Jason Clare's recent appearances (OpenAustralia.org)
Early Childhood Education and Care | Questions without Notice | House debates
I thank my friend, the absolutely magnificent member for McEwen, for his question. A year ago today we passed laws through parliament to enact the three-day guarantee and a month ago today we...
I thank my friend, the absolutely magnificent member for McEwen, for his question. A year ago today we passed laws through parliament to enact the three-day guarantee and a month ago today we delivered it. It means every child who needs it can get access to the child care subsidy three days a week. We know how important child care is for mums and dads—it helps them to get back to work—but it's also important for our children. This is a time when most of the brain develops. We know that a child who goes to preschool is 1½ times as ready to start primary school as a child that doesn't. Ask any primary school teacher, and they'll tell you they can identify the children who have been in early education and care. This is not babysitting. That's why it was the Productivity Commission that recommended this change—the three-day guarantee. Their advice to us is that it's children from the most disadvantaged families—the poorest families in Australia—who get the biggest benefit from early education and that they are the ones who are least likely to be there in early education and care. That's because of the old activity test that meant their mums and dads couldn't get access to the government subsidy, and so it's their children who missed out and started behind. That now changes with the three-day guarantee. It means, for affected families earning between $50,000 and $100,000, they will save about $1,500 a year, and it means that their children will get access to the same sort of early education and care that other kids can. I've also been asked about safety, and I can advise the House that personal mobile phones in centres have now been banned, that Commonwealth compliance officers are now up and running and doing unannounced spot checks, that the national CCTV trial has started, that the Australian Federal Police is now also part of the advisory group on that, that the national educator register will start at the end of this month, and that mandatory safety training for all staff in centres will start at the end of this month. Members will also remember that we passed legislation through this place last year to give us the power to cut funding to centres that aren't up to scratch—that aren't meeting minimum safety standards. So far, we've sent notices to more than 60 services across the country. For some of those 60 services, that deadline that we have set for them is fast approaching. I'll have more to say about that in the next few weeks.
Education | Questions without Notice | House debates
Last year, we signed agreements with every state and every territory to fix the funding of our public schools. That funding, and the reform that's tied to it, starts to roll out this year. A big...
Last year, we signed agreements with every state and every territory to fix the funding of our public schools. That funding, and the reform that's tied to it, starts to roll out this year. A big part of that reform is reading. The reading wars are over. We know what works. A big part of that is phonics. A big part of that is explicit teaching. A big part of that is identifying early children who are falling behind and giving them extra support. And part of that is a phonics check for kids when they're six—when they're in year 1. That rolls out right across the country, in every state and every territory, this year. To give you an idea of how important this is, South Australia has been doing this now for almost a decade. When they started doing it in 2018, 43 per cent of six-year-olds met the expected standard. When they did that test last year, 66 per cent of six-year-olds met that standard. That's why it's important. That's why we're rolling this out now in every state and every territory. That's why we're now going to do the same thing in maths—a year 1 numeracy check that starts to roll out this year. I will also use this opportunity to give a quick shout-out to our teachers, people who do the most important jobs in the world. This year, there are going to be big changes to teacher training to better prepare students to teach children to read, write and count and to manage classroom behaviour. Some good news I can advise the House of is that this year the number of applications from students to start a teaching degree at university is up 6.5 per cent, and university offers are up 6.3 per cent. This is all good news: more funding for our schools, more teachers for our schools and more focus on the basics to make sure more of our children get a great start in life.
I'll tell you a story. There are a lot of kids changing schools, changing classes, changing teachers and changing seats. There's a bit of that going on over there as well! There are kids in...
I'll tell you a story. There are a lot of kids changing schools, changing classes, changing teachers and changing seats. There's a bit of that going on over there as well! There are kids in classrooms right now that are learning how to read and are learning how to count. There's a bit of that going on over there as well! No doubt there are a few kids yet to get back to school. They might be still on a European holiday. They'll get back late and no doubt expect to get elected school captain. But this is a big year for school education.
I thank my friend the glorious member for Gorton for her question. School is now back across the country. That means a lot of relieved mums and dads and a few nervous kids—not as nervous as...
I thank my friend the glorious member for Gorton for her question. School is now back across the country. That means a lot of relieved mums and dads and a few nervous kids—not as nervous as a few people over there!
Tertiary Education and Training | Questions without Notice | House debates
If I can thank my friend the brilliant member for Bean for his question, I might just do that! I told the parliament in November last year that we'd cut the student debt, by 20 per cent, of...
If I can thank my friend the brilliant member for Bean for his question, I might just do that! I told the parliament in November last year that we'd cut the student debt, by 20 per cent, of 1½ million Australians, but I can inform the House that that is not correct—at least not anymore, because now it's double that. Now we've cut the student debt of more than three million Australians by 20 per cent. We promised it; now we've delivered it. It's the biggest cut to student debt in Australian history. To put it in perspective, for the average Australian with a student debt, we've taken now $5,500 off their back. That's a lot of help for a lot of young Australians who might be just out of TAFE or just out of university or maybe just out of home. They're just getting started. And this isn't the only thing that we're doing. We're also cutting the amount that they have to repay of their debt every year. For example, if you're on 70 grand a year, we're cutting the amount that you have to repay every year by $1,300. Now that's real cost-of-living help. It means an extra 1,300 bucks in your pocket rather than the government's. And there's something else that we're doing to help Australians with the cost of living. That's paid prac—financial help while you do your practical training at university—because, as many people do, if you have to give up your part-time job to do your practical training or you've got to move a couple of hundred kilometres away and rent, then it can be tough to pay the bills. That's why we're doing this. It's real cost-of-living help. We're now rolling that out for teaching students, for nursing students, for midwifery students and for social work students—people who've signed up to do some of the most important jobs in this country, like looking after our kids and looking after us when we're ill or when we're old, or women fleeing domestic violence. That's what we're focused on: helping Australians with the cost of living, unlike those on the other side who are just focused on how much they hate each other. They make the Beckhams look like a happy family. They're like a couple who bought a non-refundable holiday and then they broke up and now they've just got to sit there and suffer through it. They don't like paid prac. They don't like cutting student debt by 20 per cent. They don't even like each other.
