HANSARD EXTRACT
|
Higher Education Legislation Amendment (2005 Measures No.4)
Bill 2005; Education Services for Overseas Students
Amendment Bill 2005: Second Reading |
| 12 & 13 October 2005 |
Mr
HAYES
(Werriwa)
(7.20
p.m.)—It
gives me great pleasure to rise and support the amendment moved by
the shadow minister for education and training to the
Higher Education Legislation Amendment (2005
Measures No. 4) Bill 2005, as it gives me the opportunity
to make some comments on an issue that is pretty dear to the hearts
of many students in my electorate and certainly in my local area.
Student unionism has been under attack by members of this government
for many years. It seems that it has been and will be under attack
for many years to come, if events have been accurately reported in
the media this morning. Certainly, the Minister for Education,
Science and Training has suffered a humiliating setback on his road
to leadership, as he has had to all but abandon his desire to
implement voluntary student unionism. Since first coming into this
place some six months ago, I have had my name down to contribute to
the debate on VSU, but I have not had the opportunity to express my
views and those of my constituents because the minister has seen fit
not to bring the debate on.
Today the situation has changed, not because of actions of the
minister but because of actions of the coalition’s backbench. Quite
frankly, the minister has been playing with the lives of students
and staff for the last 12 months, and on this occasion he has lost.
I know that at many campuses planning was not able to take place.
Students were not certain if they would have all the services that
they have become accustomed to and they certainly do not know about
their availability into the future, because of the government’s
dillydallying with this VSU legislation.
While my electorate of Werriwa sadly does not contain a university
campus within its boundaries, there are a great many students who
reside in the electorate and who attend the Campbelltown campus of
the
University
of
Western Sydney just down the road. While it may not be the largest
campus in Australia, the Campbelltown campus of the
University
of Western Sydney has a strong student body supported by
high-quality staff and excellent student services. It is also a
rapidly growing campus. It is set to open a new medical school in
the not-too-distant future. This will be a welcome addition to the
university’s campuses, which already boast a strong reputation in
relation to law, business, teaching, nursing and the arts.
In addition to the high quality of staff at the university, students
are supported by an excellent student association. The staff of the
association have been worried over the past few months because this
on again, off again attempt to implement the minister’s dream of
voluntary student unionism has undermined their ability to plan and
to make arrangements for the future. For them, the introduction of
VSU would most likely result in student services being shut down.
VSU would mean that services provided by the student association
that are relied upon would no longer be there to support students.
For some that might not seem like much, but I have to say that for
students from Western Sydney who are on a tight budget under this
government’s so-called reforms, which have made it virtually
impossible to obtain adequate financial support, those student
services mean a great deal.
Services offered to students at the Campbelltown campus include such
things as second-hand books, lab coats, cheap photocopying services,
fax services, discounted stationery and the printing of lecture
notes through various arrangements with the respective faculties. In
a student’s life, all of those things are essential. Labor’s
amendment would mean a continuation of these vital services.
It is appropriate that this amendment is moved when we are also
considering the
Education Services for Overseas Students
Amendment Bill 2005, because that legislation also
expresses the hypocrisy of this government when it comes to the
university sector. The Prime Minister has already been exposed in
his own hypocrisy on universities after claiming that he would not
introduce $100,000 degrees. This was blown out of the water with the
introduction of a system under which there are now dozens of
$100,000 degrees in existence. The hypocrisy of the Minister for
Education, Science and Training was exposed in
June this year when he admitted to the
Four Corners
program his view that a university education was a privilege.
This legislation exposes the hypocrisy of the entire government when
it comes to the university sector. The Education Services for
Overseas Students Amendment Bill 2005 would allow universities to
charge fees to international students for such things as
counselling, advocacy and support services. These are services that
would be denied to local students under the government’s VSU
proposal—services that the minister would prefer to deny to local
students. It is staggering that, on one hand, the minister is
willing to introduce and strongly support a bill that would allow
universities to charge fees for services to overseas students, while
on the other hand he wants to outlaw fees being charged for those
same types of services to local students.
I should not be shocked by the prospect of such a system being
introduced, because it is yet another example of the
Howard government’s two-tiered approach. Two-tiered systems seem to
be the order of the day with this government. From my perspective,
it almost borders on an obsession. We have two-tiered systems in
Medicare, in the PBS, in industrial relations, in education and now
in student services. Whilst I am staggered, I am certainly not all
that surprised.
The minister has only one choice when it comes to fixing the
problems that he seems intent on creating, and that is to abandon
his VSU legislation. The legislation continues to appear on the
draft list of legislation to be debated but when push comes to shove
it is withdrawn by the minister as he retreats to his office. He is
obviously busy making phone calls to round up a few more votes to
pass this legislation through the Senate.
I certainly congratulate those members of the coalition who have
decided not to support VSU. It shows that there is some commonsense
about just how important student services are to the people who use
them. I know that students who reside in my electorate will
genuinely appreciate the positions now being taken. It also shows
how effective the university sector, student organisations, regional
communities, sporting groups and the arts community have been in
opposing this legislation. They know how much damage it would do to
services such as child care, sporting clubs, counselling services
and other student advocacy services.
I have an example with me today of what might happen to one of those
services. On 8 September this year the
University of Western Sydney issued a media release congratulating
two of its students who assisted the Australian women’s basketball
team to win a bronze medal in the summer World University Games in
Turkey this year. Belinda Battistel and Ali Hudson, both of whom
study at the
University
of Western Sydney at the Campbelltown campus, were the only two
students from a university in New South Wales to represent their
country in those games.
