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representatives vote 2020-11-12#1
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2020-11-20 13:06:05
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Title
Bills — Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Provider Category Standards and Other Measures) Bill 2020; Second Reading- Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Provider Category Standards and Other Measures) Bill 2020 - Second Reading - Keep motion unchanged
Description
<p class="speaker">Graham Perrett</p><p>I speak today on the Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Provider Category Standards and Other Measures) Bill 2020. I move the following amendment:</p><p class="italic">That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:</p>- The majority voted in favour of a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/debate/?id=2020-11-12.11.2) to keep the original wording of the [second reading motion](https://peo.gov.au/understand-our-parliament/how-parliament-works/bills-and-laws/making-a-law-in-the-australian-parliament/) unchanged. A second reading motion is "*that the bill be read a second time*," which is parliamentary jargon for agreeing with the main idea of the bill. The change was proposed by the MP For Moreton [Graham Perrett](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/representatives/moreton/graham_perrett) (Labor).
- ### Proposed change
- > *That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:*
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- > *"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes that the Government has:*
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- > *(1) damaged the quality of Australia's world-class education system;*
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- > *(2) abandoned university workers during the pandemic;*
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- > *(3) cut billions in funding and made it harder and more expensive for students to go to university; and*
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- > *(4) done nothing that will help young people get into priority courses and jobs".*
<p class="italic">"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes that the Government has:</p><p class="italic">(1) damaged the quality of Australia's world-class education system;</p><p class="italic">(2) abandoned university workers during the pandemic;</p><p class="italic">(3) cut billions in funding and made it harder and more expensive for students to go to university; and</p><p class="italic">(4) done nothing that will help young people get into priority courses and jobs".</p><p>This bill amends the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency Act 2011, the TEQSA Act, to clarify and streamline the regulatory framework of higher education providers. The amendments seek to give effect to recommendations made in the Coaldrake review of the higher education provider category standards. Emeritus Professor Peter Coaldrake AO completed the review in October 2019. The purpose of the Coaldrake review was to ensure that provider category standards in the national regulatory framework remain fit for purpose. The review made 10 recommendations to simplify and rebalance the current categories of higher education providers, including reducing the overall number of categories from six down to four.</p><p>The amendments provided by this bill differ slightly from the recommendations of the Coaldrake review by adopting 'university colleges' as one of the category names rather than, as recommended by Coaldrake, 'institute of higher education'. Labor is concerned that the provisions in this bill do partly ignore Professor Coaldrake's recommendations, and we need to be sure that this change won't jeopardise the reputation of our excellent Australian universities. To that end, Labor has referred this bill to a Senate inquiry.</p><p>The bill also allows a decision by TEQSA to refuse to change a provider's category to be reviewed and provides TEQSA with legislative authority to assume control of higher education student records in the unfortunate event that the provider ceases operation. The bill will ensure the protection of the word 'university' from use in internet domain names, by requiring the minister's consent before any such use. I will come back to this aspect of the bill a bit later in the speech, because it's slightly problematic. These amendments are welcome. They will be helpful in simplifying the provider categories of higher education providers.</p><p>Currently the threshold standards 2015 determine what criteria are required for an institution to be registered in a provider category. The current threshold standards 2015 provide that institutions who register as Australian universities, Australian university colleges and Australian university of specialisation are currently required to undertake:</p><p class="italic">… research that leads to the creation of new knowledge and original creative endeavour at least in those broad fields of study in which Masters Degrees (Research) and Doctoral Degrees (Research) are offered</p><p>There are no requirements about the volume of research to be undertaken or the quality of the research to be undertaken. The Coaldrake review recommended:</p><p class="italic">Along with teaching, the undertaking of research is, and should remain, a defining feature of what it means to be a university in Australia; a threshold benchmark of quality and quantity of research should be included in the Higher Education Provider Category Standards. This threshold benchmark for research quality should be augmented over time.