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

I rise to speak on the Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2025. The Australian Universities Accord final report was released in February last year, and it outlined the blueprint for higher education reform over the next decade and the decade after that. The accord found that the tertiary education system's approach to planning and policymaking is fragmented, lacks collaboration and does not focus on the long-term future.

The evidence was clear: Australia has not been adequately applying the expertise of our higher education system. For too long, we have lacked a single institution responsible for leading and pulling together both higher education and VET to respond to our national needs. The accord highlighted the need for a dedicated national steward to support long-term planning, consistency and improved outcomes for different cohorts.

Establishing the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, the ATEC, was one of the key recommendations of the accord. Through these bills we can deliver on that recommendation. These bills establish the ATEC to be an independent steward for the higher education system. The ATEC will provide advice to government to support long-term planning and publish an annual report on the health and performance of the tertiary system. Let me be clear: the ATEC is not about being a regulator; it's about bringing together the VET and higher education systems, making it easier for students to get the qualifications they need and desire. The ATEC will be empowered to allocate funding under the new managed growth funding system, implement needs based funding within the core funding model, and negotiate mission based compacts to support this diverse, responsive and high-performing sector.

Importantly, the bills ensure that the ATEC will recognise the role of First Nations Australians in the higher education system and improve access and success within it. Through its work, the ATEC will help more students—in particular, those from regional and rural communities—to access university, and it will help them to participate better and succeed when they get there.

The Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee, which I chair, conducted an inquiry into these bills. Our inquiry spanned three months. It received 70 submissions from a range of stakeholders, including public universities, peak bodies, and staff and student representative organisations. Overall I believe the message was clear: Australia's tertiary education system lacks coordinated leadership and has become fragmented and unable to meet our national higher education needs. Reform is essential. Long-term direction is crucial to the sustainability and consistency within the tertiary sector. A dedicated system steward is needed. A dedicated system steward is overdue.

We know the sector strongly supports the establishment of an ATEC. For that reason, our report recommended that the Senate pass these bills. Over the course of this inquiry we heard evidence that the ATEC has the potential to become one of the most consequential transformations of the Australian higher education sector since the reforms of the eighties. Any further delay in creating a steward would leave the sector without the guidance it so urgently requires.

Establishing the ATEC in law is a significant and substantial reform. It is an overdue reform. The sector needs a steward. All Australians benefit when our higher education system is performing at its best. We can and should have a higher education system that is the envy of the world. That's why we're investing extensively in higher education, driving governance reforms across the sector and delivering further reforms to make it more affordable for Australians to attend university. We've cut the HELP debt of all Australians who have a student loan by 20 per cent, wiping $16 billion worth of student debt. We've established a Commonwealth prac payment for the first time to support teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students while they are completing their practical training at university. We've established a National Student Ombudsman and are implementing a new set of university governance principles.

The Labor Party has always been the party of education. Our government will continue to build a better and fairer higher education system for every Australian. We need to be clear that an ATEC is an essential part of that agenda. An ATEC is what is required to secure and to steward the system. I commend these bills to the Senate.