HIGHER EDUCATION LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (NO. 2) 2004

23rd Jun 04

Mr ORGAN (Cunningham) (11.19 a.m.) — I welcome the opportunity to speak to the Higher Education Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2004. This is an important, largely appropriation based, bill which is part of a $2.6 billion package over five years to support universities in this country such as the University of Wollongong in my electorate of Cunningham—a quality, award-winning institution. This is a bill which is quite complex in some ways and deals with a large number of issues such as, for example, issues of accountability and access by former refuges on permanent protection visas to our higher education systems.

We have heard some of the positive aspects of the bill from the Minister for Education, Science and Training and the member for Macquarie. But, once again, we see this government riding roughshod over the democratic processes of this place by not allowing members any real time to consider this bill in detail. It was introduced late yesterday and here we are this morning forced to consider it. Once again, it has been rammed through this parliament with undue haste. I dread to think what the government has planned for this place over the next couple of days. This bill should have been introduced weeks ago, not on the third-last day of sitting before the winter break.

In light of the ludicrously short time allowed members to consider this bill, I will therefore make a few brief comments on its contents and how it affects my electorate of Cunningham and the University of Wollongong. As we have heard, this bill allocates, for example, $18 million over three years to the University of Western Sydney to support capital costs for a new medical school. We have just heard the member for Macquarie talk about that. What he did not say is that prior to the budget announcements there was a strong view that the University of Wollongong's medical school proposal would get the nod. There is no doubt it deserved to get the nod. The university had prepared a detailed submission which I understand was sitting on the Prime Minister's desk merely awaiting approval. The submission had been prepared in detail and was an innovative proposal in many ways.

Unfortunately, the pre-election pork-barrel bogey got in the way and the question now being asked in the Illawarra is, `What happened to the University of Wollongong medical school?' Close questioning of senior officials from the Department of Education, Science and Training at Senate budget estimates early in June failed to elicit any substantive reason why the government chose to fund—or rather, part-fund—a medical school at the University of Western Sydney rather than one at Wollongong.

It seems clear that the UWS proposal is still some considerable way from fruition, with the bureaucrats agreeing that the allocation of student places depends on matching contributions from the university and the state government before the school can go through the Australian Medical Council's medical school approval processes. We have heard the member for Jagajaga point out that there are no actual places allocated to this medical school at UWS. So we have no real funding and no real places.

The University of Wollongong, on the other hand, has done a great deal of groundwork on its medical school proposal, and provision was made for teaching facilities in the recent major renovations at Wollongong Hospital. A lot of the work had been done to set this proposal up. Departmental officials at Senate estimates would only say that the Wollongong proposal was not funded in this budget, so perhaps the door is still open for establishment of the facility at some future date. The fact remains that there is no mention of it in this bill—but there should be. The University of Wollongong serves the Illawarra, Southern Highlands and far South Coast region, with campuses at Nowra, Batemans Bay, Bega and Moss Vale. The medical school proposal had been under discussion for many years, and the vision for the proposal was to service the needs of the Illawarra, South Coast and Southern Highlands regions.

We have heard from the previous speaker, the member for Macquarie, some of the very positive benefits that arise from medical schools being set up in regions. I have to agree with some of those comments with regard to those benefits. It is a fact that, if local people can train in local institutions, they are more likely to stay and service the local community. There is no doubt that the costs are also cheaper. Cost is a real and increasing impediment to students throughout Australia deciding to go to university. I met with a teacher earlier in the week. He is the principal of a local high school. He was telling me that a student came up to him the other day. She is one of the best students in the school. They were talking about her future. He said, `I assume you're going to go university.' She said: `No, I'm not going to university; my family can't afford it. My dad said he can barely afford to help me go to TAFE.' We have heard here about the increases in TAFE fees as well. So there is no option. This incredibly gifted student, because of the cost of going to university and the costs on families, has now been forced to look somewhere else, to find a job or whatever.

