Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. Minister, how does the budget restore a fair balance between the contributions students and taxpayers make to the cost of higher education?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Some silence on my left. I call the honourable the Minister for Education.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to get a question from the member for Hasluck on higher education. This budget is all about spreading more opportunity to students around Australia to get the chance to have a higher education qualification. How are we doing that? We are doing it in three ways: through the biggest Commonwealth scholarships fund in Australia's history; by uncapping the diplomas and associate degree courses that universities, typically regional and rural universities, offer so that thousands more Australians will get the chance to do a pathways program into a higher education degree; and by expanding the Commonwealth Grants Scheme to nonuniversity higher education providers. These three measures on their own inject an adrenaline shot of competition into the system. More importantly, they will expand higher education opportunities to 80,000 more students around Australia.

In return, we are asking students to make a contribution to their own tuition fees. We are asking them to contribute, for those who enrol since 14 May, around 50-50 of the cost of their higher education. At the moment students contribute on average around 40 per cent, so that more than 60 per cent of Australians without a university degree are paying almost 60 per cent of the cost of those students who are at university and those students will go on to earn 75 per cent more than people without a university degree on average over the rest of their lifetime. So we think the current balance is not getting it right. We think a 40-60 balance between the taxpayer and the student is not fair to the taxpayer and all we are asking students to do is make a 50-50 contribution. I think that is a very fair contribution. You want to remember, Madam Speaker, that they can borrow every single dollar up-front and pay it back when they earn over $50,000 a year and only pay up to two per cent of their income once they start paying it back. It is a very generous deal.

But do not just take my word for it. The shadow Assistant Treasurer, the member for Canberra, wrote a book called Battlers and Billionaires. He and the government on the side of the battlers, the rest of the Labor Party are on the side of the billionaires. He said on page 79: 'Compared with someone who finished year 12 but has no postschool qualification, a diploma boosts earnings by nearly 20 per cent while a bachelor's degree boosts earnings by more than $1 million over a lifetime.' So the member for Canberra gets it. He gets the fact that he and the government are trying to rebalance the contribution that students and taxpayers make, while the Labor Party continues to stand up for students, not taxpayers.