Transcript - Press conference

JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Thanks very much for coming along. When I was a kid growing up in Western Sydney there weren't many places like this, the new Bankstown Western Sydney University campus. University seemed like a long way away, and it was. And for a lot of kids that I grew up with, university just felt like it was somewhere else, for someone else. And as a result, a lot of young people didn't get a crack at going to university. 

And that's still the case. You can still see that in the statistics today. Almost one in two young people in their 20s and 30s today have a university degree, but not everywhere. Not in the outer suburbs of our big cities, and not in regional Australia, and I want to change that. I want more young people from our suburbs and our regions to get a crack at going to university, and part of doing that is helping more young people by bringing university closer to them, closer to where they live. And that's what these Suburban University Study Hubs are all about. 

We've already got hubs like this in regional Australia, more than 40 of them, and you can see them from the red dots on the map that we'll show you a little bit later on. And where those hubs are, they work. We find that more people are enrolled in university and more people finish university.  

And that's why for the first time we're now going to put these University Study Hubs in the outer suburbs of our big cities, in places in particular where the percentage of people with a university degree at the moment is lower than the national average. 

And so today we're announcing the locations of the first 10. Three of them in the outer suburbs of Perth, one in the outer suburbs of Adelaide, one in the outer suburbs of Hobart, one just down the road from here in Macquarie Fields, one at Kurri Kurri in the outer suburbs of Newcastle, two in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, and one in the northern suburbs of Brisbane. 

And these are places where you'll be able to study at almost any university for almost any university degree, and we hope to have them opened by the middle of next year. 

Happy to take some questions. 

JOURNALIST: These suburban hubs, how many students do you expect to fill each hub? 

CLARE: It’ll vary from hub to hub. Sometimes it will be just university students, but sometimes it might be TAFE students as well. That's the way it works in the regional hubs across the country. 

At the moment there's more than 4,000 students at the different regional hubs around the country. So, it will vary from place to place, but it will be a place that's available for everybody. 

JOURNALIST: How have you decided these locations; what was your reasoning? 

CLARE: It's an independent process. Universities, TAFEs and local governments were able to submit applications. This funding helps to cover everything from rent to the staff that work in these centres. 

These are places that aren't just a place where there's a computer to study, there's also staff there to provide academic support and the wrap‑around support that can be crucial often to helping someone finish a university degree. 

It can be pretty lonely when you're studying on your own at home. It can be really difficult to study at home on your own, if you've got the kids there as well, and so this is a place where there's more than just technology, there's people to help you do your degree. 

JOURNALIST: Can you just go into that a little bit more, like what people will be practically doing there, what services will be there?

CLARE: It's about academic support, all of the skills that you need to complete assignments, prepare for exams, complete your university degree. The sort of support that you would get on campus here in Bankstown or at a big campus in the middle of the city. But also the wellbeing support, whether it's mental health support or other support just to help get you through the degree. Even sitting next to fellow students in a hub like this can make the world of difference; I've noticed that talking to students that are at the hubs right across the country at the moment. 

Importantly, this is a recommendation of the Universities Accord. You might remember that earlier this year I released a report called the Universities Accord. It's a blueprint for how we reform higher education right across the country over the next decade and beyond. 

It says that we need more people to get a university degree or a TAFE qualification in the decades ahead, that we need around about 80 per cent of the entire workforce by the middle of the century to have a uni degree or a TAFE qualification. And it says the only way we're going to do that is if we break down the invisible barrier that exists at the moment that stops a lot of people from our outer suburbs and our regions from getting a crack at university in the first place. 

This is just one of the things that we're doing to help with that, by bringing university closer to where people live. 

Is there a question on the phone?

JOURNALIST: Yes. Minister, it's Lucy Gray from Channel Ten. 

CLARE: G'day Lucy. 

JOURNALIST: The Greens are offering a compromise [indistinct]. 

CLARE: Lucy, we might just do the university questions first, and then we'll double back to anything else, if that's okay.

JOURNALIST: What evidence, is there any evidence to suggest that the investment in this form of education provides results? 

CLARE: Yeah and the Universities Accord report examined that, and what it shows is that where these hubs are, they work; that where these hubs are, participation rates at university is higher than in other parts of the country and completion rates are higher as well. 

So in other words, the evidence shows that these hubs work. They mean more people getting a crack at university and finishing their degrees. That's why they recommended more. That's why we're doubling the number right across the country, including 20 more in the regions, and for the first time ever, 14 in the outer suburbs of our big cities. 

