Ms RYAN (Lalor—Opposition Whip) (16:05): Well, hasn't this MPI set the cat amongst the pigeons. Here I was preparing this afternoon and thinking: we might get there and someone on the other side might get up and announce a new policy. I was quite hopeful that perhaps we would come in here this afternoon, all prepared to talk about $100,000 degrees, to find that they had been dustbinned. But, no, what we have learnt this afternoon is what we knew before we got here. What we have learnt is that while the member for Sturt is busy 'unleashing his revolutionary', the new minister is hiding the mess left by the member for Sturt, the self-proclaimed fixer, who has gone off to fix something else. What we have learnt is that they are not throwing out this terrible policy. They are not going to stop the cuts to universities. They are not going to stop the $100,000 degrees that they want to foist on the young people in my electorate of Lalor. No, what we have learnt today is that they are trudging on with this great policy of theirs. They are trudging on with their unfairness. They are trudging on with that 2014 budget. They are trudging on with the cruel, unfair measures from the 2014 budget. New minister? There is nothing new to see here, though—$100,000 degrees are alive and well, just as we thought. All we have heard from the new minister is a concession that he could not possibly bring in the price rises in 2016 because it had been beaten in the Senate twice and he could not put the legislation through a third time. The fixer has been foiled, one might say, and left this mess for the new minister to try to clean up. Rather than come in here today and make an announcement of a new policy—rather than follow Labor, lockstep, down the road in the year of ideas and give us an idea—they are staying with this policy, which has been rejected soundly by the Australian public. I am trying to remember what month it was last year when the petition ticked over to 100,000 signatures against the $100,000 degrees. I am trying to remember when we ticked over that milestone. Mr Pasin: You're addicted to this number. There are other numbers! Ms RYAN: These are real numbers—$100,000 is a real number for a degree. Those opposite can persist in not believing what has been put in front of them, but, unfortunately, they have a trust problem when it comes to education—strangely enough, they have a trust problem in this area. The deregulation, the cuts to universities, the $100,000 degrees and the Americanisation of our tertiary education system that they tried to sell to the Australian public and tried to push past the Senate twice are still alive for the government. I implore this government: see sense now, before it is too late. Really, what you could do is read our policy. In this era, when we need innovation, you can take it from the party that understands education, the party that cares about education and the party that will go to the ramparts, fighting for fair education for the young people of this country. You could pull out our policy documents. Look at our announcements, which will tell you how to support students in getting a tertiary qualification. They will explain to you that, rather than create $100,000 degrees, you should actually be reimbursing the HECS of those students who are prepared to study the subjects we need them to study, who are going to drive the new economy. In question time today, I heard the Prime Minister say, 'We can't rely on iron ore anymore.' I heard him say it. It is something new that he has said. Ms Claydon: Well, invest in higher education. Ms RYAN: Invest in higher education—there is a thought. Come up with a new policy. But, right now, the public knows, and today's MPI has proved it: you have no new ideas. You are going to stay with the cruel, unfair measures of the 2014 budget and you are going to persist with the Americanisation of Australia's universities. That is the plan to date. Ms Claydon: Let the market rip! Ms RYAN: And they say they understand markets. If they understood markets, they would know that, if you put a 20 per cent cut in place, deregulate and offer a business the opportunity to make that up, gee, they will charge higher fees. (Time expired)