</p><p>The bill provides that TEQSA have regard to the quality of the research undertaken as part of its consideration of whether a provider meets the threshold standards in relation to the research requirement for the provider category that they have applied for. Labor will always welcome strengthening research requirements for our universities.</p><p>In the city and in the bush, universities are pivotal in changing lives and uplifting communities, whether it be in the wonderful Griffith University at Nathan campus or Griffith University down in Logan campus—wherever it is—we know that universities change lives. We have world-class researchers at our universities. We should always be striving to enhance their efforts and increase their endeavours. I'm concerned that other changes made by the government, including recently passed legislation that will reduce the funding that universities have available for research, may impact on this otherwise welcome change. Again, Labor will await the findings of the Senate inquiry.</p><p>I'm grateful the minister has responded relatively promptly to the recommendations in the Coaldrake review. This is a refreshing change for the Morrison government. They have not reacted so swiftly to the changing circumstances that smashed into the university sector this year. We know universities have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, universities were one of the first sectors to be hit when international borders were closed, locking international students out. I remember clearly the guy who came up with the 'Where the bloody hell are you?' campaign turned around to international students and said, 'Go home'—incredible damage done to our brand. Obviously, the other factor is the projected revenue cut just from international students being locked out. It's about $16 billion—</p> <p class="speaker">Honourable Member</p><p>An honourable member interjecting—</p> <p class="speaker">Graham Perrett</p><p>He said, 'Go home.' I take that interjection. He actually said, 'Go home.' It's about $16 billion of cuts from international students, but the tail of the damage could linger longer and damage deeper for years to come.</p><p>That's on top of the $2.2 billion in cuts that have already been made to university funding by the Liberal-National government. And now that the job-ready graduates bill is passed, universities can expect an additional funding cut of $1 billion a year. The government claims the job-ready graduates reform is to encourage students to study maths, science and engineering. That is a noble goal; I do admit that. But mark my words, the policy is not going to do that. In fact, I bet it will achieve the opposite. The reforms will actually incentivise universities to offer more humanities courses and fewer maths and science courses because they'll receive more funding for the non-priority courses, including humanities, than they will for the priority courses like maths and science. Currently, universities receive $28,958 resourcing to teach a science course. Under the new reforms, universities will only receive $24,200 resourcing for that same course. That's a cut of $4,758, irrespective of what's going on with the cuts delivered by international students not arriving.</p><p>To make things even worse for universities this year, the Morrison government has deliberately blocked them from access to JobKeeper payments. Three times the Morrison government changed the rules to deliberately exclude universities from the $130 billion wage subsidy program. This government has absolutely neglected universities during this pandemic—this health and economic crisis. Not surprisingly, more than 12,000 jobs have been lost across the country already, and it's estimated that, by the end of the year, 21,000 university jobs will be lost. That's 21,000 households hit because of the neglect from the Morrison government. Just last week, Griffith University, who have a campus in my electorate of Moreton, announced they'd be cutting almost 300 university jobs. This Morrison government could have stopped the job losses—academics, tutors, admin staff, library staff catering staff, grounds staff, cleaners, security—but it didn't. All of those workers have families, and they're just trying to get through this challenging year, put food on the table and keep the roof over their heads. Instead, the Morrison government hasn't lifted a finger to help them.</p><p>Sadly, regional universities are the ones that will be hit hardest. Regional universities support 14,000 jobs. Go beyond the cities, and see how that will play out. When Prime Minister Morrison attacks the bush, where are the voices of the Nationals, to stick up for their universities? Regional universities are huge employers in places like Cairns—a town that's actually doing it very tough because of tourism—Townsville, Rockhampton, Toowoomba, Wollongong, Armidale, Bathurst, Newcastle, Ballarat, Bendigo, Whyalla, Port Augusta, Launceston and Burnie. They are huge employers in those towns. These districts have had a horrendous year. Many of them have had to shut down campuses; they've had jobs cut. And that's often, in some places, coming on top of 12 months of fire, flood and drought—all those other things—as well as COVID-19.