Emma Comer (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Accessible education is paramount to the Australian way of life. It provides opportunity and levels the playing field for those who are not born into privilege. As someone who has previously served on their university council, I've seen firsthand some of the challenges faced by this sector and, as such, I am proud to speak in favour of the Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025. It presents the next stage of tertiary education reform, building on the significant progress already made across the university sector.

The Australian Universities Accord has been an extraordinary piece of work and one of the most important reviews in higher education in our nation's history. It was tasked with a clear and ambitious mission: to take an honest look at Australia's higher education system and to develop a long-term plan for reform—not a short-term fix, not a piecemeal response, but a blueprint for the decades ahead.

The accord's message is simple, direct and impossible to ignore. If Australia is to prosper in the years ahead, participation, performance and investment in tertiary education must improve. Our future economic strength and national resilience all depend on it. The review makes clear that a strong tertiary education system is not a luxury. It is fundamental to generating the knowledge, skills and research our nation needs. It underpins productivity, drives innovation and ensures Australia can compete in an increasingly complex global economy.

The accord recognises that tertiary education is about more than universities alone. It is about people at every stage of life having access to learning opportunities that allow them to upskill, retrain and adapt to our economic changes. The accord confronts hard truths about the inequity in our system. It shows that talent is spread evenly across the country but opportunity is not. It challenges us to build a system that genuinely opens doors for students from low-socioeconomic backgrounds, First Nations students, people in regional and outer suburban communities, and those who have traditionally been left behind.

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