have opposed opportunity; we have defended it and we are trying to enhance it. Our government will always choose fairness, opportunity and young people in our community and their future, and that is what these bills are about. These bills are about the future of higher education and about the kind of nation we want to be. They're about backing our students, strengthening our universities and investing in the communities that rely on them. These bills do recognise that education is not just a personal opportunity but a national asset, one that underpins our economy, our workforce and our social cohesion.

We are getting on with the job: establishing the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, implementing the recommendations of the universities accord and placing students back at the centre of our system, where they should be—building a system that is fairer, more sustainable and fit for the future. Our government's clear message is: in Australia, opportunities should be earned by effort, not determined by background, postcode or family income. Young people should not be locked out of higher education because of who they are or where they come from, and these bills help us to make sure that that is the Australia of the future.

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