</p><p>In May, we saw Central Queensland University—Queensland's largest regional university—announce that it would close three of its rural campuses, in places like Yeppoon, Biloela and Noosa. At the same time, Central Queensland University was forced to cut 182 jobs. Did we hear anything from the National Party? No—nothing. This not only affects the university staff and students; it has a wider impact on the nation. We know that seven in 10 regional university graduates take up work outside of metropolitan areas and that those universities and students reinvest more than $2 billion a year in those regional communities with university campuses. Once students put on the Akubra, seven out of 10 of them at a bush university will graduate and won't take that Akubra off. They'll stay in the bush. So the impact of these closures will be felt for many, many years.</p><p>The incredibly talented researchers at our universities are doing remarkable work during this very difficult year. Researchers are working around the clock to find a vaccine, with some promising trials occurring right now. Just this week, the University of Queensland in Brisbane announced they've produced locally made coronavirus proteins in their state-of-the-art laboratory which are proving useful in a sophisticated new blood test for COVID-19. Our universities may end up saving humanity, but they can't rely on the Morrison government to protect their jobs. Education is actually our fourth-largest export industry. I saw the Prime Minister, in a former life, bring in a lump of coal, but he's never brought in a university degree and recognised our fourth-largest export industry.</p><p>The Morrison government made a deliberate choice not to help universities during this crisis, and students are also going to be hit by the Job-ready Graduates reforms. These reforms are going to make it harder and more expensive for students to go to university. In fact, some students will be playing double for their degrees. The reforms are unlikely to create an incentive for students to study maths, science or engineering just because they may be slightly cheaper. Either students want to study maths, science and engineering or they don't. I don't think any educator would agree that students should be making their future study choices, something that will determine the rest of their life, based on the cost of the degree. Saddling students with a mountain of debt before they've even commenced their career could potentially create a disincentive to study at all. That can't be good for students or for our nation at a time when we need our best and brightest most.</p><p>We know that by 2025 Australia will require another 3.8 million university qualifications. Australians need our universities to be skilling up students for jobs for the future. Universities need support, not constant cuts, and students need to be inspired to study the course of their choice without fear of the great burden of debt. The Morrison government has promised to fund 39,000 new university places by 2023, but the truth is they're cost-shifting university education to students by increasing student debt. Students overall will be paying an extra seven per cent of the total cost of their university courses because of decisions made by the Morrison government.</p><p>That is in the context of the class of 2020, who are coming to the end of their school year right now—what an exceptionally difficult year! As politicians, we spend a lot of time with our graduating classes. This year has been incredible. They've not had the benefit of spending as much time with their peers due to COVID-19 restrictions, be it on sports or social activities. Many classes have had to be undertaken online, and that is not always ideal. It does suit some kids, but most have suffered because of it. The usual stresses of year 12 have been exacerbated by anxiety about a virus that has caused more than a million deaths so far across the globe. Families have been separated by travel restrictions, grandparents have been isolated, and then, to top it off, the Morrison government is making it harder and more expensive for this graduating class to go to university. What a gift!</p><p>I understand the minister will be moving an amendment to his bill to ensure that the process around limiting the use of the word 'university' in internet domain names is possible in a practical sense. But Labor calls on the government to explain how this change will be enforced. We would expect regular checks to be made to ensure providers are not illegally representing themselves as universities through their domain names, because my understanding is that you automatically are given a domain name if no other entity has that domain name, so practically it will require oversight. We need to do all we can to protect the excellent reputation of Australian universities; we should not let people undermine that.</p><p>Labor will not oppose this bill in the House today, but we have referred it to a Senate inquiry to better understand the impact that these changes will have on the sector, and we will await the report of that Senate inquiry.</p> <p class="speaker">Rob Mitchell</p><p>Is the amendment seconded?</p> <p class="speaker">Jim Chalmers</p><p>It's seconded and I reserve my right to speak.</p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>
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