Bondi Beach Attack Victims | Condolences | House debates
When the shooting started, Jessy knew exactly what it was. Jessy is a friend of mine and a dear friend of my wife's. Our kids are about the same age. She was there on that awful day with her...
When the shooting started, Jessy knew exactly what it was. Jessy is a friend of mine and a dear friend of my wife's. Our kids are about the same age. She was there on that awful day with her little girl, Shemi. They were there to get sufganiyot—jam doughnuts—for Shemi and for her big brother, Lev. In that split second, Jessy did what any parent would do. She picked up her little girl and she ran. She hid, and she jumped on top of Shemi. She held her so tight she was worried that Shemi had stopped breathing. She remembers hearing the shots getting closer, the bullets hitting people near her and the spray of blood as it landed on her. And then it stopped. She ran again, this time until she found her husband, Nadav, and her son, Lev, who'd raced to the beach desperately looking for them. In Shemi's little hand was her big brother's doughnut—or what was left of it. I want to believe that what happened that day in December wasn't Australia. But the truth is it was. In the most Australian of places, 15 Australians had everything taken from them, one of them a little girl with the most Australian name possible. All of them were victims of an unfathomable hate. They were hunted down and killed because they're Jewish—murdered because they're Jewish. In the short time that I have, I offer my deepest condolences to everyone who loved them and who must still be drowning in their own grief. I also thank everybody who ran towards the danger that day and whose actions that day and in the days after must have saved the lives of dozens more people—people like Jessy and Shemi. I want the House today to hear their voices. In the week after, Shemi came to her mum and asked her, 'Can a kid die?' She'd found out about Matilda. As they walked home one night from the Bondi Pavilion, she said to her mum, 'So I could have been a photo, too, like Matilda, and you would have had to put a rock and a flower for me.' Jessy's helping her little girl to understand all of this. I told Jessy that I was going to speak today and that I wanted to tell her story and Shemi's story. She's written something for all of us. This is it: My name is Jessica Chapnik Kahn. My five-year-old daughter and I are survivors of the Hanukah Bondi Beach massacre. On Sunday 14 December, 2025, my daughter and I ran, along with hundreds of children and adults. We threw ourselves to the ground. We covered our children with our bodies. And as the gunshots came closer and closer, as flying bits of flesh and bones sprayed over us, there was no mistaking it. This was a massacre. I realised I was no longer preparing to survive. I was preparing for how I wanted my daughter and I to die. I leaned into her ear and spoke the only words that came to me. "Go inside yourself, my darling. Go to your heart, where all the love is. Stay there, my baby; stay there." I speak to you today as someone changed. I am still returning from that concrete deathbed, still learning how to walk familiar streets with unfamiliar fear. And I speak as someone who has experienced a place that no horror, no terror, no gunmen could steal from us. As we return to our lives, our beliefs, our ambitions, I ask myself and I ask you: What would heart have us do? What would heart have you do with your position, your power, your politics, your laws? What would heart have us do with our anger? Bondi has shown us what anger does when it is heartless. What would heart have us do at such a time as this? Many brave things happened at Bondi that day. But right now, this moment feels like the very new brave part. Much of this work is entrusted to you. Let your actions be guided by conscience, care, and compassion. Let your leadership honour life, safety, and belonging. Let your decisions reflect the value you place on the innocence of our children. Let your relationships with one another be rooted in respect, so that we too may treat others the same way. Let your leadership be rooted in humanity. If heart and horror can coexist, heart can guide politics too. It has come at a terrible, terrible cost, but may we now have the courage to carve a new path of heart. May we create the country we've always dreamed of, a country where all people live and breathe in peace. It is not impossible. Heart can take us there. Lead us with heart. Stay there. Stay there. Stay there.
Valedictory | Constituency Statements | House debates
It has been a big year in 2025, and I want to thank the people of my electorate of Blaxland for putting their trust in me again. It's the privilege of my life to represent our community in this...
It has been a big year in 2025, and I want to thank the people of my electorate of Blaxland for putting their trust in me again. It's the privilege of my life to represent our community in this place. I take the opportunity to thank them for their support, and, in particular, I thank the hundreds and hundreds of people who volunteered on my election campaign. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. In particular, I want to thank my team led by Korena Flanagan, Chris Zogopoulos and Christine Kalivitis for all of their help over almost 18 years now. In the case of Chris, it's even longer. I would not be here without you. This has been a year of wins. We've fixed the funding of public schools, cut student debt by 20 per cent and, in my local community after 12 months of hard work, we got Auburn Post Office back and reopened. But it's also been a year of losses in my community. We've lost some local Labor true believers, some dear friends of mine—Tony Re, a former school principal; Grant Lee, a former mayor of Bankstown; Uncle Rex Sorby, a great Indigenous elder; and Vanessa McNeill, a former Holroyd councillor. Local legend Laurie Ferguson, a former member of this place, has been really unwell and is still in hospital. Laurie, we're all here with you, Maureen and the whole family. I wish everybody here a very, very merry Christmas. This is a time that we spend with the most important people in the world—our families, our kids and our mates. Every year, on the Sunday before Christmas, I get together with the fellas that I played cricket with for years. We call it clay day, for reasons that I don't have time to explain here. We catch up, reminisce, talk about the old days and remember just how important we are to each other. To quote that old Irish proverb, 'We live in the shade of each other.' When I get together with my mates, I live in their shade for sure. So I give them a quick shout-out—Gav, Macca, Corz, Squirmer, Welster, Wyber, Bevo, Blobby, Beachie, Rinny, Choppers, George, Tink, Bert and Herbie. Merry Christmas, boys.
