Nova Peris (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today in support of Senator Carr's motion on disallowance of Amendment No. 1 to the Commonwealth Grant Scheme Guidelines 2012 and to talk about why this disallowance is so important to members of my constituents in the Northern Territory. The challenge we face due to our landscape and the enormous distances to cover in the Territory is an issue we must continue to meet head on, especially when we talk about delivering quality education. As I have continued to state since coming into parliament, Labor believes that every child in Australia should have access to quality education, no matter where they come from. This is the difference between Labor and the coalition. In order to ensure we continue to increase the number of regional and remote enrolments and student completion of courses, it is integral that the government continues to offset the increased costs of running universities in regional and remote areas. The students of today, especially those from remote and regional communities, will be the leaders of tomorrow—the leaders who will inspire the next generation to go to school, to achieve and to want to contribute to society and to make a change for the better.

Under a Labor government, we increased participation in universities. We introduced measures to increase indexation to university funding, increase money for essential student services, improve career paths for academics and improve access to Youth Allowance, Austudy and Abstudy for students. Through these incentives we were able to ensure that, for the first time, remote and regional students had access, pathways and opportunities to reach their dreams of commencing tertiary education. Before the election, the coalition said that they were on a unity ticket with Labor on the Better Schools Plan and went as far as to say that no school would be worse off under the coalition. Since then, as is the case in many other areas, the coalition has backflipped on their promise to invest this money in schools. They have abandoned the needs based funding model—the very model designed to improve education for remote and regional children in particular.

It has taken a Labor government to increase participation rates in universities, with 190,000 more students at university today—a number we are proud of, and a number Labor will continue to ensure increases through incentives such as the ones we are talking about today. The Commonwealth Scholarships Program assists Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, particularly those from rural, regional and remote areas, with costs associated with higher education. The scholarship program also includes Indigenous Staff Scholarships, which develop Indigenous leadership in our universities and other tertiary institutions by providing opportunities for professional development. Indigenous staff represent a key element in encouraging children not only to go to school but to stay in school. If the legislative instrument goes through, these scholarships for Indigenous students and staff will be diminished, and there will be no additional funding to improve these students' school education.

I will end by mentioning a few ideas I think resonate with Labor's values on education. I believe you cannot put a price on quality education for an Australian child. I believe that quality education is just like the seed of hope—if we plant it right, nourish it, and continually care for it, it will grow and flourish. I believe that the seed of hope is the core of what you are, but it is also the promise of what you can become. I believe that a quality education is the basic fundamental right of every child of this country, irrespective of their race, their creed or the colour of their skin. That is why I cannot support the removal of such key education incentives. Simply put, Labor believes we must put education first. That is why those on this side of the house believe these instruments must be disallowed.