Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I support this motion and I'm very hopeful that the government and the Greens will not attempt to shut down public hearings on this critically important bill. The Higher Education Support Amendment (Response to the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report) Bill 2023 is a very important bill which deserves public hearings. One of the key issues is the proposal by the government to put in place a student support policy that will hold universities to account to ensure that students complete their degrees. At the moment, only 41 per cent of undergraduate students who attempt a four-year degree complete it within that time, and if you are an Indigenous student the figure is only 26 per cent. So there are some very pressing issues, and Australian students, the university sector and other key stakeholders deserve the right to be heard.

One of the very important issues that we want to canvass at this public hearing is the horrific situation with sexual assault and sexual harassment on university campuses. I will say again for the record that in 2021 a national student safety survey found that one in 20 students had been sexually assaulted in the past 12 months. It is deeply concerning that, while the government has foreshadowed the critical need for student support and a policy, it has failed to reference the safety of students with respect to the sort of support that the government should be providing.