Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill 2026 – Second Reading

Mr Speaker

On election night four years ago the Prime Minister talked about opening the doors of opportunity. 

The great mission of Labor Governments. 

He said, “I want every parent to be able to tell their child no matter where you live or where you come from, in Australia the doors of opportunity are open to all of us.”

"And like every other Labor government, we'll just widen that door a bit more.”

More than anything else, it’s education that does that. 

That opens doors. 

That changes lives. 

That changes countries. 

And that’s what the changes we are making to the education system are all about. 

The changes to early education that get rid of the barriers that have stopped a lot of children from poor families from accessing early education and care.

That’s what the three day guarantee does. 

We changed the law to guarantee access to three days a week of government supported early education and care for every child who needs it.

We did that because we know it’s kids from the most disadvantaged backgrounds who get the most out of early education and care. 

And who are also the least likely to get it. 

The way the law used to work meant that their parents couldn’t get the subsidy. 

And so their kids couldn’t get the sort of early education that other children get. 

They were shut out. 

That’s now changed. 

The three-day guarantee started a few months ago. 

And for those kids it opens that door of opportunity a little wider. 

So does what we are doing in schools. 

In particular fixing the funding of our public schools. 

These are the schools that do a lot of the heavy lifting. 

That play an outsized role in educating the most disadvantaged children in this country. 

The children who are the most likely to start behind or fall behind. 

The children who need our help the most. 

And these are also the schools that are the most underfunded. 

Until now. 

Until this government. 

Until the agreements we’ve struck with every State and Territory. 

It means an extra $20 billion into our public schools over the next decade. 

But it’s more than that, because this funding is tied to reform. 

The sort of reform that’s needed to help more children catch up, keep up and finish high school. 

That’s what things like evidence based teaching, phonics checks, numeracy checks and small group tutoring are all about. 

They all help to open those doors of opportunity wider. 

And that’s what this Bill does too. 

Today close to 50 percent of Australians in their thirties have a university degree, but not everywhere. 

It’s about half that if you grew up in a poor family or in the regions. It’s even less in the bush. 

Basically young people who grow up in poor families or outside our big cities are less likely to get a crack at uni than other Australians.

And if they start it, they are less likely to finish it. 

I want to change that. 

The Universities Accord says that we need to change that. 

The Accord is the biggest review of our higher education system since Bradley almost 20 years ago. 

It’s a blue print for the next twenty years. 

What it says is that by 2050 we are going to need a workforce where 80 percent have a TAFE qualification or a university degree. 

And that the only way to do that is if we break down the barriers that stop so many young people from poor families, from regional Australia, and the bush from getting to university. 

That’s what this Bill is about. 

It’s the seventh Accord Bill I have introduced. 

The first six created the Student Ombudsman, Paid Prac, and Fee Free University Ready Courses. 

They cut student debt by 20 percent, changed the indexation and repayment rules for HELP loans. 

And established the Australian Tertiary Education Commission. 

This Bill implements two more important changes recommended by the Accord.

The first will help more people from poor families and the regions and the bush to get into university. 

In simple terms, if you get the marks, and you’ve got what it takes. You will get a place. 

A Commonwealth Supported Place.

We have already done this for Indigenous students. We passed that legislation in 2023. 

This will do the same sort of thing for all students from poor families, and from the regions and from the bush.

It’s part of the new Managed Growth Funding System created by this Bill. 

There are more Australians at university today than ever before. 

And it is going to continue to grow. 

Next year there will be 16,000 more places for more students in the system.

The year after that there will be another 16,000. 

The year after that another 16,000.

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

Over the next decade, we expect to fund an extra 230,000 commencing students at university.

This Bill gives the ATEC the tools it needs to manage all that growth.

To grow the system where it’s needed. 

As part of this it will end the hunger games that exist at the moment, where, in the desperate competition for students, some universities enrol students they don’t get Commonwealth funding for. 

Something the Accord said is undermining the whole system. 

This is how the Bill works.

It gives the Minister for Education the power to set a Total Allocation Pool.

That’s the total number of fully funded Commonwealth Supported Places allocated each year. 

It gives the ATEC the responsibility for allocating these places to universities and other eligible providers.

Because this is about managing growth and building a bigger and better and fairer system, the total number of Commonwealth Supported Places each university receives will be made up of two things. 

