Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I thank all members for their contributions to this debate. The Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025 is a bill to establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, the ATEC. Establishing the ATEC is a key recommendation of the Australian Universities Accord, and it will be the job of the ATEC to help drive and steer the big reforms in the accord, like demand-driven equity places and needs based funding. It'll also independently negotiate compacts with individual universities. It'll get the sector to work more like a system and build connections between the vocational education and training and the higher education systems. It'll provide independent, expert advice, and it will help to drive real and lasting reform. That's what the ATEC is about.

I acknowledge in particular the members of the crossbench who've engaged with me in my office on this bill. I note the amendments circulated by the member for Kooyong and the member for Curtin; I know that tertiary education is an important issue for them and for their stakeholders. Although the government is not in a position to support the amendments offered at this time, I'm grateful for the thoughtful engagement on this and the universities accord reforms more broadly. I can indicate publicly, as I have privately, that I'll consider these amendments alongside the report of the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee when we receive that report, in just over two weeks time, and I note that their inquiry is currently underway. With that, I commend the bill to the House.

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