The World Today

E&OE TRANSCRIPT Interview – ABC Radio, The World Today with Louise Yaxley 28 January 2015 SUBJECT:  Higher education reform. ELEANOR HALL:    The Federal Education Minister, Christopher Pyne, is urging federal Labor to rethink its opposition to the Government's higher education changes. The former Labor treasurer John Dawkins, who oversaw major changes to the university system in the 1980s, says he supports the push for universities to set their own fees, but he stresses he is not backing the Government's proposals. Even so, the Minister Mr Pyne told our political correspondent Louise Yaxley that Mr Dawkins' intervention is significant. CHRISTOPHER PYNE:     It's a wake-up call that the Labor Party used to be the party of reform, used to be a party of commonsense, and has simply become a party of political vacuousness and political opportunism. LOUISE YAXLEY:   Mr Dawkins is a figure from the late 1980s though, he not in the current Labor Party. CHRISTOPHER PYNE:     No he's not and in fact I think the Labor Party will be well served if it had more people with the principles of John Dawkins in its current ranks rather than the political opportunists who've currently populated. LOUISE YAXLEY:   If Labor was to reverse its position that would certainly mean that you wouldn't need to continue those conversations with the crossbenchers and you would have the numbers you need. CHRISTOPHER PYNE:     Well, I always talk to the crossbenchers because the more people who support the Government's excellent higher education reform the better, but I would urge Bill Shorten to override Kim Carr and come to the table and talk about how to improve universities, how to spread opportunity and undo the damage of Labor's $6.6 billion of cuts when they were last in government. LOUISE YAXLEY:   Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm is expressing concern today saying that if you compromise further on the 20 per cent cut to courses then he would feel that's going too far the other way and that would compromise his support for the plan. CHRISTOPHER PYNE:     Well, that's not exactly what he said but the point is I'm not going to give a running commentary on my discussions with the crossbenchers. Obviously there are eight crossbenchers, I'm talking to all of them. The Parliament resumes on February the 9th and then the debate begins again in earnest in the House of Representatives. It will then transfer to the Senate, there's a lot of water to go under the bridge between now and the final vote in the Senate, and so there's not a lot of point in talking of it about the day to day changes that might occur. LOUISE YAXLEY:   On the broader picture, Senator Muir has expressed some concern about deregulation. What would be your worlds to him about why there should be deregulation? CHRISTOPHER PYNE:     Well, Ricky voted for the second reading of the legislation in the last sitting week last year, he wanted to continue the debate. He has concerns to make sure that the universities remain open to as many students as possible and it's my job to explain to him that in fact our reforms will spread opportunity to more students. The Higher Education Contribution Scheme remains in place, indexed at the lowest interest rate that any student will ever be able to attract in any loan in their lives, and the revenue that will flow to universities will mean more chances for people that Ricky Muir wants to represent to get the opportunity to go to university and the life changing benefits that that brings. LOUISE YAXLEY:   He's been lobbied by people who say that it could mean that some people particularly in regional areas are priced out of the system; what's your response to that? CHRISTOPHER PYNE:     Well, that isn't possible because of course the scholarships that go with the reform will be skewed towards rural and regional students, giving them a greater advantage and more chances to get to university. And a rural and regional student has just as much opportunity to access the Higher Education Contribution Scheme as anyone else, and if they're going to a regional university of course their cost of living is lower. The benefits of living in rural and regional Australia are high and many of the universities in rural and regional Australia are champing at the bit to see these reforms because they can see that they will be able to compete with city universities to attract students to rural and regional Australia, which I understand is what many people in rural Australia want - students moving to the country rather than country students moving to the city. So that was the big benefit to rural and regional Australia and that's why all the universities around Australia are supporting this reform. LOUISE YAXLEY:   Any Mr Pyne, do you expect that the Senate will accept your arguments? CHRISTOPHER PYNE:     Well, I certainly hope so. I'm inching closer to success and I think it's a vital reform for Australian universities and students and it undoes the damage that Labor inflicted on the sector when it cut $6.6 billion when it was last in government. LOUISE YAXLEY:   Speaking of inflicted damage, the Prime Minister's faced a bit of a backlash over his decision to make Prince Philip a knight, what's your view? CHRISTOPHER PYNE:     Well, I'm very focused on higher education reform, I'm focused on a review of the national curriculum and quality training for our teachers at university. They are the three big issues that I'm facing in education. Obviously the Prime Minister made a call about knights and dames and about Prince Philip being given a knighthood and the Order of Australia, but that to me is a much lesser issue than the important issues that I'm facing and trying to bring about to make Australia a better place. [ends]