Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise today in support of the Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2015 and those measures contained within it.

We have before the House some important measures and also some measures that relate to the normal business of government. Unfortunately, these measures, which should have gone through the parliament two years ago, have been hijacked by the government in their ideological crusade to deregulate the Australian university system and usher in an era of $100,000 degrees instead of getting on with the normal business of government, which is what they should have been doing. Labor has had to call on those on the other side to uncouple the measures contained in this bill from their ideological attempt to deregulate the universities so that we can go ahead with these important measures. It is certainly pleasing that, finally, after two years, the government have listened to Labor's calls and are putting forward these important changes.

Australian universities, researchers and students have been taken hostage by the Abbott-Turnbull government while they have been pursuing their folly of deregulation—a folly that has not been supported by the Australian people. But today we can offer our support to the government for these sensible measures. In particular I would like to highlight Labor's support for the part of the legislation that expands access to the higher education loan scheme to New Zealand citizens who have been in Australia since childhood. This is an anomaly that does need to be fixed. I, along with many members on our side—and I am sure those on the other side—have been speaking with young people who came to Australia as New Zealand citizens and who have been locked out of the HELP scheme. I know the member for Rankin, who will speak after me, has been representing his constituents on this issue to ensure that those of New Zealand origin have the opportunity to take up a higher education qualification in Australia. Indeed, the member for Rankin and I have visited universities that have also indicated just how important this measure is.

Labor flagged in 2013 its intention to bring such a bill to the parliament. Unfortunately, we would have liked to have seen reform in this area much more quickly. However, as I mentioned, the government chose to bundle this reform in its plan to deregulate university fees, despite us and many people around Australia urging and pleading for the government to uncouple this reform from its plan. We have now finally got to the point of seeing this legislation being supported in legislation in this House. In June this year, Senator Kim Carr did introduce a private senators bill, the Higher Education Support Amendment (New Zealand Citizens) Bill 2015, to try and rectify this anomaly. Although the government did not support that bill at the time, we are very pleased to see action on this.

I know that in my electorate, as well as right around the country, there are many young New Zealanders that came out here up to 10 years ago that are now approaching the end of their high school studies. They are keen to pursue a higher education degree and might not come from a family of significant means. Therefore, a loan through the HELP program that is available to Australian students is a very, very important element to make higher education accessible. Ensuring that those New Zealand citizens that have been here since childhood for a period of 10 years have access to the scheme is very, very important.

Further, this bill also gives Australian researchers and universities certainty by guaranteeing appropriations for the Australian Research Council, allowing the vital National Competitive Grants Program to proceed at fully funded rates. It also, importantly, will update the name of the University of Ballarat to Federation University in the Higher Education Support Act. Federation University has been rebranded for some time. Because of the government's inaction in this area and their inability to proceed with the normal governance arrangements, we have had to wait some time to see this change in the Higher Education Support Act. With this bill, we will now see those changes.

This bill also clarifies the constitutional power that the other grants under the Higher Education Support Act—mostly research and equity grants—rely upon, which is a really important element. It also adds Torrens University to the list of table B universities under the Higher Education Support Act, making it eligible for the same funding support enjoyed by other private Australian universities, like Bond University. Of course, Torrens University Australia has added to the complement of public and private universities in Adelaide, my home town. I was very pleased to be at the opening of that university and I am very pleased that the government have finally caught up with and will be making this amendment. This bill also streamlines reporting requirements for the ARC and the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. The bill has a range of elements that are important to governance arrangements—really part of what should be the normal function of parliament. So I am certainly pleased to see these changes brought before the parliament today.

Of course, as I said, Labor will support these measures, because they are sensible measures. Ensuring that young New Zealanders have the opportunity to access our higher education system is an incredibly important element, so we will support the government on these measures. In doing so, we recognise they have taken a long, long time and that it has taken Labor calling again and again for the government to uncouple these measures from the wider higher education reforms. The previous minister was quite determined not to that. It was almost as if he was blackmailing the parliament and blackmailing the Australian people by saying, 'If you want the ordinary business of government to proceed, you must support our radical deregulation agenda.' It seems that the new minister has seen some sense. Despite that, we do not know what his plans are when it comes to the broader higher education reforms; we are still unsure. He seems to have delayed them for one year, and that is all the reform that he has done. The measures contained in this bill are responsible measures. They should have been brought in much earlier. We are pleased that the government have listened to Labor's calls to uncouple these measures from the radical, ideological deregulation agenda. I commend the bill to the House.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is my pleasure and my honour to speak on the Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2015 and especially to follow the member for Kingston—what a forceful advocate for participation in higher education in this country and somebody who speaks a lot of sense when it comes to the issues before us today. As she mentioned, there are a number of changes in this bill: changes to grants and standards and the renaming of a university—a whole range of sensible measures. The focus of my remarks today will be on what I a consider to be an absolutely crucial change—the most important change in this bill—allowing New Zealand citizens who have been long-term residents of Australia access to the Higher Education Loan Program.

