Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. Will the minister update the House on the benefits to students of the government's expansion of the Commonwealth scholarships because of its higher education reform agenda?

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

I am very pleased to be able to tell the member for Grey that, because of the government's higher education reform agenda, there will be an enormous expansion of Commonwealth scholarships all around Australia, truly meaning that in fact thousands of young Australians will get free education for the first time under the government's higher education reform agenda. At the centre of this reform agenda is spreading opportunity to tens of thousands more students—80,000 by 2018 a year will get an opportunity to get a higher education qualification because of these reforms through a number of means. I can report to the House that today University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor Michael Spence announced that Sydney will increase their scholarships from 700 to 9,000 if the government's reform agenda passes—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

There will be silence on my left and right!

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

There will be 9,000 Commonwealth scholarships offered by one of Australia's prestige universities. In fact, one-third of undergraduate students at Sydney university would have a form of tuition and scholarship support under the government's higher education reform agenda. We hear from the Labor Party misty-eyed nostalgia about so-called free education under the Whitlamite agenda, but in fact this government through sound economic management, through a reform agenda in the budget, will deliver for thousands of students around Australia free education through Commonwealth scholarships earnt on the basis of merit and directed towards low-socioeconomic status students.

Tens of thousands of low-SES young people will get the chance to go to university either through the Commonwealth scholarships, through the expansion of the demand-driven system, through pathway programs that low-SES students typically use to get into university and through the expansion of the Commonwealth Grant Scheme to non-university higher education providers. Through a combination of these methods more young low-SES Australians will get the chance to improve their chances of getting a job and a higher income and making a contribution to our society.

That is the reason why the parliament should get behind our higher education reform agenda. I am glad to see the member for Fairfax here today because I know he wants to deliver free education to more young Australians through our Commonwealth scholarships program. Labor should get out of the way and start to listen to people who know something about higher education, like Michael Spence at the University of Sydney.