Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Sinodinos for that question—a very important question, because there are now in Australia two very different future approaches to higher education funding and support for this country. Two very different approaches.

One is an approach that builds on a legacy of reform in Australia that has created the higher education system we have today, and which will position it well for the future. It is our policy. It is a policy on this side that puts confidence in the capability of Australia's 41 universities to be able to chart their pathway—the best pathway possible—to be able to create opportunities for Australian students and the Australian economy, versus the alternative that has now been outlined by those opposite, which is one of 'government knows best'. It is one which would roll back the reforms of the last couple of decades and that would take back the reforms of the Gillard government that opened up opportunity in Australia's higher education sector.

On our side we are progressing with important nation-building reforms when it comes to our higher education capabilities. We will increase opportunities for disadvantaged students; increase the pathways for people into university; and support, through Commonwealth subsidies, places for sub-bachelor degrees that have never been supported before and which are not covered for support by those opposite. We will create a new Commonwealth scholarships system, creating more opportunity for people—especially from disadvantaged backgrounds.

This stands in stark contrast to the approach of those opposite, whose model, it appears, wants to go back to the days of caps on university places and an approach that focuses on completions that will ensure they drive out of the system those from the most disadvantaged areas of Australia and which will reduce the opportunity for those they pretend to support— (Time expired)