Madonna Jarrett (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last month, across the country, students started their postschool education. They gathered in lecture halls and classrooms that were bigger than anything many of them had encountered before. They were on campuses that were unfamiliar but full of possibility.

Recently, I had the privilege of meeting many of these young students at university campuses across Brisbane during O week. I met Toby, who has just started his university journey, studying a degree in political science, philosophy and economics. I also met Will, who's studying a Bachelor of Law at the University of Queensland and who's in his second year. We talked about the excitement of going to university—we can all remember this—and the opportunity that provides for young people.

We also spoke about the ways this Labor government is helping young people get ahead, whether that be paid pracs for nursing, midwifery, social work and teaching—recognising that placement is work and that it should be paid for—or that we're supporting more university places than ever before. This year more Australians will start a university degree than at any point in Australia's history. University applications are up, and we're training our future teachers, nurses, doctors, social workers, engineers, scientists and more.

I talked to existing students who've had their student debt cut, saving them thousands of dollars. We're also making vocational education more accessible, because part of that is a stepping stone to university, and we've capped PBS scripts at $25 or $7.70 for those on youth allowance. It was great to see those many smiling faces, because there were a lot of students who didn't know that that was the case. This means that no student will have to choose between their health and their education. Australians deserve world-class health care, world-class education and world-class services, and that starts with backing the next generation, who are going to deliver this for us.

I also had the pleasure recently of attending a number of school leadership ceremonies across Brisbane. I visited Ascot, Windsor, Wilston and Brisbane Central schools to congratulate the leadership teams. There were a wide variety of leadership positions. We had the usual school captains and sports captains as well as library captains, sustainability and marine captains, culture captains, music captains and band captains. But, importantly, no matter what their badge represented, these leaders knew that being a leader is not about the badge. It's about how you act. It's about helping others, being brave, speaking up when things aren't right and doing what's right when people aren't watching or listening. I'd like to wish all our school leaders every success in their leadership journey in 2026. With leaders like those I met in Brisbane, the future of our community is bright.