Mr BARTLETT (3:11 PM) —My question is addressed to the Minister for Education, Science and Training. Would the minister inform the House of how the federal government is supporting Australia's 38 publicly funded higher education institutions? Is the minister aware of any promises in this area which could have an impact on the Commonwealth budget?

Dr NELSON (Minister for Education, Science and Training) —I thank the member for Macquarie for his question, and acknowledge his very strong support for the Nepean campus of the University of Western Sydney. You might be interested to know that that university is described by the New South Wales education minister as being `on the fringe of Sydney'. I am sure the member for Macquarie's constituents will appreciate hearing that. Australia currently has 38 publicly funded universities. The Commonwealth government this year will provide $6.4 billion to those universities—31 per cent in the form of an operating grant. Eighteen per cent of university revenues will be HECS and 15 per cent will be university research funding. That means that universities this year, with $4 billion of non-government funding, will have total revenues of around $10.4 billion, which is almost $2 billion more than they received when this government came to office in 1996.

In relation to the Higher Education Contribution Scheme, there are 1,115,317 Australian students and former students who currently owe $8.2 billion to the Australian taxpayer. It should be pointed out to the House that HECS—which is money that is lent by the Commonwealth from hard-working Australian taxpayers, many of whom have never seen the inside of a university—is actually a cost to the Commonwealth government of $300 million a year. It costs the government $300 million a year because of a 25 per cent up-front discount, a 15 per cent discount for part payments, and also remissions and write-downs for students who are not able to meet their repayments.

The Australian higher education sector will be reformed by this government. The four priorities for reform will be equity, diversity, quality and sustain-ability. The President of the Australian Vice-Chan-cellors Committee, Professor Schroeder, was reported in the Sunday Telegraph on 15 September as saying:

He said:

I have found some very similar comments made by, shall I say, a rather muscled-up author. In a tome entitled The enabling state: people before bureaucracy—something that would certainly be supported on this side of the House—the member for Werriwa said:

What do we know at the moment of the Australian Labor Party's policies in relation to universities? Firstly, last week, the President of the Group of Eight universities argued for $385 million more for research. Immediately, the member for Jagajaga came out and said that the Australian Labor Party would support the $385 million. She was quoted in the Australian newspaper on 19 September as supporting the calls for more funds. Further to that, on Wollongong Radio 97.3 on 3 September this year, when the member for Jagajaga was asked if Labor would fund a place for everyone, she said:

The total cost of that is $640 million. In fact, the unmet demand is about 10,500. On 4 June this year, she was campaigning for Australian universities to drop domestic fee-paying places in universities. That means that, if you are a student in Bligh Park and you want to get a place in a university that is already full, you get less of a right than a student in Beijing to study in Australia. The cost of dropping those domestic places is $70 million. She also argues that the repayment threshold for HECS—currently $23,242—should be increased. If you assume that you would go to Knowledge Nation with its $25,000 repayment threshold, that is $266 million over four years. In terms of Labor Party policy so far in relation to Australian universities, we are looking at around $1.12 billion of expenditure.

As the member for Jagajaga said the week before last at a financing conference on universities, it is a matter of priorities. She said that the government could reorder its priorities. I am sure the member for Lalor would like to reorganise the priorities of government, were she in government. I think the member for Fremantle would reorganise priorities if she were in government. They would take money out of defence and border protection and put it into universities. I think, as the member for Werriwa has actually said, governments need to look beyond the ideologues.

Mr Latham —Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The minister has been speaking for over seven minutes now. Isn't this better as a ministerial statement?

The SPEAKER —The member for Werriwa will resume his seat.

The SPEAKER —The member for Werriwa will resume his seat.

Mr Latham —It's like the Braveheart movie.

The SPEAKER —I warn the member for Werriwa!

Mr Latham —It's like the Braveheart movie.

Mr Hockey —It's book sales; people kill for that. It's you and Chopper getting free publicity.

The SPEAKER —I have already warned the member for Werriwa. The House is not facilitated by the Minister for Small Business and Tourism eroding the chair's authority.