Mrs HULL (7:01 PM) —I rise to speak in support of the Higher Education Legislation Amendment Bill 2003. As the member for Riverina I am extremely proud of a Wagga Wagga campus in my electorate and all that it has contributed and continues to contribute to the region. The campus that I speak of is that of Charles Sturt University. Charles Sturt is one of Australia's largest non-metropolitan higher education institutions and it boasts campuses in a number of other regional cities, including Albury and Bathurst. CSU is Australia's largest distance education provider, and it delivers more than 300 courses to more than 38,000 people on campus and via distance education in Australia and overseas.

CSU has received $1.2 million in funding from the Australian Research Council for 2003. The bulk of the CSU research projects are working towards securing sustainable futures for the regions that CSU is located within. These involve research in environmental, agricultural and wine sciences and cultural studies, which include the development of new natural herbicides, an examination of how colonisation has impacted on natural ecosystems and research into the role of weed mistletoe as an indicator of the health of our Australian bush. The collaborative industry partnerships with the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service will look at the damage caused to rice crops by waterfowl, and in partnership with New South Wales Agriculture they will look at soil health. Of the seven research projects funded, two receive industry partnership grants.

CSU will host the Fourth World Congress on Allelopathy in Wagga in September 2005. The one-week conference is expected to attract 200 delegates from across 50 countries. The university's research focuses on finding alternative non-chemical solutions for weed management in crops, including wheat and rice. CSU's researchers are among the few leading scientists in the world to use these advanced techniques to identify natural compound implants for potential use as natural herbicides. A senior lecturer in the School of Agriculture on the Wagga campus, Dr Gavin Ash, is leading innovative Australian research into the biological control of weeds and plant diseases, concentrating on crops that are important to our region. Vice-Chancellor Professor Goulter said the research being carried out by Dr Ash was making:

The CSU Winery is a $2.5 million state-of-the-art facility located in Wagga and was officially opened by the Minister for Education, Science and Training in April 2002. Charles Sturt's wine science and viticulture courses have developed into some of the most significant wine education courses in the world, with graduates in demand right across Europe and North America and in emerging wine export countries such as South America and New Zealand. One such example is Ron Brown. Mr Brown is a wine importer in Tokyo. One of our local papers, the Daily Advertiser, recently featured a story on Mr Brown, who is an off-campus student studying through Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga. He is currently completing his six-year Bachelor of Applied Science in wine science. He told the newspaper that his reason for selecting Charles Sturt University was that he `needed an English-speaking course that would allow him to study off campus and this was by far the best one'.

Mr Brown is just one of thousands of both on-campus and off-campus students who have chosen Charles Sturt University as the best university to meet their needs. Charles Sturt University's results in the 2003 Good Universities Guide have continued to be consistent with those of 2002, with the university achieving the highest rating—five stars—for entry flexibility and attraction of international students, four stars for graduate employment and three stars for non-government earning capacity. It scored two stars for graduate satisfaction and one for research.

The university supports two major research centres that focus on the socioeconomic viability and biophysical sustainability of rural landscapes. The Farrer Centre for Sustainable Food and Fibre Production in Wagga Wagga examines issues of relevance to rural communities with a concentration on production systems which minimise environmental impact. The second research centre is located in Albury. Charles Sturt University has a number of international partners in a range of countries, including Canada, China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Cambodia and the United Kingdom.

Another good news story to come from Charles Sturt University, Wagga, courtesy of the Daily Advertiser, is that of a group of Malaysian food science and biotechnology students. The students came from one of CSU's international partner institutions and will be studying and living in Wagga Wagga for the next year. Charles Sturt was chosen because it offered a degree in food science, whereas the college these people had come from, in Sedaya, offered diplomas in food science.

Mr Deputy Speaker, one might ask if I am merely doing a commercial for Charles Sturt University or if I am in fact speaking to the Higher Education Legislation Amendment Bill 2003. I had to go and clarify whether I was speaking on the higher education bill or on a different bill in case I had brought the wrong speech into the House, so I appreciate the slight indulgence you have given me to set the scene for why I believe that we should be supporting this bill with great gusto in the House.

