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

South Australians are emerging from what has been a really tough summer. For many, the change in the environment in South Australia when borders opened and COVID entered our state either has been personally catastrophic or has caused tremendous challenges for them, for their work, for their families and for their businesses. It has been a really difficult summer, and it's been made worse by a prime minister who, once again, has failed South Australians in the way he's responded to the pandemic and in the way he's responded to the changes before us, such as the changes in this variant—whether it's been his failure to secure enough rapid antigen tests for Australian workers so they can get back to work for their families; his failure to get jabs in the arms of kids returning to the classroom and into the arms of teachers, who weren't yet eligible for boosters but needed them to get back to work in order to do their work safely; or his government's shocking failure to respond adequately to the crisis in our aged-care homes across the country.

South Australians, on all of these fronts, feel deeply let down by the Prime Minister. They feel deeply let down by his government, and I don't blame them. It's been a really tough few years compounded by a really tough summer, and every time they're looking to their Prime Minister to lead, he's not there. He's not holding a hose; he's not getting on with the job of the vaccine rollout; he's not building quarantine facilities; he's not securing the RATs; he's not supporting the early childhood workforce, who are on the front line of this pandemic but who have been seemingly invisible to the government for so long; and he's not taking the steps required to fix a crisis in aged care. In fact, his government is getting caught up in word games whilst people are dying.

South Australians feel failed. They feel let down by this Prime Minister. They're questioning his character. They're questioning his ability to stand up for them when they need him. They're questioning his relationship with the truth. They're questioning whether, when they need their government to step in, the government will be there, because, on every measure this summer and in the years before, they haven't been there. But, beyond these acute issues, which are issues of urgency, there are further failures that are less seen, less talked about and less spoken of, and I want to use my time today to talk about the impact of the Morrison government's failures on the higher education and further education sector in my home state of South Australia—a sector which feels abandoned by the Morrison government.

My state is home to three world-class universities and eight TAFE campuses. There are hundreds of thousands of South Australian men and women, young and old, who have talent and potential to develop but who are being let down by a government which is meant to stand for them and for their opportunities and aspirations. Our universities in South Australia educate around 90,000 students. When it comes to TAFE, more than one million students have learned valuable skills and experience at TAFEs in South Australia since these facilities were established in 1971.

We in South Australia know that higher education is vital to our economic future. We know this because it has been crucial to our success economically as a state, and we know that, according to Universities Australia, university research has added $10 billion to Australia's GDP each year for the last 30 years. We're not just talking about big universities in our cities; it's about our regional economies too. We know universities contribute $2 billion a year to these economies. They support over 14,000 regional jobs and, before COVID, 120,000 direct full-time jobs nationwide, while supporting a broader 40,000 jobs in the wider economy. Before COVID, our higher education institutions in South Australia brought in an estimated 10,000 international students each year with an economic value of $2 billion in 2019. These students were fundamentally and horrifically let down by the government when the pandemic struck. Students had to line up for food and rely on our charity sector to support them.

Of course, we also have university research to thank for the speedy development of what we know are truly life-saving vaccines that we have come to rely on during this this pandemic. And we have universities to thank for crucial social and cultural ties that bind international students with local students, building relationships and connections which have meaning not just to the individuals involved but to whole communities, whole cities and to our nation.

Of course, higher education is more than university. I've spoken about that in this chamber several times before. As important as universities are, they are not the be-all and end-all aspiration for all South Australians. Further education like TAFE and vocational training present incredible opportunities. But, on these fronts, the government have let down young South Australians, too. TAFE has a critical role to play in advancing the aspirations of many young people in my state—and, indeed, many older people in my state—who are looking to retrain, reskill and be ready to adapt flexibly to the jobs of the future as opportunities in the labour market change.

The government have allowed the pandemic to wreak havoc on our education sector. Rather than supporting it throughout this pandemic, they have been systematically trashing it, as they have done for years. They let their ideology about higher education drive their policy response. It's an ideology they should have left at the door many years ago, but especially during this pandemic when this sector has been crying out for help and when our economy in South Australia—which has so much to gain from a strong higher education sector—has been crying out for help.

The Prime Minister has turned his back on higher education. When you turn your back on higher education, you don't just turn your back on the researchers within it and on the breakthroughs they could make, or on the staff working within it; you also turn your back on the future aspirations of a generation of people, for whom higher education is their ticket to something different and to something they aspire to. How many breakthroughs and how many careers are lost when you stop our young people from furthering their dreams and education, be that at a university or a TAFE?

The government have trashed this sector. They left it high and dry when it came to wage subsidies. Indeed, in my time in this place, they introduced legislation which had the effect of increasing the cost of university for students, taking away that opportunity. The government's failure to support the university sector and the people who seek opportunities and the expansion of their own potential comes at a time when, for young Australians particularly, opportunities are looking pretty bleak. Young people have been disproportionately hit by this pandemic compared to other groups in our community. They have been forced to drain their super to get by. Their disproportionate involvement in casual and insecure work has left them incredibly vulnerable during this pandemic. Other aspects of their dreams have been affected in terms of their coming of age and their year 12 studies, denying them the opportunities that we had. That has been compounded by an ideological attack on the institutions which offer them that next step in delivering on their aspirations. What an incredible failure by the government of a whole generation of people!

The government have failed all those people in our community who want to be ready for a changing economy and be ready for the opportunities created by a renewable energy revolution. They have failed all those who are seeking opportunities in terms of microcredentialing of the skill sets they need to upgrade or adapt. There are nurses who want to change their qualifications so they can get on the front line of this pandemic and who want to upskill in order to re-enter the workforce or to come back from retirement. These are the institutions that help deliver it, that help deliver the research which keeps us safe from things like global pandemics. They provide an incredible economic opportunity, especially in my state. They forge these cultural ties. They are the ticket to better aspiration for so many people. This Prime Minister has failed them, and in doing so he has failed my state and failed our opportunities in South Australia.