Debate interrupted.
13 October 2005
in continuation
Mr HAYES
(Werriwa)
(9.21
a.m.)—Before
the interruption of yesterday’s debate on the
Higher Education Legislation Amendment (2005
Measures No. 4) Bill 2005 and the
Education Services for Overseas Students
Amendment Bill 2005, I was speaking about two young women
who represented New South Wales at the recent international
university games, they being Belinda Battistel and Ali Hudson. This
was the first team that Australia had sent to the games in almost 20
years. If the Minister for Education, Science and Training continues
with his destructive approach to VSU legislation, this could well
have been our last effort at the international university games.
Recently two young female hockey players were photographed near the
minister, holding signs indicating that their sporting teams would
no longer be able to compete because of the minister’s issues about
VSU. I think that was pretty widely circulated via email
communications. I am quite certain that the skills of our young
basketballers, like
Belinda Battistel and Ali Hudson, will suffer the same fate. I would
like to take the opportunity to congratulate both Belinda and Ali on
their successes and I would like to assure them that federal Labor
will continue to fight for their right to participate in sporting
events like the university games into the future. We will strongly
oppose the introduction of VSU.
I am proud to stand in this place today and support the continued
existence of student services, particularly the student services
provided by the
University of Western Sydney through its student association. As the
member for
Chifley
said yesterday, Western Sydney Labor MPs are very proud of the
university and very proud of the level of services that it provides.
It goes without saying that we are very proud of the students that
we produce through the University of Western Sydney.
I hope that the member for Macarthur, in whose electorate the
Campbelltown campus of the University of Western Sydney resides, can
tear himself away from toeing the party line long enough to come out
in support of the university and its campus in his electorate. I
hope that he is willing to stand up to his minister and say no to
VSU. I know that local students in south-west
Sydney do not want VSU and I am sure that, like me, the member for
Macarthur
has received many approaches from students in the electorate, and
probably from the student association itself, to discuss their
concerns over VSU. If the member for Macarthur votes in support of
VSU, I hope that he will at least be willing to meet with the
representatives of the students association and tell them why VSU
will be better for them and why it will be better for students
studying at the Campbelltown campus.
The minister has failed to convince the party room of the merits of
VSU and he has failed to convince the public. Delaying this bill is
not going to fix it and it is not going to make the issues go away.
Despite the minister’s best efforts to defend the decision in
question time, we all know—and the public knows—that the VSU
legislation cannot be passed, because it is lousy legislation and it
is very poor public policy. No matter how long the minister decides
to delay, the VSU legislation will not be passed. According to the
minister, VSU legislation is off the agenda until 2007. Waiting
until 2007 is not going to change the fact that it is bad policy.
The attack on universities in the outer metropolitan and regional
areas—universities like the Campbelltown campus of the University of
Western Sydney—is now delayed, but I call on the minister to go
further and abandon the legislation completely. I call on members
opposite who claim to have a commitment to higher education, and who
are more than willing to visit university campuses in their
electorates for photo opportunities, to support Labor’s amendment.
Do not dodge the issue; throw the legislation out and keep it out.
Do not come into this place and vote down Labor’s amendment to
support services to local students and follow it up by voting in
support of changing conditions for charging international students
for those very same services. At least members opposite should have
the courage to vote consistently.
There are some members opposite who have privately expressed
concerns about the VSU legislation to the minister. That must be the
case. It cannot just be those coalition senators. There must be
concerns about this. I encourage those members to use their vote
later today to express those private concerns in a very public
manner and have their vote recorded as supporting services for all
students, not just international students. They should vote for a
rational approach to the provision of student services for all
students, not just selected ones.
I call on the government to drop the VSU legislation. If they did
that, they would not even have to amend the Education Services for
Overseas Students Act. I know that many international students need
these services, and I support their provision. In addition to the
normal trials and tribulations of students during their time at
university, international students have the added challenge of
living in another country far away from their personal support
network. They should have appropriate support services in place.
That is not contested. I cannot help but wonder why, if these
services are so valuable and important to international students, we
would consider them to be any less valued and less important to
local students. I also have to wonder why the minister believes that
such services will be able to adequately operate for international
students after the infrastructure and networks that have been
established for local students are torn down.
Any business operator will tell you that if you have something up
and running for one group of customers there are economies of scale
to be achieved by using the same set-up to service a new set of
customers. Today is a victory for all those student groups that have
actively campaigned against VSU. It is a victory for the student
organisations, regional communities, university staff,
vice-chancellors, campus activists and sporting organisations, and
for all the other people who lent their support to the anti-VSU
campaign. It is certainly a victory for the estimated 4,200 people
employed by service providers at Australian universities who were
set up, quite frankly, to lose their jobs as a result of VSU.
But let’s have a full victory. Let’s do away with the prospect of
VSU once and for all. I would like nothing more than for the
minister to come into the chamber today and announce the removal of
the VSU legislation. The minister should admit that he has been
defeated and stop clinging to the faint hope that, if he delays the
passage of the legislation until 2007, those much needed extra votes
might suddenly emerge.
I will not be opposing the legislation before us today, because I
believe that it is important that all students be given the same
opportunity to maintain the support services provided by student
organisations. I will be supporting Labor’s second reading amendment
calling on the government to withdraw the VSU bill, and I encourage
all members opposite to do the same.
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