The recent figures released by this government show that Charles Sturt University will be more than $11 million better off in 2005 under the reforms to higher education. These figures indicate that Charles Sturt University's estimated operating grant in 2005 would be $112.675 million. The rise in funding continues to improve in the following years, with an increase of $13.595 million expected in 2006 and $14.715 million in 2007. Is it any wonder that I support this education package and reform?

These figures exclude additional money that has been generated through other initiatives in the reform package, such as fee-paying students or research grants and consultancies. Under the model that we have in front of us, Charles Sturt University will become the second highest funded regional university in New South Wales, behind Newcastle University—and I am all for that. For too long Charles Sturt University has languished with funding that was perhaps not quite what it required in order to deliver the best courses for rural and regional Australians—and of course for city Australians. Having said that, I note that we now have a minister and a government who are keen to take into consideration the injustice faced by our newer universities and to move forward positively.

Charles Sturt University has an enormous educational, social and economic influence on Wagga Wagga and the entire Riverina. It is serving the higher education needs of western and south-western New South Wales, and I intend to do all that I can to ensure that Charles Sturt University serves even more of rural Australia. There are plans under way to look at introducing revolutionary and innovative ways of providing doctors, including in obstetrics, for the future.

Whilst Charles Sturt University attracts and services students throughout western and south-western New South Wales, as I have said, many students from metropolitan areas and interstate choose to study there, as do many overseas students. In 1995 there were 438,000 domestic undergraduate students in universities throughout Australia. In 2001 that number had increased to 485,500, representing an increase of 11 per cent. International education—including higher education, both onshore and offshore, vocational education and school education—has been one of the major export growth earners over the past six years. In the 2000-01 financial year international students contributed more than $4 billion to the Australian economy. Education exports are now the third largest export sector.

New Commonwealth scholarships will be offered to expand educational opportunities and choices for students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. Students from regional areas studying away from home will benefit from the new Commonwealth learning scholarships. Five thousand of these new scholarships per year, commencing with 2,500 in the year 2004, will be provided, at $2,000 each, to help students cover their educational costs. Another 2,030 new scholarships a year, valued at $4,000 each, will be offered to assist rural and regional students who move away from home with their accommodation costs. These will start in the year 2004, with an initial 1,500 scholarships awarded.

From 2005 the Commonwealth will no longer set standard student contributions through the Higher Education Contributions Scheme. Instead, institutions will be responsible for determining student contributions within ranges set by the Commonwealth. Most undergraduate students will be Commonwealth supported students, and for these students the Commonwealth will continue to contribute towards the cost of the course for each student each year, depending on the discipline studied.

Students currently contribute, on average, 26 per cent towards the cost of their education. Under the new arrangements, the average student contribution is expected to be 26.8 per cent in 2005. The Commonwealth will continue—as I indicated in the MPI earlier—to be the major investor in higher education, contributing more than 70 per cent towards students' education. However, if you listened to the opposition speak on this reform and on these bills in the House, you would think that the Commonwealth contributes not a cent. In fact, it is the main contributor towards higher education fees and, in particular, the costs of university students' education.

A learning entitlement will be provided to allow access to a Commonwealth supported place for five years of equivalent full-time study. The five-year entitlement will be extended where a student is undertaking an undergraduate course where the normal enrolment time frame is longer than five years—for example, medicine or double degrees with honours. Provisions will be made for individual institutions to grant extensions for genuine reasons, such as ill health. The learning entitlement will provide opportunities for more Australian students to gain access to a Commonwealth supported higher education place as new entrants occupy places freed up by those students who have used their entitlement. The learning entitlement will focus students on what they want to study and encourage them to do their best to pass.