Universities | Questions without Notice | House debates
I thank my good friend the mighty member for Menzies for his question. In the wee small hours of this morning, between 3 am and 6 am, when I hope most of us were still tucked up in bed, something...
I thank my good friend the mighty member for Menzies for his question. In the wee small hours of this morning, between 3 am and 6 am, when I hope most of us were still tucked up in bed, something very big happened. One and a half million Australians had their student debt cut by 20 per cent—and, next Thursday, it's all going to happen again. Another 1½ million Australians will have their debt cut by 20 per cent. This is the biggest cut to student debt in Australian history. To give you an idea of just how big this is, for the average Aussie with a student debt, it means $5,500 off their back, off their debt. It's all automatic. You don't have to do a thing; just wait for the 'ding'. As the Prime Minister said, the text message will come next week. But it is also important to know why this has happened. There is one reason that this has happened, and that's this man here. It's because of this Labor Prime Minister. It's because he promised it, because he fought for it and because he believes in it. It's because he believes that young Australians deserve a break and because millions and millions of Australians voted for it. As one very smart National Party MP—or potentially a former National Party MP—said, 'My kids are paying off a university debt and I reckon they voted Labor.' I bet they did. But, even now, there are still members of the Liberal Party who think this is a bad idea. On Monday, the member for Goldstein described celebrating this as 'despicable'. You've got to ask yourself: what sort of planet does this mob over here live on? It explains why there are now 42 of them over there and why the seat that Tony Abbott once represented—or Malcolm Turnbull or Julie Bishop or Bronwyn Bishop or Brendan Nelson or Alexander Downer or even Sir Robert Menzies himself—are now located up there. Young Australians see them, and they see through them. They know that the Liberal Party no longer represents them and they also know this: it's this Labor government and this Labor Prime Minister who cut their debt by 20 per cent.
Tertiary Education | Questions without Notice | House debates
I thank the marvellous new member for Moreton for her question. This is a special time of the year. Cricket is on the telly, even if it is for just two days. We have meat on the barbie, the...
I thank the marvellous new member for Moreton for her question. This is a special time of the year. Cricket is on the telly, even if it is for just two days. We have meat on the barbie, the sounds of cicadas and lawnmowers, kids opening presents, the sound of champagne corks popping and knives sharpening—and that is just over there in the Liberal Party! And this year there will be the sound of something else, the sound of millions of phones beeping with a message that your student debt has been cut by 20 per cent. Tomorrow 1½ million Australians will have their debt cut by 20 per cent, and, next week, another 1½ million Australians will have their debt cut, too. This will be the biggest cut to student debt in Australian history. We promised it, Australia voted for it and we are delivering it. But it is not the only thing we are delivering. Paid prac has now started—that is, financial support for teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students while they do their practical training. Next year more people will study medicine than ever before. We announced with the health minister more places for people to become doctors than ever before. And next year 25,000 Australians will be able to do one of those free bridging courses to give them the skills that they need to get ready to start a university degree, more than ever before. Next year more Australians will also be able to start a uni degree than ever before To drive real long-term reform here today, I introduced legislation to create the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, and part of its job is to break down the barrier between TAFE and university. Let me give you an example. The University of Canberra has just announced that it will take a year off your degree if you've completed a diploma in the same area. This is for nursing, early education, graphic design, accounting and a few other areas. This saves you time—it saves you a year off your degree—but it also saves you money, on average about $6,000, off the cost of a degree. I want to see more examples of that, making it easier for people to get the skills and the qualifications that they want and that they need quicker and cheaper—a more joined up system—because we know that things work better when they are united, not divided. And if you want proof of that, just look over there!
Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. This bill is part of a package of two bills which together will establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission. This bill makes...
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. This bill is part of a package of two bills which together will establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission. This bill makes consequential amendments necessary to implement the measures in the main bill, which I just introduced. Full details of the measures are contained in the explanatory memorandum. I commend this bill to the House. Debate adjourned.
Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. This is a bill to establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, the ATEC. It's a key recommendation of the Australian Universities...