This is an issue very close to my own heart. I proudly represent a very big community of those who are New Zealand citizens or New Zealand born and Pasifika members of my community as well. It is a privilege to represent them. Nine of the 10 biggest New Zealand born electorates in the country are in South East Queensland. Deputy Speaker Vasta, yours is one of them, as you would know. So we do have a concentration of New Zealand born people in our part of Queensland. They enrich our community and they also strengthen our economy.

Of the many issues confronted by New Zealand citizens in Australia, the specific one dealt with in this bill has been raised with me over and over and over again, since I was elected a couple of years ago. Whether it be at the Woodridge markets, at the schools in my electorate, whether it be at the forums I have held at Griffith University with the member for Corio, whether it be at the board of the Logan campus of that university, whether it be in the lunch rooms at Polar Fresh in my electorate, which has a big Kiwi contingent amongst their workforce, whether it be in conversations and forums hosted by the National Union of Workers, or whether it be forums and meetings organised by Oz Kiwi, the issue of access for New Zealand born kids to the Higher Education Loan Program comes up over and over and over again. From these conversations, I know and understand the core inequity here—New Zealand kids need to pay up-front if they are to join their classmates at university, even if they have been here for a long time and even if their parents have been paying the same taxes as Australian parents. This is a real problem for so many New Zealand born students, as you can imagine, who cannot afford to pay the fees up-front and are, therefore, blocked from going to university.

This acts like a boom gate which comes down on Kiwi students on the pathway from school to university. I know, anecdotally, from the conversations I have with school principals that, when a lot of these students get to the point, late in high school, where they understand that university is not a realistic option for them, all kinds of issues flow from that: kids giving up on university and perhaps not paying as much attention to their studies as they might otherwise if they had more of an opportunity to go on to university. At Griffith University, in my electorate, the head of Logan campus, Lesley Chenoweth, has a great saying about how the objective here is to build aspiration and to widen participation. The current arrangement, which we are changing through this bill, blocks aspiration and limits participation. That is not good enough for the students in my community and, indeed, right around the country.

This is not the first time I have spoken about this particular issue in the parliament. It has a long and chequered history which, as the member for Kingston said, does not reflect terribly well on those opposite. My predecessor in Rankin, Craig Emerson—a terrific local member and a terrific minister—made the announcement in April 2013 that we would fix this problem. Since the change of government, there have been a series of missteps and delays, which has been very unfortunate, particularly when you consider that a deadline was missed which meant that another whole year of Kiwi students who might have had access to the HELP program had to miss out while the government played their usual brand of politics with this bill.

It is an unfortunate reality that after Craig Emerson made the announcement in April 2013 we had the former Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, make an agreement with the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mr Key, that this would be progressed. Then it was attached to the university deregulation agenda, which meant that it could not be passed. We had the member for Sturt, in particular, very reluctant to pass this aspect of the bill. He held it hostage to the $100,000-degree agenda that the member for Kingston mentioned, so that deal between Mr Abbott and Mr Key was not implemented at our end, which is a bit embarrassing for our country. Then we had Senator Carr, in the other place, move a private senator's bill to try to decouple this important initiative from the $100,000 degrees, and we were rejected by the government.

Then, after that, we had the new Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull, make the same deal with Mr Key that Mr Abbott had made a year or so earlier. It is highly embarrassing that an Australian Prime Minister has to make the same deal twice, but it is good to see that now we are finally making good our commitment to New Zealand—not just as a nation but to the people of New Zealand who have lived in my electorate and right around the country for a long time and whose kids deserve the opportunity to go to university. We welcome this legislation, but we do say that it comes after a very disappointing delay, characterised by some pretty petty politics from the member for Sturt, which has seen the aspiration and participation of Kiwi kids held hostage to a political strategy from the other side of the House.

But people in my community are less interested, of course, in the politics of an outcome; they want the outcome itself. So I want to say that this legislation today is a victory for people who have campaigned for this change. It is better late than never. A lot of people in my community and in the surrounding areas are very excited about the change. I do want to acknowledge the colleagues who have helped make this possible: current colleagues like Senator Carr, the member for Kingston, the member for Hotham and others; and former colleagues like Craig Emerson, as I mentioned, and also the former state member for Woodridge, Desley Scott, who was a constant, tireless campaigner for this change as well.

Most of all, I want to congratulate the groups in our community who have campaigned for this change—now successfully. I am talking here about groups like Griffith University, the NUW and Oz Kiwi who have been tireless advocates for this piece of justice in our higher education arrangements. They know, as I do, that this is an important issue affecting the New Zealand community in Australia, but they also know, as I do, that it is not the only issue. I want to thank everyone who came to a forum I held in Logan Central earlier this month—a forum organised by the NUW and Oz Kiwi, which was very well attended, where we talked about some of the issues beyond access to higher education.

The other challenges relate to Howard-era policy changes which created two classes of Kiwis in Australia, with post-2001 arrivals disadvantaged against pre-2001 arrivals but paying the same taxes and exposed to substantially greater risk of poverty and intergenerational immobility. This side of the House recognises and understands those challenges faced by our New Zealand brothers and sisters, and that is why at our last national conference we put into the ALP platform, for the first time, a resolution that notes the inequity for New Zealand citizens living in Australia under the terms of the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangements.

