Welcoming Universities Summit

I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Conference is taking place today, and I pay my respects to elders, past and present. 

I would also like to acknowledge:  

• CEO of Welcoming Australia, Mr Aleem Ali  
• Associate Professor Kathomi Gatwiri 
• Professor Kylie Readman 

 Thank you for the invitation to speak to you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person.  

 You know, like I do, that education is the most powerful cause for good in this country. 

It doesn’t just change lives.  

Its impact ricochets through generations.  

It changes communities and it changes countries.  

It’s changed ours.  

We are a different country today to the one I grew up in. 

When I was a kid less than 10 percent of young Australians had a uni degree. Now it’s almost half.  

That’s changed us. We are a different country because of it. Stronger, smarter, wealthier.  

But that change hasn't reached into every corner of the country or every home. 

One in two young Australians might have a degree. But not everywhere.  

Not where I grew up.   

Not on our outer suburbs. Not in the regions or the bush.  

Not if you grew up in a poor family. Not if you have a disability or if you are indigenous.  

Changing that is, at its core, what the Universities Accord is all about.  

Cutting student debt.  

Creating Paid Prac.  

Massively expanding funding for free university preparation courses.  

Doubling the number of university hubs - in the regions and for the first time in our outer suburbs. 

A new funding system for universities - that guarantees a place a university for everyone from a disadvantaged background who gets the marks to get in.  

And needs based funding to support them when they get there.  

All of it designed to break down that invisible barrier that stops so many people getting a crack at university.  

But there are other barriers we also have to break down.  

Barriers that make university an unwelcome place.  

That make university an unsafe place.  

They can take many forms, including sexual violence and harassment, antisemitism, Islamophobia and other types of racism and discrimination. 

You can see it in the one in 20 students who have reported being sexually assaulted since they started university. 

Or the one in six who have reported being sexually harassed. 

The students who are being made to feel unwelcome because of their faith or the colour of their skin.  

All of it requires action.  

In the Parliament right now is legislation to establish a National Student Ombudsman.  

A dedicated, national body to handle student complaints within our higher education system. 

The National Student Ombudsman will have the powers: 

• to investigate complaints about a broad range of issues; 
• to bring parties together to resolve those issues, including offering restorative engagement processes and alternative dispute resolution where appropriate; 
• to make findings and recommendations on what actions universities should take; and 
• to monitor the implementation of those recommendations. 

It will also have strong investigative powers, similar to those of a Royal Commission. 

It is a direct response to the terrifying evidence of sexual violence in our universities, but its remit is broader than that.  

It will include complaints about everything from homophobia to antisemitism to Islamophobia to any other form of racism or discrimination.  

It is also a recommendation of the Universities Accord.  

So is the work I have asked the Australian Human Rights Commission to do.  

An examination of racism in our universities and what we need to do to address it.  

 All of it is necessary.  

All of it is about making our universities more welcoming places.  

For everyone.  

Regardless of your gender, where you live, what your parents do, where you worship or the colour of your skin.  

John Curtin, one of our greatest Prime Ministers, described what he thought a great university should be.  

He said it should be: 

“a friend of the reformer, the host ever willing to receive the initiator, the champion always ready to defend the poor and the obscure”. 

I believe that too.  

It’s what drives me.  

And I know it drives you too. 

It’s why you are here, at this Summit.  

Because you want our universities to be more welcoming places for everyone.  

I hope you have a great Summit today and I look forward to seeing what comes out of it.