First, what’s called their Core Student Load to make sure they do not go backwards. 

And second, an Additional Growth Allocation.  This gives the ATEC the ability to allocate additional places where it thinks they are needed, including for students from low SES backgrounds and from the regions and the bush. 

The ATEC will do this every year. 

It’s this second part, the Additional Growth Allocation that really gives the ATEC the ability to open the doors of opportunity to more Australians. 

And if the ATEC believes that the Total Allocation Pool isn’t big enough to meet the demand from students from poor families, from the regions and from the bush, they can ask the Minister to increase it. 

Effectively uncapping the system for these students.

If you have got what it takes, you get a place. 

The Bill also provides support to assist universities to transition to this new system. 

Under enrolled universities will be able to access a temporary funding floor to the end of 2031. 

Over enrolled universities will be able to keep student contributions above their cap, but only up to a maximum amount. 

As part of fixing this, the ATEC anticipates it will allocate approximately 20,000 more Commonwealth supported places to over-enrolled unis next year where they currently only receive the student contribution.

Mr Speaker, the second part of the Bill puts in place Needs Based Funding. 

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 that they educate.

Students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds receive additional support. 

So do schools in the regions and the bush.

The Accord recommends we do the same for universities.

And it does that for a reason. 

The evidence tells us that students from low SES backgrounds and students from the regions and the bush aren’t just less likely to start a university degree.

They are also less likely to finish it.

The data indicates they are up to twice as likely to drop out after their first year at university than other students.

That’s why needs based funding is important. 

It will provide funding for things like tutoring, mentoring and other academic support, and direct financial assistance like scholarships and emergency grants. 

There were previous programs like HEPPP that did this. 

But funding for those programs was capped. This is different.

Like needs-based funding for schools, this will be demand driven. 

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

The more students there are at a regional campus, the more funding that university will receive as well.

To give you an idea what it will mean in practice, under the old HEPPP the average amount provided to universities per student last year was $600. 

Under this new Needs-based Funding system it will be more than double that.

The Bill sets the base equity amount at $1,535 and the base regional amount at $1,398. 

Both of these will be indexed each year. 

It’s not just extra funding. It’s what it will be used for that helps more students who start a degree to finish it. 

It is real reform.

Deputy Speaker

The Bill does one more thing. 

It sets out a framework for the ATEC to exercise its existing power to allocate international student numbers.

As members would know, the Government currently manages international student numbers through an annual National Planning Level. 

Under the National Planning Level, the Government sets indicative allocations of new overseas student commencements that may start at individual universities. 

These indicative allocations are used to guide the visa processing work of the Department of Home Affairs. 

There is currently no statutory cap on international students, and this legislation does not change that. 

But we are putting the power to set international student allocations for higher education providers into the hands of the independent ATEC. 

In other words, where the Government sets a National Planning Level, the ATEC will allocate places to individual universities and other higher education providers.

The Minister will do this by making an ‘international allocation pool determination’, setting out the overall number of planned commencements.

The Minister’s determination may also require ATEC to take into account Government priorities, such as student housing and market diversification, when they make their allocations. 

However it will be ATEC that makes the decision about allocations to universities, in consultation with the universities through the process for negotiating mission-based compacts.

This change responds to feedback from our universities. 

They told us that this power – to set individual allocations within the National Planning Level – should be exercised by the independent ATEC. 

And I agree. 

To help the ATEC with this work, the ATEC will be given access to international student and provider information collected under the ESOS Act. 

The National Student Ombudsman will also be provided with access to this information.

The Bill also enables information collected by the Ombudsman and TEQSA to be shared with the ATEC to inform their work.

Deputy Speaker

This is an important Bill. 

It is the engine the ATEC can use to bring the Accord to life. 

To make the big structural changes the Accord talks about. 

And to open the doors of opportunity. 

Talent is everywhere. It’s opportunity that’s not. 

And this Bill will help change that.

It will mean more young people from poor families and from the regions and from the bush get a crack at university. 

And that they get the support they need when they get there. 

It will change lives. 

For universities it means more students. And more funding. 

For the whole system, it means an extra $3.6 billion over the next decade.

Is it everything we need to do?

No. 

There is a lot more we need to do make our education system better and fairer. 

But this is the next step. 

It will help to open the doors of opportunity wider. 

And I commend this Bill to the House.