Jacqui Lambie Speech: Higher Education and Research Reform Bill 2014

Mr President,

For the second time since I have been elected to this place – I rise to speak to the Liberal and National Parties’ Higher Education and Research Reform Bill 2014…

… and even with the Government’s latest policy back flip – for the second time I inform this Senate that I will strongly oppose this legislation…

The Abbott government has deliberately and slyly ambushed the Australian people with their proposed changes to University funding and proposed increases to University fees.

It’s a cowardly and callous pattern of political behavior that has been repeated in other policy areas, including:

1. cuts to Health funding which is designed to burn down Medicare.

2. cuts to Pensions by linking pension increases to CPI

3. increase in the pension age to 70 from 2035

4. effective cuts to ADF members’ pay/entitlements effective cuts to Australian war Veterans’ pensions and entitlements.

Mr President

Following Education Minister Pyne’s recent announcement that he wouldn’t slash funding to our Universities by 20% – just yet.

And he wouldn’t destroy the jobs of 1700 researchers – any time in the next month or two..

The Group of Eight universities chief executive Vicki Thomson is reported by the media to have said it would be “unthinkable” for the government’s reforms to fail.

Ms Thomson is also reported to have said,

“The present funding model is broken. University funding is an investment in Australia’s future. The Go8 implores the Senate to this week make the right decision for every student and for Australia.”

Mr President,

My reply to Ms Thomson and her supporters is – Yes, the present funding model is broken because both Labor, but in particular this Liberal Government – have chosen to deliberately break the Higher Education funding model.

Labor broke the public funding model because they forgot who they were. They forgot their values and who they represented.

The Liberals broke the Higher Education public funding model because they want us to become more like America.

They want to create a society in Australia where the rich become richer and the poor know their position in life.
The Liberals want a divided Australia run by a new blue blood – a blue tie Aristocracy – where title, position, privilege and bank balance mean more than ability, hard work, perseverance.

And Yes University funding is an investment in Australia’s future – and Yes both Labor and the liberal government are guilty of failing to invest in Australia’s future and Australia’s young people.

Mr President,

How do we fix our broken model of funding for Higher Education?

Mr President,

The solution is very easy :

Firstly – we honestly acknowledge that successive Australian Federal governments have deliberately chosen to cut back funding to our Universities.

While other countries’ Governments, like the Nordic Countries chose to make higher education a priority – generations of Australian leaders from both Labor and the Liberal Parties chose not to make University funding a Priority.

While Finland and Norway, chose to deliver the best higher education system in the word – free of charge to their young people.

Parliamentary Library research I commissioned says:

The Labor Government’s 2013–14 Budget higher education savings measures amounted to $2.3 billion. Labor never implemented these savings. The Coalition Government adopted Labor’s proposals but the legislation to implement these savings failed to pass.

The Coalition Government’s 2014–15 Budget higher education savings measures amounted to $5.0 billion. The Coalition Government’s first Bill to implement $3.9 billion of these savings failed to pass. The Coalition has now introduced a new Bill to implement its higher education reforms. The Coalition Government has therefore not yet implemented any of its proposed ‘cuts’ to higher education.

Other Parliament Library research I commissioned shows that as a percentage of GDP our university funding has decreased over the last ten years from .9% to .6%

The worst years for University funding were between – 2000 to 2007 where it was stuck at .5% of GDP.

University funding dipped again in 2010-11 from .6% to .5% of GDP.

The Nordic countries are now reaping the social and economic benefits of their investment in higher education, which they sowed –

… while here we are in Australia in 2015 – manufacturing industry going down the drain, workers struggling to keep jobs – while this Senate is engaged in this dumb, stupid, ridiculous debate about University funding.

Should Australia invest 1% of our GDP in higher education?

Yes we should!!

Who in their right mind can argue against the principle of a 1% investment in Higher Education?

Australia is a first world country which should be able to almost double our spend on higher education from around $9B to $18B.

The money is there – it’s just a matter of priorities.

In a time of austerity, should we spend $25B in Foreign Aid over the forward estimates or should we invest in Australia’s poor?

In a time of austerity, should we spend $5B in order to try and bribe our state to sell off their publically owned assets – or should we help our young people further their education?

Mr President,

I now turn to Higher Education delivery in Tasmanian.

If this legislation passes this Senate – the so-called Liberal “reforms” contained in this government Bill would significantly harm the best interests of Tasmania’s:

1. current and future Higher Education students and

2. the staff and the very institution of the University of Tasmania.