There is no doubt that having a medical school in a region such as the Illawarra is going to decrease the cost to local students and make it a lot easier for them to take up medicine. As we all know, it is a very expensive course. We have heard here in recent months about the spiralling costs of medical degrees and how it costs over $100,000 for a medical degree. This is very much a disincentive. We have to remember to look at the community context—not just the federal context but the local one. For example, in a place such as the Illawarra we have a medical crisis. We have severe constraints on the hospitals and on doctors. There are real problems. We need to get more local doctors. We need to get doctors and nurses servicing the local medical system. The way to do that is to educate them—to get more people taking up nursing and more people taking up the medical profession. We really have to try hard to support this element of the higher education sector.

I know the doctors in the Illawarra I have been speaking to are very disappointed at the decision not to support the University of Wollongong medical school at this stage. They see many of the benefits outlined by the previous speaker in supporting local medical schools—the support for the local hospital of having local students and local teachers, and having local students learning at local hospitals, at the University of Wollongong and throughout the region. It would have a major impact on the regional health system if a medical school such as that proposed for the University of Western Sydney were allocated to the Illawarra region as well.

The doctors down there had been looking forward to a positive announcement in the recent budget. It did not occur, and now they are very disheartened by that lack of an announcement. As I said, the doctors, the education sector and the medical sector—the hospitals—have been fighting for this medical school for a long time now, and they are very concerned that it did not happen. They have been waiting a long time, and their hopes were high. They told me that the University of Wollongong medical school initiative would go some way to dealing with the crisis currently facing the health system in our region. Lack of sufficient funding for infrastructure and insurance worries are forcing doctors out of the profession, and the costs of running practices are forcing young doctors out of the regions and into the big cities. A medical school in the Illawarra would have helped substantially to stem this drain.

The UOW proposal would have focused on local students—on nurturing and supporting them through the long, difficult and expensive process of becoming a doctor. It was taking a regional approach, centred on the recently upgraded Wollongong Hospital, and would have served the long-term interests of the local community in training doctors to work in that community. I just wanted to highlight that. While the member for Macquarie has pointed out some of the so-called positives of this package, especially for his own electorate, we have to think about the other parts of Australia as well. I have pointed out the impact on my electorate of Cunningham of these budget announcements and the aspects of this bill.

If I had had more time to look at the bill in detail and suggest some of its implications, I think I would be reflecting some of the concerns raised by the member for Jagajaga with regard to the vision presented by this government. The Greens' vision for the higher education sector is clear: more support, more funding and more support for issues such as academic independence. The Greens have already announced that we would be looking to abolish HECS and wipe HECS debts. `Why?' you might say. As I said earlier on, the current HECS problems and the costs of going to university are forcing good students not to go to university. We have the example I gave earlier of a young girl in sixth form at the moment who is top of her class but, with her family, has decided that she cannot afford to go to university.

There is no doubt that the current regime is forcing kids away from the higher education sector, and that is just not on. Issues such as the indexation of funding have to be addressed. The Greens recognise that there is a poverty crisis facing university students around this country. Students need more support. There needs to be more support for infrastructure, of course, and staff, but also for students. They should not be forced to have two, three or four jobs to work their way through university. They should have enough support to be able to focus on their studies and minimise the amount of time they have to spend at university so that they can get out into the community and start working—and, unfortunately, start paying off their HECS debt.

The Greens will be looking at bringing a stop to spiralling fees. I have to applaud the decision made just last week by the University of Wollongong not to raise its fees next year, despite all the pressure. We need more universities to stand up and say, `No, we've got to consider our region. We've got to consider our students.' We have to consider that the D word—debt—is becoming more and more insidious as time goes by and a real problem for ordinary families in this country. In light of the fact that this bill has been pushed upon us in relative haste, I am glad I had the opportunity to at least raise some concerns about elements of it. I am sure that my colleagues in the Senate will address it in a lot more detail in due course.