Second Reading Speech Universities Accord (Australian Tertiary Education Commission) Bill

Mr Speaker, this is a Bill to establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission. The ATEC.

It is a key recommendation of the Australian Universities Accord. 

Before I set out the details of the Bill, let me remind the House what the Accord is all about.

Three years ago I appointed six eminent Australians to develop a blueprint for how we reform our higher education system. 

Professor Mary O’Kane as Chair. A former Chief Scientist and Engineer of NSW, and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Adelaide.

Professor Barney Glover, now Commissioner of Jobs and Skills Australia and former Vice-Chancellor and President of Western Sydney University. 

Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt, Laureate Fellow at the Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney.

The Honourable Fiona Nash, the Australian Regional Education Commissioner, and former Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Regional Communications.

The Honourable Jenny Macklin, former Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and the Minister for Disability Reform.  

And Ms Shemara Wikramanayake, Chief Executive Officer at Macquarie Group and member of the former Coalition government’s University Research Commercialisation Expert Panel.

I asked them to look at seven priority areas: 

• Australia’s knowledge and skills needs, now and in the future.
• Access and opportunity.
• Investment and affordability in higher education.
• Governance, accountability and community.
• Connections between the vocational education and training and higher education systems.
• The quality and sustainability of higher education.
• And new knowledge, innovation and capability for Australia. 

I released the final report of the Accord in February last year.

In short, what it says is that in the years ahead, more jobs are going to require more skills.

That 60 percent of Australians working today have a certificate or a diploma or a degree.

And that by 2050, that will need to increase to about 80 percent.

That’s a big jump.

It means more people at TAFE. More people at university. More doing a bit of both.

And what the Accord says is the only way this is going to happen is if we break down two big barriers. 

The first is the artificial barrier we have created and built up between vocational and higher education. And replace it with a system that is more joined up.

The second is the invisible barrier that stops too many young people from poor families, from our outer suburbs and from the regions and the bush from getting to university at all.

And to give you an idea what the Accord is talking about, 69 percent of young Australians from wealthy families have a university degree today, but only 19 percent from very poor families do.

And this is not just a barrier to university.

The Accord peels away any misconception that it’s okay if kids from poor families don’t go to uni, because they go to TAFE.

87 percent of young people from wealthy families have a TAFE qualification or a uni degree. Only 59 percent of young people from poor families are in that boat.

In other words, more than 40 percent of people from poor families don’t have the sort of qualifications that so many people are going to need in the years ahead.

We have now implemented every recommendation of the Accord Interim Report.

And we have started the work of implementing the Final Report. 

In last year’s budget we bit off a big chunk.

31 out of 47, in full or in part.

Let me remind the House of what some of those are.

It includes more than doubling the number of university study hubs in the regions, in the bush and, for the first time, in our outer suburbs.

These are the places that bring university closer to where a lot of people live.

They are part of breaking down that invisible barrier.

Most of them are now open, and the rest will open in the next few months.

We are also increasing funding for the bridging courses that help prepare you to start a university degree.

They are like a bridge between school and university.

Over the next 10 years we will invest an extra one billion dollars to help tens of thousands of Australians do one of these courses, for free.

We have also introduced Paid Prac. This is financial support for teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students while they do their practical training.

It’s means tested and targeted at people who need it the most. 

So far more than 67,000 students have applied. More than 80 percent of those applications have been processed, and more than 80 percent of those have been approved.

The Accord also recommended we allocate more medical Commonwealth supported places to address the shortage of doctors, and we are doing that too.

Next year, we'll train more doctors than ever before. Earlier this week the Minister for Health and I announced more medical places to train more doctors at 10 universities across the country.

Over the last 3 years, we have announced more than 350 new commencing medical places.

We have also announced 8 new medical schools.

When fully rolled out, it will mean we are supporting around 1,790 more medical students studying each year.

We have also scrapped the 50 percent pass rate rule. 

This was an unfair rule that significantly and disproportionately affected Indigenous students, students from poor families and students from the regions and the bush.

We have also reformed Student Services and Amenities Fees, setting a minimum amount of 40 percent to be provided to student-led organisations.

We have also introduced a demand-driven system for Indigenous students, wherever they live. 

Previously this was only available for Indigenous students living in regional and remote Australia.

This means if you are an Indigenous student and you get the marks for the course you want to do, you will now get a place at university.

