Doorstop - Brisbane

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Press Conference – Doorstop, Brisbane, Queensland
Wednesday 11 March 2015

SUBJECT: Higher education reform.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Okay, well, I’m ready, so I’m going to get started. Well, thank you all very much for coming this morning to the electorate of Ryan, where I’m here to support Jane Prentice and talk about the Government’s higher education reforms and reforms for schools. Particularly this morning I wanted to comment on the Carr-mageddon that awaits universities if the Labor Party gets its way in terms of policy in higher education. Kim Carr, the Shadow Minister, has made it perfectly clear that Labor will recap university places and that means 37,000 low SES young Australians will not get the opportunity to go to university; that’s on top of 80,000 who won’t get the chance because of Labor blocking the Government’s reforms in the Senate. That will cost universities $520 million of revenue between 2015 and 2018; that’s just from the 37,000. So the Education Department has done an analysis, which I’m happy to hand out to you this morning showing that 37,000 less Australians will go to university under Labor’s policy announced by Kim Carr; that will cost them $520 million of lower revenue; that will put campuses at risk and some institutions at risk. Labor cut $6.6 billion from higher ed when they were in government, this would be a further blow to universities and unfortunately would mean that up to 120,000 Australians, usually from low SES or first generation university-goers would miss out. The Government absolutely rejects this, but the choice is very stark. Under the Coalition we’re going to create more opportunity, see more revenue flow into universities that will strengthen the quality of our universities, improve our research and our teaching. Under Labor there’ll be more cuts, lower revenue, less students getting the opportunity for transformative higher education and the potential for campuses and institutions to close.

QUESTION: Minister, what do you make of Tony Abbott’s lifestyle choice comment this morning? Do you think people might perceive it as being a bit out of touch?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, I might just take questions on higher education first and then perhaps come back to others at the end if that’s okay. I’m happy to answer that at the end.

QUESTION: What do you make of the Vice-Chancellors of the Go8 taking out full page ads in the papers today calling your decision dumb, to link your legislation to the research?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, they’re wrong. I haven’t seen them – I don’t think they’ll be describing that in newspapers in the way that you’ve described it. I agree absolutely that the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme must stay in place. Labor defunded it; I’m trying to refund it. The money for the refunding comes from the reform. So the reform and the research funding for NCRIS are inextricably linked. I agree with the Vice-Chancellors, I agree with Brian Schmidt that the NCRIS needs to continue. When I came to government I discovered that Labor had defunded it. The research community has a strong friend in the Abbott Government and particularly me as the Minister for Education and that’s one of the reasons why the reform bill needs to pass. If the reform bill passes in the next fortnight, NCRIS will be funded and that will solve every problem for the research community.

QUESTION: If it needs to be funded then why don’t you separate it and find money elsewhere?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, because you can’t have new spending proposals without savings measures. Labor did that when they were in government. Labor spent and promised the Australian public everything they wanted to hear; by the time they’d finished we had a $667 billion deficit – sorry debt – and deficits of $130 billion. We thought when we came to power that the deficit would be $18.5 billion; it turned out to be $48.5 billion. So Ministers are expected to come up with savings measures to fund programmes or projects. I want to fund the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme to the tune of $150 million. To do that I have to show that savings can be made; that is the reform bill. I agree with the G8 and that’s why the G8 supports the reform bill. Every single Vice-Chancellor bar one, out of 41 Vice-Chancellors, supports the Government’s reform bill.

QUESTION: Your reform bill deadline that you put in place yourself at the end of the month is looming. What happens at that point you don’t have the backing yet of the senators you need?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, let’s not jump the gun to what happens if it doesn’t pass. I’m very hopeful that it still will pass. There’s two weeks of sittings from next Monday. The Senate Committees will report; I hope that the crossbenchers, with whom I continue to negotiate, will support the Government’s reform bill. I have almost given up hope on the Labor Party and the Greens are irresponsible. I think Bill Shorten, who’s speaking today at Monash University, should pull his Shadow Minister into line, if he had the strength of leadership that was required, because the Carr-mageddon that awaits universities if Labor wins under Kim Carr’s shadow ministry is one of losing revenue, losing students and shutting out opportunity. See, Julia Gillard and Chris Bowen described the demand-driven system for undergraduate places as one of their previous government’s greatest achievements. Kim Carr and Bill Shorten want to reverse that achievement. Labor needs to be held to account for that. In the next two weeks I expect to continue to negotiate with the crossbenchers, I hope Labor will change its mind and I hope the bill will pass.

