Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Unlike my colleague Senator Griff, I stand here in opposition to the Higher Education Support Amendment (Job-Ready Graduates and Supporting Regional and Remote Students) Bill 2020. I stand here in opposition to it because it is complete and utter rubbish for university students, for the university sector, for children who aspire to go to universities and for their families who aspire for them to go to universities. Ultimately, it's rubbish for our economy because we know the best way to increase productivity in our economy is to invest in people.

This bill represents a shocking attack on those who hold the aspiration to attend university. Not everyone holds this aspiration, and nor should they. University is not the be-all and end-all when it comes to opportunity and life. But we in this place should never be standing in the way of the aspiration of those young people for whom university will be the ticket to the bright future that they aspire to and for whom university will be the answer for a better paid job or the job of their dreams, and of the families who look at their children, who see that hope in their children, who can't afford to support them through university, who want those children to live their dreams and who feel locked out because of this legislation and the additional financial burden it will impose on those who seek to attend university.

What kind of country do we want to be in Australia: one which brings the axe down on the aspirations of young people to better themselves, better their opportunities, or one which gives every student in Australia, regardless of the postcode they're living in, the opportunity to learn, develop and fulfil their individual dreams? I know what kind of Australia I want to be part of. I want to be part of an Australia which supports aspiration, supports opportunity for young people and, when those young people choose university, doesn't add such a huge financial burden to those dreams that they don't get to realise them. How many of us in this chamber got that opportunity? I did. I think most of the frontbench on the other side did. Plenty of us in this place got the opportunity to attend university, and we took up that opportunity because we saw university as a path to the future that we wanted. So who are we to take that away from the young people who see that opportunity in their future as well?

My colleague from Centre Alliance stood here today and said that in an ideal world we would see more funding for the university sector here today. Well, in this place we make choices. We get to help choose the world we want to live in. We get to help choose the country we want to live in. We get a vote in this place. He gets a particularly powerful vote sometimes, as a crossbencher, in this place. If he doesn't think this is ideal, if he doesn't think this is the Australia we want to see in an ideal world, then he could change it. He could change his vote. He's voting for this. It's one thing to say, 'Oh, it's not ideal.' You actually have the power to do something about it, Centre Alliance—Senator Griff. You have the power to do something about it, and today you've chosen to sell out the aspirations of young people in Australia. You've chosen to sell out South Australian families who see that aspiration in their children and, by God, desperately want to see them achieve it. You've sold out productivity. You've sold out opportunity in our state. You can come in here and pretend to have done something different, you can come in here and lament that we don't live in an ideal world, but you actually have the power to create the Australia you want to see. That's why we've all come here. So I think that is a pathetic excuse from Centre Alliance to justify them turning their backs on aspiration, on South Australian students, on South Australian families and on our future productivity and potential prosperity in South Australia. It is outrageous, and we should never let them forget it.

We can make no more important choice in this place than how we help Australians achieve and realise their dreams and their aspirations for a better future for themselves and their families. That should be a key test for all of us. When you take away opportunity in education, when you snatch it out of the hands of students from particular postcodes or backgrounds, then you take an axe to opportunity. You take an axe to the potential of young people and you take an axe to our economy and our future. South Australians will suffer as a result of this legislation. Their dreams will suffer and their opportunities will suffer. The sector will suffer. You cannot pretend it is any other way. This legislation will make it harder and more expensive for young South Australians to go to university. That is at the core of this legislation. Thousands of students will pay more for the same qualification. If that qualification is part of their aspiration, well then that's shot for a lot of them. Forty per cent of students will have their fees increased to more than $14,000 a year, a debt burden that they simply cannot afford. And this is all happening at a time of record youth unemployment, when young people are doing it particularly tough. When they're looking at their future opportunities, the jobs of their dreams, the economy and the burden of debt in front of them, it is an anxious time for young South Australians out there. We are adding to that anxiety by imposing a further limitation on their ability to realise the opportunities they seek for themselves.

I think this is an outrageous piece of legislation. I think it's complete and utter rubbish. I think what Centre Alliance is doing here today, under the cover of budget week, is shameful. It's shameful for the people in South Australia they claim to represent. Labor will oppose this legislation. It is unsalvageable. We will continue to stand for aspiration, for opportunity and for the potential of young South Australians, the dreams they hold for themselves and what they want to achieve.