I mentioned earlier that New Zealand-born people in Australia make an important contribution to my community and to the broader economy, and I think it is important that we see them in that light. Too often, I think, we rely on outdated stereotypes or outdated notions of what New Zealanders in Australia contribute to our economy. Too often we see them as a cost. But there are facts on the table now, thanks to the Productivity Commission, which show just how substantial that contribution is from New Zealand-born people in Australia. The Productivity Commission report, Strengthening economic relations between Australia and New Zealand, found that Kiwi citizens living in Australia, compared with the general Australian population, had a higher labour force participation rate and a lower unemployment rate. Just from those two simple statistics, that outdated stereotype that some people want to push about Kiwis in Australia is not just wrong anecdotally in my experience in my local community; it is also wrong factually at the aggregate macro level around the country.

We do need to see Kiwis differently in this country—too often it is dominated by that outdated stereotype. We need to understand the challenges they face here. We need to see what we are doing today with higher education loans as the beginning of a more fair set of arrangements for New Zealanders and not the end. I support this bill. I say to those students who will take up a university offer next year and who might not have otherwise been able to: we wish you well for your studies; we know the return on Australian investment in you will be substantial and it will be long lasting.

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to give the summing-up speech on the Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2015. I start by thanking all those members who spoke on the bill. This bill amends three pieces of education legislation and achieves important changes. The government has chosen to group together a suite of six education legislation amendments. These expand eligibility for funding support, resolve uncertainty, streamline requirements and secure funding.

Passage of this bill will amend the Higher Education Support Act 2003 to allow certain New Zealand special category visa holders to access the Higher Education Loan Program scheme from 1 January 2016. This will assist a number of New Zealand citizens who moved here as children and deserve the same support as Australian students to undertake higher education. It will also add Torrens University Australia to the list of table B providers in the Higher Education Support Act. This will enable Torrens University to be eligible to apply for the same funding support as other private Australian universities, including research block grants. In addition, the bill will ensure that the Higher Education Support Act reflects the change of the name of the University of Ballarat to the Federation University Australia.

It will confirm the relevant heads of constitutional power that other grants of the Higher Education Support Act rely upon, in addition to the effect that part 2-3 otherwise has. The bill will also amend the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 to streamline and clarify the reporting responsibilities of TEQSA following the passage of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013. This removes duplication and reduces the regulatory burden.

Finally, the bill will amend the Australian Research Council Act 2001 to add funding for the financial years starting on 1 July 2017 and 1 July 2018, and also to apply indexation against appropriations for existing schemes. This amendment provides certainty and security of funding for the Australian Research Council until mid 2019. In addition, the bill will remove the requirements in the ARC Act requiring the development of an annual operating plan. This will remove duplication while ensuring the ARC, like all other Commonwealth departments and agencies, remains accountable via an annual corporate plan.

The measures in this bill have been welcomed by higher education institutions, the Australian Research Council, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, and other key stakeholders. I thank the opposition for its support of this bill. When Minister Hartsuyker introduced this bill last month, Senator Kim Carr moved quickly to convey his approval, noting that all six of these measures are 'non-controversial measures that enjoy bipartisan support'. He acknowledged that it would provide 'certainty to researchers and scientists across the country' and that it would 'come as a relief to thousands of students'. I thank Senator Carr for his expressions of support.

The New Zealand citizens amendment is particularly anticipated by many young New Zealand citizens and their families who have made Australia their home. These young people deserve better access to higher education through eligibility for student loans. We want them to approach their tertiary education with confidence. The extension of the HELP scheme to New Zealand citizens who have grown up here provides these long-term residents with support that will enable them to achieve their higher education goals. It will also ultimately enable them to contribute to the Australian economy and workforce to the best of their capacity.

It is important that this bill be passed this year. Some of its measures are time critical because they change eligibility for funding support for the 2016 calendar year. Delay in passage of this bill would mean that a significant group of New Zealand citizens would be denied the option of deferring their tuition fees through the Higher Education Loan Program in 2016. These are people who, because of their visa status, do not currently have a practical pathway to Australian citizenship.

In conclusion, the passage of the Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2015 will ensure these New Zealand citizens who have called Australia home for at least 10 years are not left out of our student loan scheme. The bill will enable Torrens University, which is a successful private Australian university with a proven track record, to join table B of the Higher Education Support Act. This will enable the university to be considered for research block grant funding and funding to award Commonwealth postgraduate scholarships to its research students.

Finally, the bill provides certainty to the Australian Research Council regarding ongoing funding through to the end of the 2018-19 financial year. This vital recurrent funding stream supports the council's highly regarded National Competitive Grants Program. This program builds our national research capability, creates and sustains momentum in research partnerships, and enables promising careers to thrive. The Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2015 reflects the Australian government's ongoing commitment to the ARC, its programs and funding recipients. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Administrator recommending appropriation announced.