From 2005 there will be a range of loans that currently do not exist—and this is pretty extraordinary; as I said, if you listened to the opposition having discussions and speaking on these bills in the House, you would think that the government had provided no other opportunity for the Australian people—for Australian citizens and holders of Australian permanent humanitarian visas to assist them with the payment of their tuition fees. These include HECS-HELP for eligible students enrolled in Commonwealth supported places to help them cover their contribution to tuition, and FEE-HELP for eligible fee-paying students enrolled at eligible higher education institutions. FEE-HELP loans will cover the full amount of tuition fees, with the opportunity to borrow up to $50,000. There will also be OS-HELP, for eligible full-time Commonwealth supported students who wish to study overseas for one or two semesters. Loans will be up to $10,000. We have to remember that currently there is no such provision available for students. So, if you want to go and get a loan now to further your education, you have to go to a commercial lender—and we all know the cost of the interest rate in a loan in the commercial lending area. So I congratulate the minister for putting this process into place because I believe that it is innovative and will provide much needed assistance and be welcomed by the Australian public.

The minimum HECS repayment threshold, which we are hearing about so readily this afternoon, particularly during the MPI, will increase from $24,365, as it currently stands. You have to earn over and above $24,365 before you start paying back your HECS fees. The minister, in his package, has increased that to $30,000 from 2005, so this does provide relief for lower income graduates. Not only that, what it does is this: if you decide, after the course you took and the degree that you have achieved, that you do not really want to work in that area and you just want to go out and be a tremendously great little tourism officer or someone in a coffee shop—providing the benefits of your work attitude to other than the area that you studied—while it will obviously take a long time to reach a $30,000 income per annum, then you will not have to pay back your HECS fee. I think that is not clearly understood. It may seem that $30,000 is a small amount and that of course everybody will have to pay back their HECS fee because everybody earns $30,000. Well, I can tell you that not everybody earns over $30,000. In fact I know of employment histories where people do four-year apprenticeships, come out as skilled tradesmen and their award wage is still $398 per week. They will never get to $30,000 per annum under that award wage. To me the $30,000 is a very generous amount. I believe that moving the amount from $24,000 up to $30,000 is quite generous in that it means you do not have to start paying back your HECS fees until over and above that amount is earned, and then of course it is on a sliding scale. I again applaud the minister.

At the end of December 2002, the accumulated HECS debt, which we have heard so much about today, stood at $8.9 billion, as I indicated in the MPI. The average HECS debt is around $8,000—you would think it was $800,000 given the discussion that we have had at the dispatch box this afternoon—with 90 per cent of people owing less than $16,000 and 80 per cent owing less than $12,000. So in the debate this afternoon we had a distortion of the actual reality of the facts and the numbers as to how much money people are going to have to pay for an education. The evidence put in front of us quite clearly indicates the average HECS debt and the average repayments, and I think it is really quite wrong to distort the picture to get a political point across.

Current HECS students starting higher education studies in 2004, both full time and part time, will be able to study under current HECS contribution levels until the end of 2008, unless they discontinue their enrolments. So they will be able to study under the current HECS arrangements until we bring in these arrangements, when they will get the benefit of the increase to $30,000 before they have to start paying the loan back. It is quite a windfall and it should be recognised that the students currently studying will be able to take advantage of that $30,000 repayment loan, even though they are studying under the HECS regime that we have in place at the moment, so I think that they will be well looked after.

No student, including those who take up a full fee paying position, will be required under this legislation to pay fees up-front. I would like to quote a number of figures from Charles Sturt University's submission to the Higher education at the crossroads review of higher education. The following figures speak for themselves, indicating the importance of regional universities, such as Charles Sturt University, to the communities that they are a part of:

Charles Sturt University—

This will be even better fulfilled when they get the funding injection that they have been given in this higher education reform. This will be even better when they are significantly better off—about $39 million better off—under this government, as opposed to the projected figures of the possible loss of income to them under a Labor plan. So I say that for all intents and purposes I support this bill. (Timeexpired)