Senator ELLISON (Special Minister of State) (5:00 PM) —The government did look at the merit based equity scholarship scheme and it was found to be rather complex to administer. I do return to my previous comment that HECS remains the centrepiece of equity and access in relation to Australian students accessing tertiary education.

But I would also point out to Senator Stott Despoja the higher education equity program and the 1999 allocation, which is reported at page 64 of the higher education report for the triennium 1999-2001. That provides for equity target groups which are listed as follows: people from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, people from rural and isolated backgrounds, people with disabilities, women studying in non-traditional areas and people from a non-English speaking background who have arrived in Australia within the previous 10 years. They are the target groups that are covered by this program, and there are funds which have been linked to universities' equity performance and are allocated to institutions as part of their operating grant.

The Commonwealth has played an active role in monitoring the participation and performance of the six equity groups which I mentioned in higher education, and what is set out there are the various amounts which have been allocated to the various universities and institutions. The total amount comes to just over $5.5 million. So the abolition of the merit based equity scholarships does not leave those disadvantaged groups out in the cold. There is a program which is dealing with this, and can I say once again to those people who were granted the scholarships that they will continue to have them; there is no retrospective operation of this abolition of the scheme. The government believes that what it has in place will address equity in and access to the tertiary education sector and that with this program we will address those target groups of disadvantaged people.