Interview - ABC News Breakfast

JAMES GLENDAY: Well, let's turn to federal politics now. And the Albanese government says this year more Australians are starting university than ever before. And we're joined by the Education Minister, Jason Clare, who is in Western Sydney. Minister, welcome back to News Breakfast.

JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: G'day, mate. Great to be here.

GLENDAY. So, what subjects and what courses are getting the most applicants here?

CLARE: Well, teaching's up about 6 per cent. That's good news because we need more school teachers. But also, nursing is up 6 per cent as well. Science degrees look like they're up about 8 per cent. Engineering's up 9 per cent, social work's up 19 per cent. And this isn't happening by accident, mate. It's happening because we're investing more in our universities because we know that more and more jobs in the economy need more and more skills, whether that's a uni degree or whether it's a TAFE qualification.

GLENDAY: So, do you think people are choosing some of these courses because they are a bit cheaper than some of the other things on offer? For example, an art degree now costs more than $50,000. Teaching is a lot cheaper. Do you think that is driving people to some of these subjects?

CLARE: Look, I don't know that that's necessarily the case because people often pick the subjects that they love, the things that they're passionate about. That's always been the case. One of the beauties of the HECS system is you don't have to pay upfront. It's a deferred payment and we're encouraging people to do the things that they're good at and that they love. You know, one of the things that students do talk to me about, though, is not just the cost of a uni degree, but the cost of living while you're at uni. So, things like paid prac that we've now introduced that provide upfront financial support for teaching students and nursing students and social work students to help them pay the bills while they're at uni. I think that's a big deal and helps to contribute to people wanting to study teaching and nursing and social work and courses like that.

GLENDAY: When Labor was in opposition some four years ago, it was very, very vocal about the Morrison government's restructuring of university fees, the Jobs Ready Graduate scheme, which has led to arts becoming one of the most expensive degrees. You can do law, things like that as well. You've. You're still opposed to the way that those fees are structured, but when do you expect to actually be able to make changes?

CLARE: Yeah, no, it's a good question. This is one of the recommendations in the University's Accord, a big blueprint for how we reform our universities. And we've implemented now about 31 of the 47 recommendations in that report, in part or in full. One of the things that we've done, as everybody that has a HECS debt would know, is we've cut student debt by 20 per cent. That's taken about $16 billion off the shoulders of young Australians. But we know that there's more to do here and we'll keep working through that report. One of the things we can do, and I'd like to see more of it this year to make it cheaper and quicker to go to universities, is have universities count your TAFE qualification as part of your degree. I'm here in Bankstown at the moment at Western Sydney University. This year, if you've done a nursing course at TAFE, or a childcare course at TAFE, or a construction course at TAFE, they'll take a year off your degree and they'll cut the cost of your degree by up to $18,000. Now, that saves you a lot of time, saves you a lot of coin. That's just one university. There's a couple doing it. I'd like to see more universities do that this year.

GLENDAY: Just to jump in. Can I take you back to the question, though? I mean, we've heard from David Pocock, some of the teals, some of your own Labor backbenchers are very keen to see faster action on restructuring fees so that arts degrees don't cost more than $50 grand. Do you have a year when you expect that's going to be the case? Is it 2027? Is it even later?

CLARE: I'm not going to put a year on it. It's not an easy thing to do. It's not a cheap thing to do either. The interim Tertiary Education Commission that we set up is already doing some work for us around the costing of degrees. But it's not cheap. That's why I say one of the things we can do, and we should be doing right now, is making it quicker and cheaper to do a degree by taking a year off and money off if you've already got a TAFE qualification.

GLENDAY: So, that restructuring. Sorry to interrupt, just because we're going to run out of time. Just to be clear. So, that restructuring of fees, which you know your government has been committed to, is not really likely in the near future.

CLARE: As I say, it's one of the recommendations in the accord. We've bitten off a big chunk of it already, but there's more work to do.

GLENDAY: Okay, I'll just take you to federal politics and the new Opposition Leader briefly if I can. Angus Taylor says he wants a bipartisan approach to slashing government spending. Do you take him especially seriously?

CLARE: Well, I think it tells you a lot that his first policy is to cut and that he wants to hide behind the Labor Party when he does it. You know we're always in the market for sensible savings. But just have a look at the Liberal Party's track record when they were last in power. What did they cut? They cut $30 billion from our public schools and I'm still dealing with the wreckage of that now. That's a stain that the Liberal Party will never be able to wipe off. So, when Angus Taylor talks about cuts, you know where they come. They cut funding from schools and they cut funding from our hospitals.

GLENDAY: Jason Clare, we do appreciate you joining the show this morning.

CLARE: Good on you. Thanks, mate.