Press conference - Western Sydney University, Bankstown

JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Well, g’day, everyone, and thanks very much for coming along. It’s great to be here at Western Sydney University in the heart of Bankstown. It’s great to be here to announce some very good news – and that is that more Australian students will start a university degree this year than ever before. The early data that I’ve got indicates that there’ll be a 6 per cent increase in the number of people starting a teaching degree, a 6 per cent increase in the number starting a nursing degree, an 8 per cent increase in the number of people studying a science degree, and a 9 per cent increase in the number of young people starting an engineering degree. And that’s good news because we need more teachers, we need more nurses, we need more scientists, and we need more engineers. 

In the years ahead, more jobs are going to require more skills. And this isn’t happening by accident; these extra places at university are happening because we’re funding them. Now, the advice that I have as Minister for Education is that by the middle of this century, about 80 per cent of the workforce will need either a uni degree or a TAFE qualification. And getting there is a big leap. Under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, the number of people finishing high school jumped from about 40 per cent to 80 per cent. The target now is by the middle of the century that 80 per cent of people have a TAFE qualification or a university degree. And if we’re going to get there that means investing in TAFE, and it means investing in universities so that more people get these skills. 

This is a big year for our universities. We’ve already cut student debt by 20 per cent, and that’s taken about $16 billion off the shoulders of 3 million Australians right across the country. This year, Paid Prac rolls out. That’s financial support, that’s help with the cost of living for students while they do their practical training at university. 

But there’s more that we can do to help students to get their degrees quicker and cheaper. And that’s why it’s great that I’m here at Western Sydney University because in December, Western Sydney University announced that if you’ve got a TAFE qualification in nursing or construction or IT or child care or a raft of other areas, then they’ll cut the length of your degree by 12 months and cut the cost of your degree by up to $18,000. Now that saves you money, and it saves you time. It’s the sort of thing I’d like to see more universities do right across the country. 

There’s other big things happening in the higher education sector this year as well, and that includes reforms to how our universities work and operate and act, reforms to university governance. And this year, you’ll see changes to improve the standards that we set for universities. You’ll see changes to the powers of the university regulator, TEQSA, and you’ll also see changes to the way in which we set vice-chancellor salaries with the help of the Remuneration Tribunal. 

This week, I will also release the report of the Race Discrimination Commissioner into racism in our universities. We know that there are challenges with antisemitism, and work is underway led by David Gonski, the Antisemitism Education Taskforce. There’s also work that we need to do on racism in all its ugly and noxious forms. 

And just finally, this week, education ministers will meet for the first time this year. We’ll meet in South Australia on Friday. Many things to discuss. One of them will be David Gonski reporting on the work that his taskforce is doing. But there’ll also be an update on the work that we’re doing to improve the safety of our children in early education and care. There’s a lot of reforms that are rolling out over the next few weeks. That includes the register that will become mandatory in just under two weeks’ time, and mandatory safety training in our childcare centres for the people who work in our centres and keep our children safe. 

Happy to take some questions. 

JOURNALIST: Can you give us a bit of a breakdown on how many of these new enrolments are international students? 

CLARE: Well, this is all Australian students. All of these numbers are more Aussies getting a degree, more Aussies starting a degree. More Australian students will start a university degree this year than ever before. And a big reason for that is that extra funding, commonwealth-supported places funding, that we’ve provided to universities across the country, so more Aussies can get a degree. 

JOURNALIST: Do you believe that this drop in the number of students is due to an increase in the fees for arts degrees? 

CLARE: Well, we don’t have numbers on arts degrees here today. What I’ve said in the past – I think I said it this morning – is that people often pick the degree in the area they’ve got a passion for, in the area that they love. Certainly, the Job Ready Graduates Scheme, the former government put into place, has been a failure. I’ve said that on a number of times. There’s a recommendation in the Universities Accord for us to fix that. We’ve already bitten off a big chunk of that report. I think we’ve tackled now 31 or 32 of those recommendations in part or in full. And there’s more work that we need to do there. 

But the sort of things that Western Sydney University are doing here right now that cut the cost of a degree by up to $18,000, that’s real help for a lot of Australian students. That’s why I’m a champion for what they’re doing here, and that’s why I’d like to see more universities do it. 

JOURNALIST: We’ve seen the Deputy Liberal Leader, Jane Hume, say that the Liberal Party won’t rule out considering a subsidy for nannies as part of their childcare policies. Is that something the government would be considering as well? 