It’s already having an impact.

Last year the number of Indigenous students starting a degree increased by 5 percent.

This year it increased by a further 3 percent.

The Department of Education estimates that over the next decade this could double the number of Indigenous students at university.

We have also introduced a National Student Ombudsman that started work this year, and a National Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence that starts on the first of January and will give the Ombudsman’s recommendations real teeth.

This year we also established an Expert Council on University Governance.

And it delivered its final report a few weeks ago.

This includes a set of principles that we will put into law and require universities to report annually on an ‘if not, why not?’ basis.

On the recommendations of the current Senate Inquiry into University Governance, we will also get the Remuneration Tribunal to help set salaries for Vice-Chancellors, and require universities to publish decisions of Council meetings, spending on consultants, Vice-Chancellors’ external roles, and any conflicts of interest.

We are also making major changes to reduce student debt.

Last year we capped the indexation of student debt to the lower of the Consumer Price Index and the Wage Price Index. 

This wiped $3 billion off student debt.

This week and next week we will wipe a further $16 billion off student debt.

Cutting student debt by 20 percent.

Tomorrow, one and a half million Australians will have their debt cut by 20 percent.

And another one and a half million will have their debt cut next week.

It’s the biggest cut in student debt in Australian history.

We promised it. 

Australians voted for it. 

And now it’s happening.

We have also made major structural changes to the way the student debt repayment system works.

The way the system used to work was the amount you repaid every year was based on your entire wage.

Once you earned above the minimum threshold you paid a percentage of your entire wage as a repayment.

That’s now changed. Now, you only pay a percentage of your wage above the minimum repayment threshold.

What that means in practice is if you earn $70,000 a year you now have to repay about $1,300 a year less than you used to.

It is real cost of living help, when you need it.

It is another recommendation of the Accord.

It is also a recommendation of the architect of HECS, Professor Bruce Chapman, who said this is:

“…the most important thing that's happened to the system in 35 years. It's a marginal collection, it's much gentler and much fairer than previously — we should have done it years ago.”

All of this is just the start.

If we are going to hit that 80 percent target in the Accord we need more people to go to TAFE and university.

That means we have to fund more places at university.

And that starts next year.

Next year we will allocate 9,500 more commencing places to universities across the country than in 2025.

That’s about 4 percent more than this year, and means more Australians will start uni next year than ever before.

And even more will start a uni degree the year after that.

In 2027, we will allocate an extra 16,000 fully funded Commonwealth supported places.

And another 16,000 in 2028.

And another 16,000 the year after that.

In 2030, this increases to 19,000 additional fully funded Commonwealth supported places.

All up, over the next decade we expect to fund an extra 200,000 commencing places at university.

It means the number of Australian students in our universities will grow by about 27 percent over the next 10 years.

That’s a big jump. 

Part of this also involves making sure all of these places become fully funded. And the ATEC will play a critical role in implementing it. 

As part of that over the next 12 months we will implement and legislate two big changes to the way we fund universities.

The first is what the Accord calls ‘demand driven equity’.

We currently provide universities with a capped amount of funding for Australian students.

The Accord recommends that we uncap that for all students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Like we have done for Indigenous students.

In other words, if you get the marks for the course you want to do, you will get a place at university.

This is all about breaking down that invisible barrier the Accord talks about. Prizing open the doors of universities to more people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

It starts in just over 12 months.

The second big reform is needs based funding.

Funding to help these same students who get in, to get through.

Think Gonski for universities.

The school funding system provides schools with extra funding based on where they are located and the needs of the students they educate.

Students who come from economically disadvantaged families receive additional support. 

So do schools in the regions and the bush.

The Accord recommends we do the same for universities.

It means extra academic and other support services to help students make it through university.

It’s demand driven.

The money follows the student.

The more students a university has that meet the criteria the more funding they will receive.

The more students there are at regional universities, the more funding those universities will receive as well.

And it starts in January. Just a couple of weeks away.

It will be the job of the ATEC to help drive and steer both of these big reforms.

And that brings me to what this Bill is all about.

Of all the recommendations in the Accord this might be the most important.

As someone said to me the other day, the ATEC is the Accord.

The Accord is big. It is a blueprint for the next decade and the one after that.

And it will take more than one Minister and more than one government to make real.

It is a national project and it needs a steward that is there for the long haul.