Mr President – unlike any other state in Australia, Tasmania has only one higher education provider… the University of Tasmania or UTAS and so the danger this legislation poses is even greater in my home state, than other states.

This legislation is proof that the Liberals hate the fact that Tasmania has only one higher education provider.

I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

This legislation will undermine UTAS’s delivery of higher education and allow competition into the market.

The Liberals will tell you that competition will produce better economic, academic and social outcomes, but that’s another Liberal lie..

… that’s not how it works in the real world when you provide 1st world essential services to places with small populations.

Every one knows that the Liberal’s deregulation contained in this legislation will harm UTAS and Tasmania’s reputation as a quality Higher Education provider…

The real reason the Liberals want to open up, the Higher education market, is because it will allow their big business mates to make lots of money.

Mr President,

I’ve met these big business people, the friends of the Liberals, who have come to my office, trying to influence me to vote for legislation that will help make them lots of money.

These people boast about their power and have a hard time not licking their lips – as they talk about the profits they stand to make from the taxpayers once this legislation is passed.

Mr President,

Put simply, this legislation will allow the Liberal’s mates to move in, and cash in – on my state’s reputation as a quality higher education provider.

This Liberal legislation will allow the Liberal’s mates to shamelessly cherry pick courses, and under-cut UTAS because…

… unlike UTAS, the new providers… the Liberals mates who give the Liberal Party lots of money in political donations …

… won’t have any legislated obligations (unlike UTAS ) to give back to the community by investing in research.

A new higher education provider, under the Liberals rules, will be able to come into my community and set up a shop front, …

… and without research obligations … be able to provide a degree or associate degree with 30 to 40% less operating over-heads than UTAS.

The owners of the new higher education providers, will not have the same love for Tasmania that the current owners … the people of Tasmanian… have.

The new higher education owners and managers that the Liberals want to set up shop in Tasmania will not…

… unlike Professor Peter Rathjen and his team at UTAS… love, care for and sit at the heart of the social, intellectual and cultural life in Tasmania.

The new Higher education owners will be ruthless business people, motivated by performance bonuses, and with one focus… profit!

And those profits will be taken from students who will, for the first time in Australia’s higher education history – receive a government subsidy that will flow to private providers..

… who will have no real connection to the community, they service.

Mr President,

A higher education monopoly for Tasmania has been a wonderful thing, which has provided protection, while UTAS grew and gained a critical mass and produced exceptional academic results …

… world acclaimed results for the people of a state, which only has a total population of a little over half a million people… less than a suburb of the capital of China.

As the Vice Chancellor of UTAS Professor Peter Rathjen says in the 2014 Impact Study:

The University of Tasmania’s 10-Year strategic plan, (Open to Talent) is unequivocal about the fact that we must continue to “sit at the heart of social, intellectual and cultural life in Tasmania.”

If these sneaky, deceitful, harmful Liberal changes to Australia’s Higher Education system are allowed to pass through this Senate ….

… then the Liberals will take the political gun that they’ve shamefully and slyly held to the head of UTAS and every other Australian university during the lead up to this Bill’s consideration …

… and place it on the chest of every Tasmanian and pull the trigger…

Mr President,

I will not let that happen, because if you hurt UTAS, you hurt every Tasmanian.

1. UTAS’s contribution to Tasmania’s economy is $1.7B

2. 1 in 4 Tasmanians have direct connection to the University of Tasmania

3. 5,900 people are employed by our University.

4. More than 30,000 students are enrolled at UTAS.

5. The University of Tasmania is ranked in the top 2% of universities world wide according to Academic Ranking of World Universities 2013.

6. With a budget of $96M the University is in the nation’s top 10 for research income.

7. As indicated in the 2014 impact statement, UTAS is a key economic driver, as well as a place of knowledge and learning – with Campuses and facilities in Burnie, Launceston, Bisdee Tier (Midlands) and Hobart.

Mr President,

The liberals have deliberalty and carefully created a sense of panic and desperation in the minds of the people who run our Universities and our community leaders.

Christopher Pyne and Tony Abbot have achieved their goal by using tactics a 3rd world tyrant would be proud of:

1. The Liberals have threatened to slash university funding by 20%

2. They have threatened the jobs of 1700 researchers

3. In Tasmania they have dangled a carrot of $400m worth of new university buildings … but have never put pen to paper and guaranteed funds for this much needed and essential investment in a capital upgrade.