CLARE: That’s not something we’re looking at. What we want is to make sure that more children get a chance to access early education and care. This is good for parents so they can go back to work, but it’s also good for kids to prepare them for school. We know that a child that goes to preschool is one and a half times more ready to start school. I want to make sure that all kids that start school are ready to learn. And the truth is that some children are missing out. A big reform that came into effect this year was getting rid of the activity test and creating a three-day guarantee so that every child who needs it can get access to the childcare subsidy three days a week. Until we put that into place, some of the kids from the poorest and most disadvantaged families in this country didn’t get access to early education and care because their parents didn’t get access to the subsidy. And so they’re more likely to start school behind. And they’re the kids who are more likely to never catch up, never finish high school, and never get a chance to go to a university like this. That’s why reforms like that are important. 

The Liberal Party are opposed to that. They’re also opposed to the fund that we’ve established to build more centres across the country where they’re needed. They called for a fund like this, and then when we established it, they said that they weren’t willing to support it. I think that tells you everything you need to know. 

JOURNALIST: And just on child care, can you provide an update on the CCTV trial? 

CLARE: The CCTV trial is now up and running – more than 300 centres across the country are part of that. It’s just one of the many measures that we announced last year to improve safety in our centres. One was banning the use of personal mobile phones. They’re now banned in our centres. Another was standing up more commonwealth officers to conduct spot checks of centres, particularly in the area of fraud. That’s now happening. The CCTV trial is up and running as well, and I can let you know that, in addition to the Centre for Child Protection, the Australian Federal Police are also part of overseeing that trial. 

And then, as I mentioned just a moment ago, mandatory training will start in just over a couple of weeks' time, and the National Educator Register is now set up. It’s been trialled, it’s been tested, and at the end of next week, it will become mandatory for all centres to put information about their workers into that system. 

JOURNALIST: And just back on international students, how do you strike a fair balance between obviously providing relief and packages for Australian students, but then also accommodating for international students at the same time? 

CLARE: Well, it’s important that international students, when they come to Australia, have got the financial wherewithal to look after themselves. And that’s why we set minimum amounts of funds that international students need to have with them. We don’t want international students coming here and spending more time working than studying. The purpose of coming to Australia as an international student is to get an education, and that’s why we set a limit on the number of hours that they can work every week. So that’s the way in which we get the settings right. 

JOURNALIST: While I’ve got you, actually, just on the protests at Town Hall and particularly that break-up of that prayer meeting by NSW Police, obviously, the Police Commissioner is referring all the body-worn footage for review. We’re also seeing an independent review by the police watchdog. Have you spoken to people in your community? Have you been able to reflect on that yourself? 

CLARE: Look, I think anybody who is a person of faith would be worried by what they saw. Whether you’re a Christian or a Muslim or a Jewish person, any person of faith would know that prayer is sacred. It’s that very, very personal time, the conversation between yourself and God. And there needs to be extraordinary circumstances for that to ever be interrupted. I – you know, police have got an extremely difficult job to do. And we want protest to be peaceful, but prayer should be allowed to occur in a peaceful way as well. That’s why I think there are a lot of people across Australia who are worried by what they saw. That’s why I’m very glad to see that there’ll be an investigation into what happened and why it happened. 

JOURNALIST: One of the police arguments that was echoed by the Premier in the days afterwards was that a lot of that footage was being seen in isolation, and it did require further context. Do you agree with that, that that operation obviously did require further context, given the size of the demonstration itself? 

CLARE: You’ll never meet a person who’s a stronger supporter of the NSW Police Force or the Australian Federal Police than me. I’ve worked with them for more than 30 years, and I understand just how hard their work is. I also understand that when you’re in trouble, they’re the first people you ring. So I get how important their work is. I get how difficult – almost impossible – their work was on that day when protestors weren’t listening to the lawful directions of police. But prayer is something that is very, very sacred. Ask any Christian Australian, ask any Jewish Australian, ask any Muslim Australian, and they’ll tell you that prayer is something that is sacred. And that’s why I think it is important that that investigation occur. 

JOURNALIST: Do you think Muslim Australians may have seen a bit of an erosion in their trust of NSW Police, if they’ve just seen that vision in isolation? 

CLARE: I think anyone who is a person of faith would be worried by the vision that they saw. 

Okay. Thanks very much.