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. This is a bill to establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, the ATEC. It's a key recommendation of the Australian Universities Accord. Before I set out the details of the bill, let me remind the House what the universities accord is about. Three years ago I appointed six eminent Australians to develop a blueprint for how we reform our higher education system: Professor Mary O'Kane as chair, a former chief scientist and engineer of New South Wales, and a former vice-chancellor of the University of Adelaide; Professor Barney Glover, who is now the commissioner of Jobs and Skills Australia and was then the vice-chancellor and president of Western Sydney University; Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt, Laureate Fellow at the Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney; the Hon. Fiona Nash, the Australian Regional Education Commissioner and former Minister for Regional Development and Minister for Regional Communications; the Hon. Jenny Macklin, the former Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and the Minister for Disability Reform; and Ms Shemara Wikramanayake, Chief Executive Officer at Macquarie Group and a member of the former government's University Research Commercialisation Expert Panel. I asked them to look at seven priority areas: I released their final report in February last year. In short, what it says is that, in the years ahead, more jobs are going to require more skills. What it says is that 60 per cent of Australians working today have a certificate, a diploma or a degree, and that by 2050 that will increase to about 80 per cent. That's a big jump. It means more people at TAFE, more people at university and more people doing a bit of both. And what the accord says is the only way this will happen is if we break down two big barriers. The first of those is the artificial barrier we've created and built up between the vocational education system and the higher education system, and replace it with a system that's more joined up. The second is the invisible barrier that stops too many young people from poor families, from our outer suburbs, from the regions and from the bush from getting to university at all. To give you an idea of what the accord is talking about, 69 per cent of young Australians from wealthy families have a university degree today, but only 19 per cent from very poor families do. And this isn't just a barrier to university. The accord peels away any misconception that it's okay if young people from poor families don't make it to university, because they make it to TAFE. What it shows is that 87 per cent of young people from wealthy families have either a TAFE qualification or a uni degree, but only 59 per cent of young people from poor families do. In other words, more than 40 per cent of young people from poor families don't have the sorts of qualifications that so many people are going to need in the years ahead. We have now implemented every recommendation of the accord's interim report and we have started work on implementing the final report. In last year's budget we bit off a big chunk of it—31 out of 47 recommendations in full or in part. Let me remind the House of what some of those are. It includes more than doubling the number of university study hubs in the regions, in the bush and now, for the first time ever, in our outer suburbs. These are places that bring university closer to where a lot of people live. They are about breaking down that invisible barrier. Most of them are now open, and the rest will open in the next few months. We're also increasing funding for the bridging courses that help prepare you to start a university degree. They are like a bridge between school and uni. Over the next 10 years we will invest an extra $1 billion to help tens of thousands of Australians do one of these courses for free. We have also introduced paid prac. This is financial support for teaching students, nursing students, midwifery students and social work students while they do the practical training that's part of their degree. It's means tested and it's targeted at people who need it the most. So far more than 67,000 students have applied for paid prac. More than 80 per cent of those applications have been processed, and more than 80 per cent of those have been approved. The accord also recommended we allocate more medical Commonwealth supported places to address the shortage of doctors in our community, and we are doing that too. Next year, we'll train more doctors than ever before. Earlier this week the minister for health and I announced more medical places to train more doctors at 10 universities across the country. Over the last three years, we have announced more than 350 new commencing medical places. We have also announced eight new medical schools. When fully rolled out, it will mean we are supporting around 1,790 more medical students studying each year. We have also scrapped the 50 per cent pass rule. This was an unfair rule that significantly and disproportionately affected Indigenous students, students from poor families and students from the regions and the bush. We have also reformed student services and amenities fees, setting a minimum amount of 40 per cent to be provided to student led organisations. We have also introduced a demand-driven system for Indigenous students, wherever they live. Previously this was only available for Indigenous students living in regional and remote Australia. This means if you are an Indigenous student and you get the marks for the course you want to do, you will now get a place at university. It's already having an impact. Last year the number of Indigenous students starting a degree increased by five per cent. This year it increased by a further three per cent. The Department of Education estimates that over the next decade this could double the number of Indigenous students at university. We have also introduced a National Student Ombudsman that started work this year and a National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence that starts on 1 January and will give the ombudsman's recommendations real teeth. This year we also established the Expert Council on University Governance, and it delivered its final report a few weeks ago. This includes a set of principles that we will put into law and require universities to report annually on on an 'if not, why not?' basis. On the recommendations of the current Senate inquiry into university governance, we will also get the Remuneration Tribunal to help set salaries for vice-chancellors and require universities to publish decisions of council meetings, spending on consultants, vice-chancellors' external roles and any conflicts of interest. We are also making major changes to reduce student debt. Last year we capped the indexation of student debt to the lower of the consumer price index and the wage price index. This wiped $3 billion off student debt. This week and next week we will wipe a further $16 billion off student debt, cutting student debt by 20 per cent. Tomorrow, 1½ million Australians will have their debt cut by 20 per cent. And another 1½ million will have their debt cut by 20 per cent next week. This is the biggest cut to student debt in Australian history. We promised it. Australians voted for it. And now it's happening. We have also made major structural changes to the way the student debt repayment system works. The way the system used to work was the amount you repaid every year was based on your entire earnings. Once you earned above the minimum threshold you paid a percentage of your entire wage as a repayment. That has now changed. Now, you only pay a percentage of your wage above the minimum repayment threshold. What that means in practice is if you earn $70,000 a year you now have to repay about $1,300 a year less than you used to. It is real cost-of-living help, when you need it most. It is another recommendation of the accord. It's also a recommendation of the architect of HECS, Professor Bruce Chapman, who said: This is the most important thing that's happened to the system in 35 years. It's a marginal collection, it's much gentler and much fairer than previously—we should have done it years ago. All of this is just the start. If we're going to hit that 80 per cent target in the accord we need more people to go to TAFE and more people to go university. That means we have to fund more places at university. And that starts next year. Next year we'll allocate 9,500 more commencing places to universities across the country than in 2025. That's about a four per cent increase on this year, and means more Australians will start a university degree next year than ever before. And even more will start a university degree the year