Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill 2026

Mr HILL (Bruce—Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs and Assistant Minister for International Education) (19:15): For the information of honourable members, I present an addendum to the explanatory memorandum to this bill. I'd like to thank all members for their contribution to this debate. This bill will help to open the doors of opportunity to our universities to more young people from poor families, from regional Australia and from the bush.

It introduces a new managed-growth funding system that will provide an extra $3.6 billion and support an extra 230,000 commencing students over the next decade. It establishes a new demand driven, needs based funding system to help students from poor backgrounds, Indigenous students and students studying in the regions to participate and succeed in their studies—think Gonski for universities.

It also gives the Australian Tertiary Education Commission the power to make decisions on international student allocations for eligible higher education providers each year. In her contribution to the debate on this bill, the member for Lyne, opposite us, said this: At the end of the day, the test for this legislation is simple. Will it create more opportunities for regional Australians?

Will it strengthen pathways into nursing, teaching, allied health and other professions our community desperately needs? Will it help more students study closer to home? Will it help communities—like Taree, Gloucester, Wingham and Forster—build the workforce they need for the future?

If it does, then it will be a worthwhile reform … The answer to that question is yes, yes and yes. Let me give you a few examples. In New South Wales, at universities like Charles Sturt University that have campuses in Wagga and Orange and Bathurst and Dubbo and Albury-Wodonga and Port Macquarie, it means somewhere between $200 million and $500 million of extra funding over the next decade.

In Queensland, at universities like Central Queensland University with campuses in Townsville, Rockhampton, Mackay, Bundaberg, Cairns, Gladstone and Emerald, it means up to $260 million in extra funding over the next decade. It's the same story in other parts of the country where there are regional universities—more kids from the regions going to uni, more kids from the regions finishing uni and more teachers, more nurses and more frontline workers studying, staying and working in the regions.

It's the sort of thing that I hope the National Party will enthusiastically support. It's the sort of thing that the member for Lyne has said she will support. The overwhelming majority of submissions to the Senate inquiry into this bill support what the government is looking to do here.

The 2050 Alliance support this bill, and in their submission they say it is 'a critical step in implementing the policy and funding framework to deliver the accord's goals of increasing tertiary participation and equity by 2050'. James Cook University have said: The Bill has the potential to introduce fairness into educational outcomes by addressing the failed market dynamics in the higher education system that has for too long disadvantaged regional people and places.

The University of Tasmania, that state's only university, support the bill and welcome the establishment of needs based funding as an enduring, demand responsive part of the Commonwealth's core teaching funding architecture. It is one of the most important improvements to university funding in a generation. On meeting Australia's future skills research and productivity needs, Flinders University have said: We agree that achieving this goal requires a managed, national approach to growth and funding, rather than a model which risks concentration in a small number of large metropolitan universities at the expense of the under-represented students and regional communities that institutions such as Flinders exist to serve.

Following the second reading, the government will move amendments to correct some minor drafting issues in the bill, and on Monday the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee will hear from the sector and other stakeholders. I greatly look forward to the committee's report and to any recommendations for improvements, which, of course, the government will consider carefully.

As always, the government is open to considering sensible and appropriate amendments, because this is an important bill. It means more young people from poor families, from the regions and from the bush getting a crack at going to university and getting the support they need to succeed when they get there. It will open the doors of opportunity wider.

I commend this bill to the House. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Boyce ): The original question was that this bill be now read a second time. To this the honourable member for Kooyong has moved as an amendment that all words after 'That' be omitted with a view to substituting other words.

The immediate question is that that amendment be agreed to. Question negatived. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question now is that this bill be now read a second time.

Question agreed to. Bill read a second time. Messages from the Governor-General recommending appropriation for the bill and proposed amendments announced.

Debate adjourned.