To craft compacts with individual universities.

To help improve policy, administration and coordination of the sector.

To get the sector to work more like a system.

To get the vocational education system and higher education system to work more closely together. More joined up.

To provide expert, independent advice.

And to help drive real and lasting reform.

That’s what the ATEC is about.

Like Jobs and Skills Australia, it will be independent.

It will report directly to Ministers.

It will be guided by a Ministerial Statement of Expectations.

Key performance indicators will be established in consultation with the Minister.

It will publish its work plan.

It will provide advice to Government and publish reports.

It will be able to undertake its own research.

Its staff will be directed by the ATEC Commissioners, governed by a service level agreement with the Department of Education.

Its operations will be transparent.

It will be required to consult.

An independent review of the ATEC, its role, its functions and its operations is also built in after two years and after five years. And these reviews will be tabled in the House and in the Senate. 

It will be led by three Commissioners – a full-time Chief Commissioner, a full-time First Nations Commissioner, and a part-time Commissioner.

Collectively, they will be required to have expertise in higher education and vocational education.

The First Nations Commissioner must be an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person with significant understanding of issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The ATEC will have its own decision-making powers. 

It will take on responsibility for new mission-based compacts with individual universities, setting out the number of domestic and international students in line with the Government’s strategic direction. 

This will be set out in more detail in the legislation I will introduce next year.

It will take over responsibility for the Higher Education Standards Framework from the current Higher Education Standards Panel and provide advice on it to the Minister for Education and the sector regulator.

The Minister for Education and Minister for Skills and Training will also be able to request advice from the ATEC on a range of matters. 

This includes:

• the costs of teaching and learning in higher education and overall higher education funding amounts, including on a per student basis;
• student demand, skills demands, and the capability of the system’s ability to meet Australia’s workforce needs;
• the strategic direction, governance, size, and diversity of the higher education system, and the financial sustainability of higher education providers; this obviously includes not just universities, but other Non-University Higher Education Providers;
• ways to improve coordination and collaboration between the vocational and higher education systems; and
• how to improve access, participation and outcomes for people facing systemic barriers to education, including Indigenous Australians, Australians with disability, Australians from a low socio-economic background, and Australians living in the regions and in the bush.

The ATEC will also be required to produce and publish a State of the Tertiary Education System report, every year, with the first report to cover the period starting 1 January 2026.

This report will set out:

• current and emerging trends and issues, and system level changes needed to meet these challenges;
• progress on tertiary participation and attainment targets;
• the extent to which the higher education system is meeting Australia’s current and future students, skills and knowledge demands;
• how well we are doing in breaking down the barriers between vocational education and higher education; and
• breaking down the systemic barriers faced by Australians from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The ATEC will also publish a work plan and statement of its strategic priorities for the tertiary education system every two years, starting 1 January 2027. 

Mr Speaker, I want to thank everyone who has been involved in the development of this important Bill.

That includes University Vice Chancellors, peak bodies including Universities Australia, State and Territory Ministers, my Department and the Accord Implementation Advisory Committee.

I also want to thank the Minister for Skills and Training, Andrew Giles, Assistant Minister for International Education, Julian Hill, and my former colleague and great mate, the former Minister for Skills and Training, the Honourable Brendan O’Connor.

I also want to especially thank the Interim Commissioners of the ATEC, Mary O’Kane, Larissa Behrendt and Barney Glover. 

They helped write the Accord, and now they are helping to lift those words off the page and bring them to life.

Mr Speaker, this Bill represents the next step in a long story of reform. 

The first Universities Commission was established in 1943 by the Curtin Labor Government. 

Over the next four decades, that Commission, and its successors, oversaw significant reform of our higher education system.

It’s important to remember that John Curtin may have started this, but Sir Robert Menzies continued it and in 1959 his government introduced the Australian Universities Commission Act which, for the first time, embedded the Commission under its own stand-alone legislation.

This was a key moment in the history of higher education.

Labor supported Menzies in this pursuit, with Doc Evatt declaring his ‘enthusiastic support’. 

We have a similar opportunity in front of us now. 

To build the sort of foundations that set us up for the future. 

To help build the sort of skills we are going to need over the next decade and the one after that.

To help open the doors of opportunity wider than they are today.

To help build a better and a fairer education system.

And in doing that.

A better and fairer country.

I commend the Bill to the House.