Press Conference — Dubbo NSW

E&OE TRANSCRIPT Press Conference — Dubbo NSW Wednesday 2 July 2014 SUBJECTS: CSU Dental School, Higher education reform benefits for regional areas CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for coming to this doorstop here in Dubbo at the University of Charles Sturt. It's great to be here with Mark Coulton, my federal parliamentary colleague, the Member for Parkes, and the Vice Chancellor, Andrew Vann of Charles Sturt University, here at one of the many campuses of Charles Sturt. I am visiting the dental school which was an initiative of the Howard Government, $65 million, which is obviously having a tremendous impact because the university is graduating, last year, 33 graduates, most of whom have ended up working in rural and regional Australia which was the whole purpose of this kind of program. I am also going up the road to Sydney University to visit the rural medical school there which is similar to the one that we have in South Australia at Port Lincoln and then we're dropping in on the Royal Flying Doctor Service to show our support for the good work that the Royal Flying Doctor Service does, not least of which because my father was a Royal Flying doctor in Alice Springs in the 1950s and we valued his good work back then and the continuation of the Royal Flying Doctor Service should be valued and acknowledged and so I wanted to drop in while I was here in Dubbo and show that we appreciate their excellent work. I am travelling around Australia at the moment from Townsville to Mildura and have been to Mackay, I'm going to Wagga tomorrow, I was in Lismore earlier today and Mildura finally and then back to Sydney and Adelaide to talk about the government's higher education reforms because we believe very strongly that the government's reforms will be great for rural and regional Australia. They will be great in a couple of ways. They will be great because we are expanding the demand-driven system from undergraduate degrees to diplomas and associate degrees which means the kinds of pathways that many lower socio-economic status young people and first generation university goers use to go into university will be an open system. We will fund as many young people as want to use those pathways into university. That will cost the Government money but it means that rural and regional universities who conduct a lot of those kinds of courses will be big winners. We are also expanding the Commonwealth Grants Scheme which is the per student subsidy to non-university, higher education providers and in rural and regional Australia. They typically have associations with local TAFEs and other higher education providers. So Charles Sturt University has, for example, seven campuses in every one of those communities, it has a relationship with the local TAFEs and those local TAFEs will now be able to access, in certain courses, the Commonwealth Grants Scheme which will be a revenue stream for them, making them more viable and increasing the complementarities between universities and the TAFE system. But finally I believe rural and regional Australia will be a big winner because they will be able to tailor their service to the consumers that they are trying to attract. So, for example, in competing with some of the metropolitan universities, they will be able to do so on price, cost of living and also lifestyle. Why wouldn't young people be attracted to a university that is offering a high quality degree or associate degree or diploma, living in a fabulous country town or a rural setting where the cost of living is slightly lower and the lifestyle is even better than a lot of the metropolitan offerings. So I think they will be able to use the Commonwealth Scholarships Fund to attract the best and brightest and the kinds of students that they want from low SES backgrounds, if that's what they desire, to their particular campuses. So, I see a great future for universities in rural and regional Australia because of the Government's higher education reforms. I might leave it at that and see if Andy wants to make a few remarks and then take any questions. ANDREW VANN: I think the Minister has done a fabulous job of explaining why it is that everybody should come to Charles Sturt University. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Indeed. ANDREW VANN: And I absolutely agree with him on that score. We've certainly been a university that has adapted to changes in the system and has thrived and been very entrepreneurial and we're obviously very grateful for the support we've had from previous Coalition governments in relation to initiatives such as the dentistry clinic. I think we do have some concerns about the pricing aspects of this but we would really like to thank the Minister for coming to visit so that we're able to talk about those and explain what our concerns are and hopefully find ways to improve some of the proposals so, Minister, thanks for coming. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: That's a pleasure. Thank you. Any questions? QUESTION: Well, you've said you're excited about the reforms and I understand it may be good for students studying locally here or even getting students from the cities, the metro areas to here, but what about classical graduates from Dubbo who want to go away to study because of choice of course or whatever it may be? They face relocation costs, higher living costs that way so how do your reforms deliver for them? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, rural students who want to move to the city already have access to the Youth Allowance, they already have access to relocation allowances and support from the Commonwealth. The freeing-up of the system makes that even easier for universities to tailor their service to those students. If a university wants to use its Commonwealth Scholarships Fund to attract rural and regional students to particular courses then it will be able to offer them living expenses support or relocation support if they need more funds. These reforms aren't stopping student support, they're nothing to do with student support, they're about creating more opportunity and giving our universities the chance to be excellent universities, to be their best selves so that support we give now to students to relocate remains in place. QUESTION: You've mentioned before in a previous interview about price point, that that will be a sorting mechanism, I guess, but what about for regional students who might always miss out for the price point if they want to study at a big university in the capital cities? CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, rural and regional students have exactly the same access as every other student in Australia to the Higher Education Loan Program. The HELP Scheme isn't just for city students so no rural and regional student can be denied a place at a university based on price because they can borrow every single dollar upfront and start paying it back when they earn over $50,000 a year at, we're proposing, the Government bond rate, which is the best loan they will ever get in their lives. Rural and regional students have exactly the same access based on price and value as any other student in the country. QUESTION: But there are concerns from various parts of the community about this. How do you think you're going to be able to sell this message [indistinct]. CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, it's a vague suggestion that there are concerns in the community. I mean, I think that there is a lot of support in the sector for allowing our universities to compete with their Asian counterparts that are improving the quality of their service all the time. We can't stand still and do nothing in universities, otherwise we will be overtaken by universities around our region and the international student market, which currently is $15 billion a year, will dry up if we lose our reputation for high quality, especially relative to other universities in the region. I am quite confident that I will be able to work with the cross-benchers in the Senate to deliver these reforms. I think instinctively the cross-benchers recognise that we are spreading opportunity to more students around Australia and we are creating excellent universities who can be their best selves. Now, there might well be the usual process of getting things through the Senate. I'm a realist about the fact that we don't have the numbers on our own in the Senate but the government wants this package as we're proposing it, but we will work with the cross-benchers to deliver something. [ends]