Zhi Soon (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Since the federal election last year, I have had the pleasure of serving as a member of the House Standing Committee on Education, and I am so pleased to rise in support of the Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025 and the Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025.

Early in 2024, the government released the final report of the Australian Universities Accord. It is a blueprint for higher education reform over the next two decades. The report identified the absence of a dedicated steward as a critical gap in the tertiary education system and its ability to plan for future needs, improve equity and quality outcomes, and deliver on national priorities. The legislation before the House responds to this gap and implements one of the report's key recommendations. The accord's report notes that in the years ahead more jobs are going to require more skills and that, to meet the needs of our economy, we will need to increase the proportion of people in the workforce who hold a certificate, a diploma or a degree to about 80 per cent. This inevitably means more students completing qualifications at our universities and at our TAFEs.

The challenge we face as a government is how we set our tertiary education system up to meet the growing demand for higher education needed to satisfy the future skills needs of our country. The reforms contained in the bills before the House are part of this Labor government's answer. The primary bill establishes the Australian Tertiary Education Commission as a steward of the tertiary system. The commission will help deliver the reforms to our system that are needed to meet our future skills needs and reach that 80 per cent target by encouraging greater diversity amongst higher education providers, providing expert advice to government on higher education policy settings, monitoring targets and helping to deliver a joined-up system that makes it easier for students to get the qualifications they need.

On a more technical level, the bill provides for the commission's structure, led by three independent expert commissioners, each appointed by the Minister for Education for a period of up to five years. Collectively, these commissioners will bring a balance of expertise and experience across higher education, vocational education and tertiary governance.

The formal independence of the commission will be one of its key strengths, making decisions grounded in evidence and transparency. The commission will have a range of advisory and decision-making functions encompassing negotiation, mission based compacts with providers in the sector, provision of advice on requests to state and federal ministers, and making recommendations on updates to the Higher Education Standards Framework.

It is also intended that future legislation will allow the commission to allocate managed growth and needs based funding for domestic student places through higher education institutions as well as provide a framework for allocating international student commencements when directed by the government. The mission based compacts are an interesting concept and will be one of the key mechanisms for the commission's engagement with higher education providers. The purpose of compacts is to enable providers to demonstrate how their institution's core purpose and goals align with national, state and local priorities as well as industry engagement and innovations in teaching and learning, serving as a structured framework for interaction between providers and the commission. Such an approach will ensure national priorities and outcomes are met while still enabling higher education providers to pursue unique goals and missions of their own.

These compacts are not without enforcement capabilities. Each will include a limited but meaningful set of performance objectives agreed collaboratively with the commission. Additionally, if a compact with the commission is not in force for a year, this could lead to enforcement action being taken under the Higher Education Support Act.

Importantly, this government is focused on making sure that people from backgrounds where they previously might not have gone on to higher education can find their place in the system. This legislation places equity at the core of the commission's work by requiring the improvement of outcomes for persons facing significant systemic barriers, including but not limited to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, people with disabilities and people living in regional and rural communities. The bill provides the commission with the power to advise on improving participation from such groups.

It should be noted that this concept is not being implemented untested. The interim commission began its work on 1 July last year, led by Professor Mary O'Kane, Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt and Professor Barney Glover. They have been working hard to lay the foundations for the permanent establishment of the commission. Professor Tom Calma and the Hon. Fiona Nash have recently been appointed commissioners, replacing Professor O'Kane and Distinguished Professor Behrendt as the commission continues to move forward. I'd also like to take the opportunity to thank all the hardworking higher education professionals who we will be relying on to do the work involved in achieving our skills goals, as well as the representatives in my state: the National Tertiary Education Union, the Teachers Federation and the United Workers Union.

This government believes that, in order to achieve the goals we are setting—the experts tell us what we need to meet them—we have to set up our tertiary education system for the future. However, we must do so with a view to supporting students. The government has taken the needs of tertiary education students seriously, and the results are clear. At the most recent election, we made a clear promise that the first piece of legislation we would pass in the 48th Parliament would be a bill to take 20 per cent off the student debt balance of every single Australian who had one. This included cutting the debt of more than 20,000 people in my electorate of Banks. This side of the House recognises that the HECS system needs reform, and we are delivering it. By capping indexation on HECS debts to the lower of the CPI and the WPI, moving to a marginal repayment system and raising the minimum repayment threshold, we are making the system better and fairer for all.

We also know that, for many students, even once they make it to university, there are barriers that prevent them from reaching their full academic potential. The government's network of suburban and regional university study hubs offers an innovative solution to improving access by bringing universities closer to their students. They provide study spaces and support to navigate administration and improve academic skills, as well as general student wellbeing, for any student who might need it. These spaces have been a tremendous success, and this government is doubling the number of university study hubs by establishing 20 new regional hubs and 14 new suburban ones.

The government understands that not everybody needs to go to university to get the qualifications that they need, and we are determined to ensure that Australians can lead successful lives without the need for a university degree. This is why the government established fee-free TAFE in the last term of parliament to make sure that students could get their qualifications in sectors with incredibly high demand without being saddled with debt. The results speak for themselves: more than 700,000 students across the country have enrolled since the start of this program. While some people in this place like to talk down this program, it is saving Australian students thousands of dollars and helping to fill our major skills shortages in the care, early childhood education and construction sectors. That is why this government legislated to make fee-free TAFE permanent.

This government has also recognised that if we want to see more students taking up courses for in-demand skills, we need to support them more effectively while they are undertaking their education. For students in courses including teaching nursing, midwifery and social work, completing mandatory placements meant stopping their regular employment. In some cases, it created a significant barrier to completing their courses and entering the workforce. From July last year, 73,000 students from across Australia have been eligible for the government's paid prac payment, the first ever financial support of its kind. To support construction and clean energy apprentices, payments of $10,000 assist with their studies.

These measures all form part of the government's broader higher education agenda. When we look at the accord's recommendations, this Labor government, this Albanese government, has implemented 31 of the 47 recommendations in full or in part. Further measures include increasing the number of free university bridging courses, requiring higher education providers to allocate a minimum of 40 per cent of student services and amenities fees to student led organisations, making demand driven Commonwealth support places available to all First Nations students where they have the marks to get in, and making campuses safer by introducing the National Student Ombudsman and the National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence. This is an agenda that is achieving results in Australia for Australian students.

I spoke in my first speech to this House about my passion for education and making sure its transformational power is felt by as many young people as possible across our great country. Education policy is something I spent a large part of my career working on prior to coming to this place. I am so proud to be part of a government with an agenda for education that will deliver in the tertiary system. It's delivering record investments in public education in the biggest commitment by any Australian government ever in order to fully fund every single public school in Australia by increasing the share of funding provided by the federal government. It's delivering greater access to early childhood education and getting fees down for parents to make sure that students, our young ones, our young kids, are ready to start school. Of course, as I've spoken about already, it's delivering higher education policy that works for Australian students by cutting student debt, paying students during their mandatory placements and, with the legislation before the House today, establishing a commission to make sure that the higher education system is working on filling our national skills gap and the advancement of our students across the country.

See this speech in context