Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill 2026

Ms WATSON-BROWN (Ryan) (15:45): The Universities Accord set worthy goals for the reform of Australia's tertiary education sector, and this bill makes progress in some areas: an increase in the number of Commonwealth supported places overall, additional funding for disadvantaged students and more support for regional institutions. These are all very welcome changes.

However, this bill is currently subject to a Senate inquiry, and the submissions so far have highlighted numerous flaws. We do have some concerns about capping international students, reducing student choice and the risk of ministerial overreach. The Greens will explore these in the inquiry, reserving our position in the Senate.

This bill was a real opportunity for the government to make badly needed, lasting reforms to the university sector. Reforms include abolishing the disastrous Job-ready Graduates scheme, which Labor opposed before they were elected but have left in place for four years; abolishing HECS debt and incentivising our young people to pursue a tertiary education in the way the Prime Minister, I and others here in this place were able when we accessed university—for free; and improving housing affordability for students, who face such imposing power imbalances with corporate landlords and who are so often choosing between proper meals and textbooks.

But did the government pursue these crucial, ambitious reforms? No. Instead, they've stooped to the crudest, lowest common-denominator politics, which is 'us versus them', with a new proposal to slash the number of international students.

These students come here to learn from our world-class institutions, to improve their prospects and to make a contribution. These students make tertiary education one of Australia's biggest and most valuable exports. These students, quite frankly, help to keep our universities afloat with their significant tuition fees.

Rather than saying, 'Thanks so much for choosing to study here in Australia,' or, 'Thank you for contributing to our academic institutions,' or, 'Thank you for contributing so much to our economy,' the government is instead demonising international students. They're blaming them for Australia's economic woes—things like the housing crisis. The housing crisis is not the fault of international students; it's the fault of successive governments making wrong policy choices.

Labor is picking an easy target rather than taking responsibility. Perhaps the government has forgotten its manners, because in my opinion that is no way to treat your guests. An immigrant never privatised my Commonwealth Bank.

An immigrant never flogged off my energy sector, my telecommunications or my toll roads. An immigrant did not give away our gas for free to multinational corporations. An immigrant never starved my schools and hospitals of funding.

An immigrant never undercut wage growth and let inflation get out of hand. An immigrant never decimated public housing and handed our real estate market over to speculators and developers. You know who did all that?

It was Labor and Liberal politicians. So it's no wonder who is looking to blame immigrants; it's the politicians. Recent reports say that Labor is gearing up to blame immigrants for our dropping living standards, possibly cutting back on family visas and backpackers.

It's a very convenient distraction. Labor, Liberals, One Nation—they all love this distraction. But does anyone really believe decreasing the number of family visas is going to make our lives better?

No, it won't. In fact, it's the very opposite. The only thing this immigrant blaming will achieve is turning us against each other at the very moment when Australians, no matter where they come from, need to come together and say, 'Enough is enough with this corporate rip-off.' We're losing control of this country not to immigrants but to the massive corporations who hold the old parties in their thrall.

And who is to blame for this? It's Liberal and Labor politicians. Labor and Liberal politicians for decades have accepted huge donations from big corporations, funding their election campaigns and paying for their perks.

In return, those politicians roll over and do what they are told. Australians aren't stupid. We can all see what's happening.

We know that Labor and Liberal politicians do their corporate masters' bidding. But we must not fall for their latest distraction. We cannot allow them to divide us based on who we are or where we come from.