after that. In 2027, we 'll allocate an extra 16,000 fully funded Commonwealth supported places and another 16,000 in 2028 and another 16,000 the year after that. In 2030, this increases to 19,000 additional fully funded Commonwealth supported places. All up, over the next decade we expect to fund an extra 200,000 commencing places at university. It means the number of Australian students in our universities will grow by about 27 per cent over the next 10 years. That's a big jump. Part of this also involves making sure all of these places become fully funded. And the ATEC will play a critical role in implementing it. As part of that over the next 12 months we'll implement and legislate two big changes to the way we fund universities. The first is what the accord calls 'demand driven equity'. We currently provide universities with a capped amount of funding for Australian students. The accord recommends that we uncap that for all students from disadvantaged backgrounds, like we've already done for Indigenous students. In other words, if you get the marks for the course you want to do, you'll get a place at university. This is all about breaking down that invisible barrier that the accord talks about, prizing open the doors of opportunity for more people from disadvantaged backgrounds. It starts in just over 12 months. The second big reform is needs based funding, funding to help these same students who get in, to get through. Think about it as Gonski for universities. The school funding system provides schools with extra funding based on where they're located and the needs of the students they educate. Students who come from economically disadvantaged families receive additional support. So do schools in the regions and the bush. The universities accord recommends we do the same thing for universities. It means extra academic and other support services to help students make it through university. It's demand driven. The money follows the student. The more students a university has that meet the criteria the more funding it will receive. The more students there are at regional universities, the more funding those universities will receive as well. And it starts in January, in just a couple of weeks time. It will be the job of the ATEC to help drive and steer both of these big reforms. And that brings me to what this bill is all about. Of all the recommendations in the accord this might be the most important. As someone said to me the other day, the ATEC is the accord. The accord is big. It is a blueprint for the next decade and the one after that. And it will take more than one minister and more than one government to make real. It is a national project and it needs a steward that is there for the long haul to craft compacts with individual universities; to help improve policy, administration and coordination of the sector; to get the sector to work more like a system; to get the vocational education system and higher education system to work more closely together, more joined up; to provide expert, independent advice; and to help drive real and lasting reform. That's what the ATEC is about. Like Jobs and Skills Australia, it will be independent. It will report directly to ministers. It will be guided by a ministerial statement of expectations. Key performance indicators will be established in consultation with the minister. It will publish its work plan. It will provide advice to government and publish reports. It will be able to undertake its own research. Its staff will be directed by the ATEC commissioners, governed by a service level agreement with the Department of Education. Its operations will be transparent. It will be required to consult. An independent review of the ATEC, its role, its functions and its operations is also built in after two years and after five years. And these reviews will be tabled in the House and in the Senate. It will be led by three commissioners—a full-time chief commissioner, a full-time First Nations commissioner, and a part-time commissioner. Collectively, they will be required to have expertise in higher education and vocational education. The First Nations commissioner must be an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person with significant understanding of issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The ATEC will have its own decision-making powers. It will take on responsibility for new mission-based compacts with individual universities, setting out the number of domestic and international students in line with the government's strategic direction. This will be set out in more detail in the legislation I will introduce next year. It will take over responsibility for the Higher Education Standards Framework from the current Higher Education Standards Panel and provide advice on it to the Minister for Education and the sector regulator. The Minister for Education and Minister for Skills and Training will also be able to request advice from the ATEC on a range of matters. This includes: the costs of teaching and learning in higher education and overall higher education funding amounts, including on a per student basis; student demand, skills demands, and the capability of the system's ability to meet Australia's workforce needs; the strategic direction, governance, size, and diversity of the higher education system, and the financial sustainability of higher education providers; this obviously includes not just universities, but other non-university higher education providers; ways to improve coordination and collaboration between the vocational and higher education systems; and how to improve access, participation and outcomes for people facing systemic barriers to education, including Indigenous Australians, Australians with disability, Australians from a low socio-economic background, and Australians living in the regions and in the bush. The ATEC will also be required to produce and publish a State of the Tertiary Education System report, every year, with the first report to cover the period starting 1 January 2026. This report will set out: current and emerging trends and issues, and system level changes needed to meet these challenges; progress on tertiary participation and attainment targets; the extent to which the higher education system is meeting Australia's current and future students, skills and knowledge demands; how well we are doing in breaking down the barriers between vocational education and higher education; and breaking down the systemic barriers faced by Australians from disadvantaged backgrounds. The ATEC will also publish a work plan and statement of its strategic priorities for the tertiary education system every two years, starting 1 January 2027. I want to thank everyone who has been involved in the development of this important Bill. That includes university vice-chancellors, peak bodies including Universities Australia, state and territory ministers, my department and the Accord Implementation Advisory Committee. I also want to thank the Minister for Skills and Training, Andrew Giles, the Assistant Minister for International Education, Julian Hill, and my former colleague and great mate, the former minister for skills and training, the honourable Brendan O'Connor. I also want to especially thank the interim commissioners of the ATEC, Mary O'Kane, Larissa Behrendt and Barney Glover. They played a fundamental role in writing the accord, and now they are helping to lift those words off the page and bring them to life. This bill represents the next step in a long story of reform. The first Universities Commission was established in 1943 by the Curtin Labor government. Over the next four decades, that commission, and its successors, oversaw significant reform of our higher education system. It's important to remember that John Curtin may have started this, but Sir Robert Menzies continued it and in 1959 his government introduced the Australian Universities Commission Act which, for the first time, embedded the Commission under its own standalone legislation. This was a key moment in the history of higher education. Labor supported Menzies in this pursuit, with Doc Evatt declaring his 'enthusiastic support'. We have a similar opportunity in front of us now. To build the sort of foundations that set us up for the future. To help build the sort of skills we are going to need over the next decade and the one after that. To help open the doors of opportunity wider than they are today. To help build a better and a fairer education system. And in doing that. A better and fairer country. I commend the bill to the House. Debate adjourned.
I thank my great friend the member for Leichhardt for his question. I'm really glad that he asked me this question, because I'm about 20 per cent shorter than he is and in a couple of days...
