Senator McKENZIE (Victoria) (16:11): It gives me much pleasure to rise today to speak to this motion about the effect of the government's higher education reforms on communities that I represent as a National Party senator—on regional students; on the universities, which play a significant role in the communities we represent; on our industries; and on our communities more generally. Senator Carr, we do not support an American style of higher education. That is a system borne out of the cultural experiences of the American state. That is very different from how universities in this nation were set up and, indeed, it is very different from the whole culture of our education system in Australia, which is based on egalitarian principles. The government is opening up the higher education system to an additional 80,000 young Australians by 2018. The great proportion of those students will be from low-socioeconomic families—first-generation students seeking to take advantage of all that a higher education degree can bring you as an individual and to contribute significantly to our economy and our communities. You would think the Labor Party would be celebrating the fact that we will be increasing the number of young Australians accessing higher education. Instead, they roll out Senator Carr, the man responsible for ripping out so much from our higher education system. And, I tell you, they do not want him back. Under Labor we saw the system opened up and increased without the subsequent changes that had to happen on the other side of the equation. The coalition government has committed to implementing the reforms from the Kemp-Norton review, which look at increasing the supply of university places throughout higher education. This includes not just bachelor degrees but sub-bachelor degrees, diplomas and associate diplomas—postsecondary qualifications. The majority of young people in regional Australia do not go into higher education. I do not think it is because they are not as clever as their urban cousins and I do not think it is because they cannot get into university or do not want to. I think it is a combination of factors. Some of it, obviously, is the financial barriers that many families from regional areas face in ensuring that their young people can move away from home and access higher education in urban centres. These are things that we are addressing within our reforms. It is quite disappointing that Senator Carr is not onboard to further develop and reform the higher education system. As a developed economy in the 21st century, with developing economies snapping at our heels, we need to be innovative and we need to be competitive in a global market. That only comes from an education system which is world class. We are not going to have world-class institutions operating on every street corner. That is just not possible, it is not sustainable and it should not be what we are aspiring to do. But we need to create an environment where some institutions and some universities are able to go out and take it up to the best in the world and where others are able to meet our domestic requirements in terms of research, vocational supply of teachers, nurses et cetera and the professions more generally. That is the type of education system that we need in this country in order to be globally competitive going forward. That is the type of higher education system that our government seeks to create through these fundamental and historical reforms which, as a whole package, seek to strike a balance between equity of access and global competitiveness. To actually strike a balance is tricky. You cannot go to the lowest common denominator, as Senator Carr would seek to do. You have to have diversity within the system, which means that some will be better than others at different things. And that is okay. Obviously, within a system like that we also need to ensure that student mobility is increased. One of the exciting things about our package is that not only will we be seeing regional students studying locally—and thanks to our Commonwealth Scholarships program, starting at the best universities in the nation and the best universities in the world—but we will see reverse migration where regional universities are able to compete against those urban universities, those 'sandstones', if you like, where they can actually say, 'Getting a quality education in this country is about a variety of criteria and you as a student have to make up your mind what matters to you.' That will mean different things for different students. We need to give people choice and we need to allow an environment where universities can decide what they are going to excel at. It is our fourth largest export industry. We want to be the best. It is important. Our government has committed $274 million in regional loading over the next four years to support regional universities. I just want to briefly touch on some of the fabulous research that is occurring at our regional universities. A couple of weeks ago I was at Deakin University, in Geelong, where we celebrated the opening of the Carbon Nexus centre. We have world-class researchers who have created fibre that will change the way we communicate and the way we construct everything from racing cars and beyond. It is very exciting, particularly for that area in my home state, which is undergoing such challenges at the moment, to have such a fabulous research program going on at Deakin University. Similarly, James Cook University, in North Queensland, is world renowned when it comes to marine biology. Thanks to the government's investment into that regional university it will now take on the world when it comes to tropical disease research. La Trobe University, again in my home state of Victoria, is looking at the Murray-Darling Basin and how we can better use our water more efficiently. Those are fabulous things that regional universities can be good at. You can be a world-class regional university. Harvard University is not in a capital city. Oxford University is not in a capital city. This reform package as a whole, if taken with all the measures that the government has been able to put together, can actually result in regional universities taking on the world in their area of specialisation. I think it is very exciting. I am quite disappointed, again, with Senator Carr's rhetoric. We heard it in estimates and I will not repeat it here because it was quite unparliamentary. But check it out in Hansard. Again, he talks about the biggest losers being the universities that my constituents attend and the universities whose research programs address the issues that my community needs addressed. He calls them the biggest losers. We have to stop the myth and stop the rhetoric. It is a bit like with agriculture: you have to stop talking it down. Let us start talking about the positives that are occurring in regional universities, the positives for regional students and regional communities rather than going on about being the biggest losers. It is absolutely incorrect. Senator Carr talked about pressures being put on the university sector. I can tell you that the pressures under the previous government were horrendous. The ALP policy settings were the things that put pressure on our university system: extra students, no extra money. Anyway, we will not go into that at the moment, because there is too much good news in the coalition's higher education package for regional students, regional universities and regional communities. If you had been listening to Senator Carr, you would have thought that all regional universities were against our changes and that there was a lack of understanding or collaboration. The minister has been touring throughout Australia over recent months, attending higher education universities in urban and rural areas. He has been getting firsthand experience of the type of education and research that you can undertake in a regional community. The Regional Universities Network fully supports the federal government's budget. The chair of the Regional Universities Network, Professor Peter Lee, is pleased that equal participation is such a high priority for the government. I quote Professor Lee: We are particularly pleased that the