QUESTION: Are you going to offer any more concessions to win crossbench support?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, I’ll continue to talk to them. There are a number of options on the table. Greg Craven, the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, for example, has said this morning in The Australian that the ACU won’t increase their fees at all; completely putting the lie to the Labor Party’s scare campaign about excessive fee increases. So, so far, every university that’s announced what fees it would charge, none of them add up to the Labor Party’s scare campaign. The Australian Catholic University says they won’t increase their fees one iota. So, I want the crossbenchers to listen to that reason and that rational debate, rather than the hysteria that’s been coming from the Labor Party.

QUESTION: Do you think the Government’s ad campaign is working?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It certainly did work. All of the evidence and the research from the Government’s information campaign shows that those students who believed that HECS was being abolished – the Higher Education Contribution Scheme – which Labor had tried to create a scare campaign around, now understand that’s not the case; that the Higher Education Contribution Scheme stays and in fact enrolments this year are up. So Labor’s scare campaign has failed. If they were successful, enrolments would be down, but enrolments are in fact increasing this year.

QUESTION: Concerns about price rises are one of the reasons senators won’t come on board with this. Is there any possibility you could legislate to cap any price rise [indistinct]?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, there is a proposal on the table from Bruce Chapman, who is the father of the Higher Education Contribution Scheme. He and John Dawkins and Gareth Evans and Maxine McKew and other Labor figures from the past are proposing rational and sensible options for reform. I think they are despairing of the current Labor Party, which is just politically opportunistic and quite ignorant of how the system works and can work in the future. So if the crossbenchers are interested in those kinds of schemes, we’ll look at them. But so far the crossbenchers haven’t indicated to me that they would vote for the reforms if the reasonable fees mechanism was part of it. But I guess those discussions are things that we’ll have over the next fortnight.

QUESTION: Will you keep pushing ahead with the plan, or will you dump it if it can't get support, if it fails again?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No one’s ever accused me of being a quitter, and I don't intend to quit now.

QUESTION: Can you tell us what you’ll be up to today here in Queensland, and your message for people?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, I'm going to the University of Queensland, having been to QUT for the last couple of days. I'm going to a school to talk about the Government's teacher training reforms. And my message to universities and to university students is: help us get these reforms passed because, they're good for universities, they're good for students; they protect our international education export market, which is our third biggest export after iron ore and coal and they mean that rather than a slow decline into mediocrity and stagnation, which is the words of the university sector, these reforms will allow our universities to be the highest quality in the world.

QUESTION: On teacher training, there’s a report out today warning that maths and science teachers will be retiring soon, and there’s a [indistinct] talent in those areas, and general teachers will need to teach in those areas. What can the Federal Government do in [indistinct]?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well that's why, as part of our teacher training reforms, we are going to require universities that have teaching courses to have a primary school teacher who is graduating with a specialty in science, maths, or a language. Universities that don't have a specialty for primary school teachers in those areas will not be accredited. So we are taking very firm action to do just that.

QUESTION: Will you be meeting with the Vice-Chancellor of UQ today? And [indistinct].

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yes, Professor Hoj and I will be meeting again today.

QUESTION: Do you think you’ll be discussing the full-page ad that was taken out?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I absolutely welcome the G8 and any other university helping me to pass my reforms. They are good for Australia. The G8 have been terrific in their support of these reforms, and they are continuing that today. I don't take those ads as a criticism of the Government; I regard them as a call to arms to the Senate to pass the reform bill.

QUESTION: And are you expecting a warm reception from students when you’re at UQ here today?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Everywhere I go I’m surprised with the warm reception I receive from students.

QUESTION: Minister …

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yep.

QUESTION: … just back to my earlier question …

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yes.

QUESTION: … about the Prime Minister saying that it’s a lifestyle choice, if you choose to live in a remote community the taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund that. Do you think that could be perceived as sounding a bit out of touch?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No I don’t, it’s a very complex issue. But for those of us who’ve travelled to remote Indigenous communities throughout our political careers, and mine is 22 years and the Prime Minister’s is 20 years, it certainly does strike those of us who’ve been to places like the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands in South Australia for example, how difficult it must be for the children and young people in those communities to have the kinds of opportunities that we take for granted in the more built-up parts of Australia. Where is the economy in some of these communities? How will they get jobs in a local area where there are no jobs? How will they get the kinds of educational opportunities that we expect in places like Brisbane? I think what the Prime Minister is saying is there comes a point where the taxpayer has to say: how much money can be spent in this community when there is no economic future in this particular community? We’re not talking about communities of hundreds and hundreds of people, we’re talking about micro communities. Now those children deserve the same opportunities as every other child in Australia, and I think the Prime Minister is simply alluding to that, that the children should be our number one priority.

QUESTION: So you don’t think he should have to apologise, as some are suggesting, including the opposition, for making that comment?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No, I think that is a bizarre and hysterical response. Okay. Thank you.

[ends]