I thank my great friend the member for Leichhardt for his question. I'm really glad that he asked me this question, because I'm about 20 per cent shorter than he is and in a couple of days student debt will be 20 per cent smaller as well. I'm five-foot-nine; he's six-foot-11. The Liberal Party are at sixes and sevens. The kids in the gallery know what I'm talking about! And, in a couple of days time, $16 billion of student debt is going to come off the shoulders of millions of young Australians. In just two days time, 1½ million Australians will have their student debt cut by 20 per cent. And next week, another 1½ million Australians will have their debt cut by 20 per cent as well. It's the biggest cut to student debt in Australian history. We promised it and we're delivering it. But it's not the only thing that we're delivering. This year, we signed agreements with every state and territory to fix the funding of our public schools, which is something that no Australian government has ever done before, and it is not a blank cheque. It's tied to reform—the sort of reform that we know works. The reading wars are over. We know what works to teach children to read. We also know that waiting until a child is eight is too late to make sure we know whether they can read, write or count. That's why early intervention is important. That's why we're rolling out phonics checks and numeracy checks in year 1—to identify children who are falling behind—as well as more small-group tutoring, to provide support for children to catch up. Next year, something else will happen. Next year, we'll start the work of reforming the national curriculum, starting with the first three years of maths to make sure we get the basics right: addition, subtraction, multiplication and something the Liberal Party can help us out with—division. Next year, something else as well—education ministers have agreed to a reform that was talked about for a long time but never happened, and that's bringing together the bodies that are responsible for national testing, the national curriculum and national standards, as well as national research, under one roof to create an Australian teaching and learning commission. That's what delivery looks like, and that is what division looks like—no joy, just division. The Australian people know it, and they also know this—we're cutting student debt by 20 per cent.
Student Debt | Questions without Notice | House debates
I thank my friend the member for Forde for his question—and that handsome mo he's growing there and all the work he's doing to promote Movember! On the weekend, 100,000 Australians had...
I thank my friend the member for Forde for his question—and that handsome mo he's growing there and all the work he's doing to promote Movember! On the weekend, 100,000 Australians had their student debt cut by 20 per cent, and that is just the start, because, this Thursday, 1½ million more Australians will get their student debt cut by 20 per cent. Next week, another 1½ million young Australians will get their student debt cut by 20 per cent. You don't need to do a thing; just wait for the ding, wait for the text message, wait for the email that you will get from the office to tell you that it's done. This is the biggest cut to student debt in Australian history. The average Australian with a student debt will see it cut by about $5½ thousand. That's a lot of money that's going to help a lot of Australians. We promised it, Australia voted for it and now we're delivering it. And the Liberal Party, remember, are still opposed to it. In fact, they hate it. Today, earlier in parliament, the member for Goldstein described this as one of the most despicable things that he has ever seen a Labor government do. I think I know three million Australians—and their mums and dads, and their grandparents—who might disagree with him. But it's not the only thing that we're doing. Next year, we'll train more doctors than ever before. Today, the Minister for Health and Ageing and I are announcing more medical places to train more doctors at 10 universities across the country. Next year, more Australians will also start a university degree than ever before. We're funding an extra 9½ thousand places next year and an extra 16,000 places the year after that—and the year after that and the year after that. The number of Australians at uni will jump by 27 per cent over the next 10 years, to help build the sort of workforce that we're going to need: more doctors, more nurses, more teachers, more engineers and lots more. A lot of those young people will be from poor families and from our outer suburbs, from our regions and from the bush. That's what the reforms that we're implementing are all about. It's what the Prime Minister calls opening the 'doors of opportunity' for more Australians, building a country where your chances in life don't depend on how wealthy your parents are, where you grew up, what school you went to or the colour of your skin.
Can I thank, again, my friend the member for Macnamara for his question. Well, the race that stops the nation has been run and won, and there are a few lucky winners across the country. But, in...
Can I thank, again, my friend the member for Macnamara for his question. Well, the race that stops the nation has been run and won, and there are a few lucky winners across the country. But, in the next few weeks, there won't just be a few winners; there'll be millions of them. That's because we're cutting student debt by 20 per cent. We're now in the home straight. A year ago, the Prime Minister announced it. Six months ago, Australia backed it. Three months ago, we passed it. In just a couple of weeks time, Australians will get it. Millions of Australians will get their student debt cut by 20 per cent. Millions will get their debt cut by thousands of dollars—on average, about $5½ thousand. Young people don't always see something for them on the ballot paper when there's an election, but they did this year, and they voted for it in their millions. And now they're about to get it and to see it and to feel it and to hear it. They'll get a ding on their phone, an email or a text message, to tell them that their debt has been cut by 20 per cent. When that happens, there'll be one person that they can thank for it, and that's this Prime Minister. I'm asked by the member for Macnamara what else we are doing to build a better and a fairer education system. I can advise the House that paid prac has now started. That's financial help for teaching students, nursing students, midwifery students and social work students while they do their practical training. That's real cost-of-living help. So far, more than 65,000 Australians have applied to get it. I can also advise the House that next year two new end-to-end medical schools will open up to train more doctors, one in the north, in Darwin, and one in the south, in Launceston. Next week, I'll open two more university study hubs, one on the west coast, in Northam, and one on the east coast, in Beenleigh. This Friday, I'll be in Smart Street in the heart of Fairfield, in the heart of Western Sydney, with the member for McMahon, opening the university study hub that the member for Fowler asked me about just last week, bringing university closer to where people live. This is what delivery looks like, and this is what we are focused on: cutting student debt by 20 per cent, paid prac for teaching and nursing students, and more university study hubs in the bush and in the suburbs. And there's more to come.
Can I thank my friend the member for Deakin for this question. As a former schoolteacher, he understands better than most of us the power of education to change lives. At the election, we...