Government has decided to keep the demand driven system for bachelor places and extended it to sub-bachelor places. This will assist in providing pathways and lift participation in higher education in regional Australia for less well prepared students. I think that is exciting and that the government has actually listened to the concerns of regional universities in the construction of this package. Again, I turn to Professor Lee's comments: We welcome the simplification of the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program, and look forward to working with the Government on the detail of its implementation. Prior to that, regional universities were calling on us as a government to make the tough decisions, to go ahead with the reforms that the sector needs in order for us to become globally competitive and to ensure that access and equity of participation are balanced against our desire to be the very, very best in the world. The Regional Universities Network called for the government to turn to lower socioeconomic background and regional students, who have been largely ignored by previous governments. The fact that we are debating this as a result of a motion by Senator Moore and Senator Carr is fabulous. If only they had paid a little more attention to regional students and regional higher education providers when they were in government we would not have seen the youth allowance debacle and the lack of access that that precipitated and the changing of rules every five minutes. That was absolutely deplorable. So to have you in here championing the interests of regional Australia is something I wish we could have more of, Senator Carr. We have listened to the regional universities when they called for us to be focusing on levers and initiatives that would actually increase participation for low socioeconomic students and regional students. To ensure that, we have extended the Higher Education Loan Program to encompass such things as sub-bachelor and associate diplomas. That is a positive thing for regional students because they are more likely to access those sorts of programs. I find it quite interesting that the Labor Party is making a very loud ruckus on the back of those parents who are unable to pay those fees up-front now. Is that the issue? Why should regional Australians, who typically earn less than anybody in urban Australia— Senator Polley: Why are you taxing families? Senator McKENZIE: Senator Polley, I love that you are looking incredulous. We earn less—our median income is lower in every single place right across regional Australia. Yet you expect taxpayers in regional Australia who earn less per capita than anyone you would represent, Senator Polley— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Gallacher ): Senator McKenzie, please address your remarks through the chair. Senator McKENZIE: The taxpayers from those communities, Mr Acting Deputy President, are expected to subsidise the philosophy degrees of middle-class Australians attending G8 universities. What about the taxpayers I represent? Senator Polley: You've got your degree. Senator McKENZIE: The taxpayer dollars that the mums and dads in Burke or the mums and dads in Metung who are running a mechanics workshop contribute to the federal government are going to fund the majority of the degree of somebody who went to Melbourne Grammar and is attending Melbourne university studying philosophy. That is just not fair, I am sorry. They are happy to do it, but it is just not fair. I think and I am sure they would agree that part of our taxes should be going to subsidise the higher education of our young people, because that ensures that our community builds capacity. There is a public contribution from individuals completing higher education. However, there is also a significant private benefit. I do not know why my mechanic in Metung has to subsidise the son of a Toorak doctor doing their arts agree at a G8 university. It is not fair. That is why I think it is fair that he subsidises 50 per cent of the cost—not the majority of it, half of it. Senator Polley: They're going to come out with a debt. Senator McKENZIE: If you go back to your membership, Senator Polley, in whatever union you represent here today I am sure your hardworking union members would back me up on this. They know that their taxpayer contribution should actually be a fair contribution. That is why I am so proud of our government for ensuring that we are providing a significant amount of support, a historic amount of support, to those young people who are going into the trades. I just paused there, Mr Acting Deputy President, because I was hoping I would get a clap for that one from the other side. We are actually supporting those going into trades with a historic amount of investment—yet nothing, no claps. There was silence. One of the great things about our package as a whole is that it does address the parameters that affect potential first-generation graduates in families, those going into trades, those doing diplomas and associate diplomas. That is the important thing, that we have a suite of arrangements that does not just benefit the middle-class and entrench privilege, as Senator Carr said. It ensures that, no matter what you choose as a young person and no matter how you want to contribute and what future you see for yourself, you will have the opportunity to do that through post-secondary education in this country. It is not a bottomless pit. Senator Polley: They'll all come out with a debt. It's out of reach for most young people. Senator McKENZIE: Senator Polley, Universities Australia sees that there are issues and we are talking about that. The minister has set up working groups to work through the level of detail on what we do with the cluster arrangements, how we structure Commonwealth scholarships to ensure they meet our targeted goal of opening up equitable access to higher education so the very brightest students from regional Australia will not be held back by financial barriers anymore. We need to ensure that student mobility increases so that the communities I represent within regional Australia can benefit from an influx of young people from urban centres and right around the country who want to study at providers where the research specialisation is in their area and they are connected in a way you can only be on a regional university campus and in a regional town, so they can experience a world-class education in the regions with a low cost of living. What we are trying to do is ensure that the options available to young people right across Australia are transparent, open and flexible, because that is exactly what our higher education system needs. Australian universities are dropping in the world rankings—not that that would worry everybody who just wants a lowest-common-denominator approach to education: 'That doesn't matter; let's just make sure that everyone is on a C. We don't want anyone at an A; everyone is a special snowflake and everybody gets a prize.' That is actually not how the real world works. There are winners and there are losers globally, and I want to make sure—and I know that the minister wants to make sure and that our government wants to make sure—that there are more winners in Australia than not: that we are able to compete against the best in the world when it comes to research that is going to drive future innovation and competition, that is going to create the industries we will need to underpin our economic advancement going forward in the 21st century and that is local research. We do not want to have to import our brains; we do not have to—we are such a creative, innovative people. We need to be able to have institutions available to our great thinkers in order to grow and compete. I just do not know why those opposite do not want to get onboard. I look at Senator Carr's decisions on terminating programs that he had in place: there were things like our fundamental research infrastructure. Senator Carr actually halted funding on that. We have stepped into that gap and funded that program so that our physicists can use the research infrastructure they need to do the world-class research they are currently doing. I commend the minister. (Time expired)