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

On the point that I was making, let me go back to the point that you've raised. It's all part of the one system that we need reform of. We want to make it easier for young people to get a degree cheaper and faster, particularly if you've been to TAFE, so that you can potentially get a year off your degree and save, potentially, $10,000 off the cost of a qualification. Some universities are doing that already. We want more to.

I also want to make it easier for young people to get a crack at a university degree, full stop. About 50 per cent of young people today in their 30s have got a uni degree, but not everywhere. In an electorate like yours, it's about 70 per cent. In an electorate like mine, it's about 30 per cent. I want to change that. The legislation I'll introduce in a couple of weeks says that if you're a young person from a poor family or from the bush and you've got what it takes, you'll get a place at university.

On the point of indexation, we've already made some important changes to the way HECS is indexed, and that had important benefits for young people right across the country. I know you're also concerned about the job-ready graduates system and how all of that works. I hope you noted that today I announced that Professor Barney Glover has been appointed as the Chief Commissioner of the Tertiary Education Commission. A bloke with a big brain and a big heart. Nobody understands the tertiary education system better than him. He helped to draft the accord, and now he's going to help to build it, including the recommendations that you've pointed to in your questions. Professor Stephen Duckett, incidentally, has also been appointed to the Tertiary Education Commission and is doing work in this area as well, particularly around the cost of teaching and learning. I recognise that in that area, and in so many more, there is a lot of unfinished business and there's more work to do.

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