Can I thank my friend the member for Deakin for this question. As a former schoolteacher, he understands better than most of us the power of education to change lives. At the election, we promised to cut student debt by 20 per cent. The Australian people voted for it, we've passed legislation now to make it happen, and the tax office is working on this right now. In a few weeks time, this will all begin. Phones will start beeping; you'll get a text message or an email telling you that your student debt has been cut by 20 per cent. Millions of Australians will get this message, and all of that beeping and dinging of phones will be the sound of $16 billion coming off the shoulders of young Australians. Millions of Aussies will save thousands of dollars—on average, about $5½ thousand, changing lives. The member for Deakin asked me about this, but he also asked me what else we're doing to build a better and fairer education system. This year, we signed agreements with every state and territory to fix the funding of our public schools, to put them on a path to full and fair funding—something that no government has ever done. It is the biggest new investment in public schools by an Australian government ever. And it's not a blank cheque; it's tied to real reforms, practical reforms that we know work—things like explicit teaching, as well as phonics checks and numeracy checks when kids are little, in year 1, to identify the children who are behind and need more help; and small-group tutoring or catch-up tutoring to help the same children to catch up. Two weeks ago, we took the next step. Two weeks ago, education ministers met and agreed to bring forward work on the national curriculum, starting with the first three years of maths. If you get maths, it helps to set you up for success. It's critical for work and for life, and it's really important to get the basics at school, early. If you don't get the basics right in the first few years of school, you can't build on it. Learning maths is cumulative. You learn it step by step, and that's why we have to get the first three years right. A number of principals and teachers have told us that they think the current maths curriculum here is too complex, and others have told us that teachers need more support to implement it, with clearer advice about what to teach in what order. That is why we'll start here. It's the first part of the curriculum that we're going to work on, but it won't be the last.
Education Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2025; Second Reading | Bills | House debates
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. This bill makes a number of changes to improve integrity, improve access and improve the information we collect about the education system....
I move: That this bill be now read a second time. This bill makes a number of changes to improve integrity, improve access and improve the information we collect about the education system. First, it strengthens the integrity of the international education sector. Second, it expands access for Indigenous students to study medicine by uncapping Commonwealth supported places in medical courses. And third, it introduces measures in early childhood education and care to improve data collection and strengthen the integrity of subsidy administration. International education measures International education is an important national asset. It brings tens of billions of dollars into the economy each year. It also builds friendships and long-term connections around the world. And in the world we live in this is more important than ever. But it is also a target for unscrupulous individuals trying to make a quick buck. In September 2022 we announced the Parkinson review of the migration system. And in January 2023 the Nixon Rapid Review into the Exploitation of Australia's Visa System. These reviews identified integrity issues in international education, and we moved quickly on a number of recommendations of those reviews. This bill is the next step. The reviews made it clear we have a problem with collusive and unscrupulous practices between some agents and providers. In response, the bill inserts a new definition of 'education agent' which better captures their activities. It strengthens the 'fit and proper' test for providers. This means that greater scrutiny will apply where there are cross-ownership arrangements between providers and agents, and where providers are under investigation for serious offences. It also inserts a definition of 'education agent commission'. This will allow for complementary amendments to be made to the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 to ban commissions from being paid to education agents for onshore student transfers. And it gives the education department clearer powers to collect and share information on commissions. This will help providers to choose reputable agents and shut out those who put students at risk. The Minister for Education will also be able to pause new applications for providers or course registration for up to 12 months where needed, so agencies can focus resources on integrity issues. The bill also requires prospective providers to first deliver courses to domestic students for two years before they can apply to teach overseas students as evidence of their commitment to quality education. The registration of providers that fail to deliver a course to overseas students for 12 consecutive months will also be cancelled to help deal with 'phoenixing'. The bill also allows, with agreement from the Minister for Skills and Training, the Minister for Education to suspend or cancel courses with systemic quality issues, limited skills value, or where needed in the public interest. Together, these reforms make it harder for dodgy operators to enter or remain in the sector, while supporting the majority of providers who are doing the right thing. The bill also amends the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act (TEQSA). Providers will now require authorisation from TEQSA to deliver Australian degrees offshore. This means that students who study with an Australian provider overseas will have the same confidence in the quality of an Australian qualification as those who study here. Authorised providers will need to notify TEQSA of new or changed offshore delivery arrangements and report annually on their activities. This will give regulators the information they need to monitor quality and address risks early. The amendments are designed to provide oversight of offshore arrangements whilst also minimising the regulatory burden on Australian providers. The amendments are light-touch, set transitional arrangements that take into account existing offshore arrangements and utilise information that providers already hold. These changes safeguard our reputation as a world leader in education, here and overseas. Indigenous medical students measure Indigenous Australians are significantly underrepresented in our health workforce. They account for 3.8 per cent of the population but only 1.25 per cent of the health workforce. That percentage is even lower amongst doctors. Less than one per cent of doctors identify as Indigenous. The universities accord recommended that we uncap Commonwealth Supported Places for Indigenous medical students to help address this. In the election earlier this year we promised to do this. This bill delivers on that promise. It means every Indigenous student who meets the entry requirements for medicine will have a Commonwealth Supported Place. Evidence shows Indigenous Australians are more likely to have a positive healthcare experience from an Indigenous healthcare worker because of their unique skill sets and cultural knowledge and understanding. We also know that Indigenous doctors are more likely to work in Indigenous community health services and in regional, rural and remote areas. These communities also have some of the highest demands for doctors in the country. This is an important reform that will help to increase the number of Indigenous doctors in Australia. Last year we uncapped funding for all Indigenous students enrolling in non-medical bachelor degrees at a public university. This has already had a positive impact. Last year the number of Indigenous students enrolled in a university course increased by five per cent. This year it increased by a further three per cent. Next year we will take the next step and expand this demand-driven system to all Australians from disadvantaged backgrounds. Early childhood education and care measures The third part of this bill strengthens integrity and transparency in early childhood education and care. Every year the Australian government invests more than $16 billion in the Childcare subsidy. We're committed to building a universal early childhood education and care system that is safe and affordable and accessible for every family. To do that we need a better understanding of the costs of delivering early education and care. And this bill will help us to do that. In MYEFO last year we committed $10.4 million over two years for the Early Education Service Delivery Prices project. This bill gives that project the legislative support that it needs. It amends the family assistance administration act to allow the secretary of my department to compel providers that are constitutional corporations—if necessary—to provide cost related data. Data will be sought voluntarily in the first instance. But this power is important to help ensure that information is accurate, comprehensive and representative. Getting a better understanding of the reasonable costs to deliver early childhood education and care services around the country will help us to deliver evidence based reforms. The bill also makes three further changes in early education and care. It expands the ability to use and disclose protected information, strengthening data governance and supporting transparency and ensuring continuity in reporting. The bill also aligns the date of effect of childcare subsidy reconciliation decisions with the date they take effect in the childcare subsidy system and in line with policy intent. This fixes inconsistencies that have been an issue since 2018, leading to over- and underpayments. Conclusion In conclusion, this bill: All important and necessary reforms, and I commend them to the House. Debate adjourned.