4. The liberals along with the previous labor federal government have also deliberately cut the numbers of associate degrees that UTAS could teach and deliver to students.

Mr President,

The fact that both sides of parliament have cut the numbers of associate degrees is a significant point which hasn’t received due consideration and has caused UTAS great harm.

Associate or Sub-degrees of aproximatley 2 years in length, are the Higher education product that’s now in great demand.

Associate degrees have been described to me as the practical learning experience, which will gain you knowledge, qualifications and a job.

UTAS’s has identified the great demand for Associate Degrees and plans for providing 10,000 associate degrees to students every year. I support them in their plans.

The only thing that stopping them, from going a head with their plans is this Government which has placed an artificial and arbitrary cap on the number of associate degrees, granted to our Universities.

It shouldn’t come as a shock for this Senate to learn that successive governments have dramatically cut back on the availability of associate degrees.

The Liberals in particular, as part of Pynes’s nasty, political softening up process in order to black mail UTAS into accepting the Liberal’s outrageous changes have dramatically reduced the numbers of associate degrees.

During a recent briefing my staff under took with Minister Pyne’s senior education officials – it was admitted that this year UTAS, while asking the government for 360 associate degrees was granted only 60 associate degrees.

Parliamentary library research I subsequently commissioned shows that for the University of Tasmanian:

In 2009 – 1095 Associate Degrees were granted

In 2010 that number was reduced to 1023 Associate Degrees

In 2011 – that number was reduced again to 852 Associate Degrees

In 2012 – that number was slashed to 630…

And the latest figures for 2015 – which have been conformed by Mr Pyne’s education staff has been ripped to 60.
Mr President

In the space of 6 years – an in demand higher education course which provides a life blood for the state of Tasmanian though UTAS has been cut from 1095 to 60…

… that’s a cut of 1800% .

My question for this Liberal Government and the previous Labor government –

Was this a deliberate attempt to undermine our state’s economy and drive a stake through the heart of the social, intellectual and cultural life in Tasmania…

… or was the restriction of the availability of Associate degrees just sheer incompetence?

While Tasmania has only been granted 60 associate degrees for 2015 – Parliamentary library research shows that in 2013:

• NSW had 1091
• VIC had 1859

Mr President,

I’m calling on this federal government to come clean on the number of Associate degrees they issue …

… and explain how they decide to issue those degrees?

The Liberals must explain why they refuse to support the University of Tasmania’s plan to expand this worthy program.

And from the Labor party – I want a guarantee that in government you will reverse the cut back in investment in our universities.

Set a National goal to take our investment in University funding to 1% of GDP.

Answer this simple question honestly don’t ignore it: –

If the Nordic Countries can deliver the best higher education system in the world to their young people for free – then why can’t we?

I also want a guarantee that Labor in Government will invest and allow UTAS to implement their plans to expand…

… by delivering 10,000 Associate Degrees in the Burnie and Launceston campuses, while continuing their magnificent research in Hobart.

I believe that Australia has the means and resources to deliver free Higher education to our young people…

However this debate has shown that we don’t have the politicians with the vision and courage to deliver free Higher education to our young people…

So today I’m putting out a call for those people, who want to create a better, smarter Tasmania and Australia – to contact my office.

I will support candidates at the next election who are prepared to work for a future where Australia has the best Higher Education System in the world – and our government will deliver our children’s first degree for free.

A free first Uni Degree for all Australian Children who want – and earn the opportunity – will only become a wild unachievable goal, if this Senate and Parliament is populated by people who think, it is a wild unachievable goal.

For Australia to prosper and thrive we must look to the lessons of Finland, and Denmark – we must not look (as the Liberals want us to with their legislation) – to America.

The American Higher Education System according to the Economist magazine is contributing ” America’s new aristocracy” or “An hereditary meritocracy”.

An Economist Article examining America’s higher education system says:

“My big fear, says Paul Ryan, an influential Republican congressman from Wisconsin, is that America is loosing sight of the notion that “the condition of your birth does not determine the outcome of your life”
Mr President,

We don’t want that future for Tasmanian or Australia.

In closing

If Minister Pyne and Prime Minister Tony Abbott had so much faith in their “Higher Education Reforms” contained in this Bill, why didn’t they tell the people of Tasmania and others states, about their “reforms” before the last election?

If the Liberal’s Higher Education policies were any good, there would not be a need for a cover up, followed by a disgraceful political ambush and now these desperate threats.

I oppose this legislation – with every fiber of my being.
Rob Messenger