JOURNALIST: What about in terms of enrolment? 

CLARE: Well, that's what the evidence shows. It shows higher participation, higher enrolment, and higher completion. 

JOURNALIST: What about staffing of these hubs, because the university sector's already shedding jobs, that more changes to overseas student levels could result in more job losses. Is this a cost that Labor is willing to accept? 

CLARE: This funding helps cover the cost of the staff that work in these centres as well. As I said, this is not just a building with a computer, there is staff in these hubs to help students study. And so the funding that we're providing for these individual hubs help to cover the cost of everything from rent to the teams in the hubs that work with students. 

JOURNALIST: The increasing international numbers, is Labor ready to pick up that cost of having to cover not having as many international students whilst also still trying to fund all these new hubs? 

CLARE: They're two separate things, to be honest. But on international students, we make no apologies for bringing migration levels back to pre‑pandemic levels, and part of that is bringing international student commencements back to the levels roughly that they were at before the pandemic.

Now there's word around that the Opposition, when this bill gets debated next week in Parliament, are going to vote against that bill to put caps on the number of international students. 

Peter Dutton talks a big game when it comes to immigration. If he votes against this bill, it will prove that he's a fraud. You can't talk tough on immigration and then vote against a bill that puts a cap on the number of international students that come to Australia every year. 

JOURNALIST: The Greens are offering a compromise on housing. Do you think this is a genuine olive branch, or are they just trying to cover themselves so they can say they put forward options and didn't just block these housing bills? 

CLARE: The Greens just block everything; they've become a blocking party. Adam Bandt is the biggest blocker in the building in Canberra at the moment, blocking legislation on housing, but on a whole bunch of other things as well. 

They still haven't said whether they'll support the legislation that will be debated in the Parliament this week to increase funding for public schools.

You know, the Senate has a lot of legislation that's blocked at the moment, and that's because the Liberal Party and the Greens are working together to block important legislation, and my message to the Greens, my message to the Liberal Party, is to back these bills.

We need more housing in this country, and that's what this legislation will do; it’ll help to build more affordable rental accommodation, but it’ll also help a lot of Australians on modest incomes to buy their first home. That's what the Help to Buy Program is all about. We took it to the last election, we won the support of the Australian people, and the Liberal Party and the Greens are still blocking this in the Senate. 

This is legislation that helps people on lower incomes than the national average to be able to buy their first home with a bit of help from the government, and the Greens and the Liberals are standing in the way. 

JOURNALIST: The Greens have today said that they're prepared to pass Build to Rent and Help to Buy if you guys agree to a few conditions they're putting forward. Isn't that a welcome development?

CLARE: I'll leave most of that to the Minister for Housing. I'd say that these bills stand on their merit. There's a bill there to build more affordable rental accommodation and there's a bill there in the Senate to help more people on low incomes to buy their own home. They're two bloody good things, and they're two things that the Libs and the Greens should back in the Senate this week. 

JOURNALIST: Do you see any prospect of these reforms passing by the end of the year? 

CLARE: Which reforms are you talking about in particular? 

JOURNALIST: Talking with regards to the Greens having shifted their demands for securing their vote on the Help to Buy and Build to Rent bills. 

CLARE: It really depends on the Greens. They need to stop blocking and let us start building. There's a lot more legislation in the Parliament than just that bill. I've got six pieces of education legislation that will be in front of the Senate this week and next week. 

There's one bill to increase the salaries of early educators by 15 per cent. We need them to back that. There's another bill to increase funding for public schools across the country. We need them to back that. There's another bill to create a Unique Student Identifier number for all school students, just like there is for university students. We need them to back that. There's another bill to create a National Student Ombudsman to provide help for students when the worst happens to them at university. We need them to back that. 

There's a bill to create for the first time paid prac, financial support for teaching and nursing and social work students while they're doing the practical part of their degree, along with fixing HECS indexation that will cut student debt by $3 billion for more than 3 million Australians. We need them to back that. And there's a bill that will fix some of the corruption and integrity problems in international education and put a cap on the number of international students that come to Australia every year, and we need the Opposition to back that.

JOURNALIST: What sort of message does this late change of heart from the Greens send? 

CLARE: I think the Greens are starting to realise what Australians know, and that they're more interested in playing politics in Parliament than building houses for Australians. Okay. Thanks very much everyone.