Education Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2025; First Reading | Bills | House debates
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, and that's very, very kind of you—as it is every day. Thank you for your service to this parliament. I present the Education Legislation Amendment...
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, and that's very, very kind of you—as it is every day. Thank you for your service to this parliament. I present the Education Legislation Amendment (Integrity and Other Measures) Bill 2025 and the explanatory memorandum. Bill read a first time.
Schools: Bullying | Questions without Notice | House debates
I thank my friend the member for Sturt for her question. She understands this in a very personal and painful way, which she so powerfully explained to all of us in her first speech to this place....
I thank my friend the member for Sturt for her question. She understands this in a very personal and painful way, which she so powerfully explained to all of us in her first speech to this place. Bullying isn't just a bit of push and shove in the playground or stealing lunch money. It's a lot more awful and insidious than that. Sometimes it can leave invisible scars that never heal. Today it can follow you all the way home after school. The internet means that you can be bullied now at any time, day or night, and anyone can see it. AI, artificial intelligence, makes it even worse. We've seen too many examples of that over the last few months, where photos of students or teachers are cut and cropped onto naked bodies. That sort of bullying and harassment can sometimes lead to teachers leaving the job that they love or, in the worst and most heartbreaking examples, young people taking their own life. You can understand then why so many mothers and fathers around the country are so worried. This is a serious problem, and it's getting worse. One in four students tell us that they've been bullied at school in the last few weeks. One in two say they've been bullied online. Thirteen per cent say that online bullying involved someone telling them that they should die. Complaints about online bullying to the eSafety Commissioner have increased by 450 per cent in the last five years. It's one of the reasons why we're implementing the social media ban for children under the age of 16. It's being led by my friend the Minister for Communications, and it starts in a few weeks. It's also why the Prime Minister commissioned an antibullying rapid review earlier this year. That work is being led by Dr Charlotte Keating, a clinical psychologist, and Professor Jo Robinson AM, the head of suicide prevention research at Orygen. Over the last few months, they've received more than 1,700 submissions from mums, dads, teachers and students. They've also met with students and teachers and with the mothers and fathers who have lost their children because of this. Next week, they will present their recommendations to education ministers and their proposed national standard on bullying in schools. In advance of that, I thank them for the work that they have done. This is hard work, and it's getting harder. We can't be naive and think that anything we do here is going to stop bullying in all its forms or that bullying just happens at school. Of course it doesn't. But it does happen at schools, and schools are a place where we can act to help to keep our children safe. And this report will help us provide a way to do that.
Medical Workforce | Questions without Notice | House debates
He is magnificent; that's a good point. I thank the magnificent member for Macnamara for his question. We need more nurses, and we need more midwives too. These are people who've signed up to do...
He is magnificent; that's a good point. I thank the magnificent member for Macnamara for his question. We need more nurses, and we need more midwives too. These are people who've signed up to do some of the most important jobs in this country—people who will look after us when we're sick and help women during childbirth. A big part of their university degrees is prac—practical training—and it can sometimes be very difficult. I'll just give you one example. For a lot of nursing students, while they're studying part time, they often work at a local hospital as an assistant in nursing. When they do their prac, it's often at the same hospital, and they have to give up their paid part-time job to do it. So that can cause financial difficulties. It can mean that, sometimes, they don't have the money they need to pay for parking, to pay for public transport or to pay for petrol. The good news is that paid prac has now started. We promised it and we're delivering it. It's real cost-of-living help—real practical help—for the practical part of the university degree for nursing students, midwifery students, teaching students and social work students as well. It started on 1 July, and I can advise the House that already more than 30,000 people have applied to get it. We need more nurses, but, as the member for Macnamara asked, we need more doctors too. In the election, we promised to set up a new medical school at the Queensland University of Technology. We promised it and we're delivering it. I can advise the House that it will start training doctors from 2027. We also promised to deliver end-to-end medical training in Launceston at the University of Tasmania so medical students can complete their whole degree in Launceston. We promised it and we're delivering it. It will start from next year, 2026. We also promised to set up a new medical school at Charles Darwin University in the Northern Territory. We promised it and we're delivering it. It, too, will start from next year. We also promised, during the election, to roll out 100 extra medical Commonwealth supported places next year. Universities will be able to bid for these extra places, and applications for them opened last week. The focus here is on training more GPs. It's all part of strengthening Medicare. It's part of the biggest-ever investment in Medicare to make it easier to see a doctor for free. We promised to train more doctors to do it and we are delivering it.
Can I thank my friend the member for Macnamara for his question.