Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill 2026

Senator MARIELLE SMITH (South Australia) (10:36): I also rise to speak on the Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill 2026. The Australian Universities Accord final report was released in February 2024 and outlined the blueprint for higher education reform over the next decade and the decade after that. Over the next few decades, the University Accord says that the number of people in the workforce with a certificate, a diploma or a degree will need to increase by about 80 per cent—that means more people at TAFE and more people at university.

It is critical that, as a government, we act now to help set up our tertiary education system to deliver on Australia's future skills needs. The Australian Universities Accord final report found that significant changes are needed in Australian higher education to produce the skills, knowledge and intellectual ambition to meet the challenges that Australians face now and into the future.

The Australian Universities Accord recommended adopting a new funding model for higher education that is planned and managed by the ATEC through mission based compacts. It also recommended increasing the number of higher education students from underrepresented backgrounds, matched by a focus on the success of these students. This bill directly responds to the recommendations and findings of the accord by enshrining a needs based funding model in legislation to help support students from low SES backgrounds, First Nations students and those studying at regional campuses to get into university, complete their studies and graduate with a qualification.

The bill also embeds the new managed growth funding system to support growth in domestic students and formalises the role of the ATEC in allocating Commonwealth supported places and international student places. The new managed growth funding system will effectively uncap the number of places for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and regional areas.

The new system will address existing issues in the higher education funding system and will better align Commonwealth funding with enrolments. As a result, it is estimated that an extra 230,000 domestic students will commence university over the next decade. Demand-driven needs based funding will provide extra support to students who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, First Nations students and students studying at regional campuses.

Under this new needs based funding system, the amount of funding per student will more than double next year, in some cases. That's extra funding universities will be able to put towards things like tutoring, mentoring and other academic support; direct financial assistance, like scholarships and grants; and offsetting the higher costs of campuses in regional and remote areas.

These changes inject an additional $3.6 billion into Australia's higher education system over the next decade to increase the number of students at university and to meet Australia's future skills needs. These measures have the potential to be truly life-changing. They change the course for so many young Australians who recognise and want to access higher education and all that it can offer.

Of course, not every Australian wants to go to university, and that's fine. For those who do, their ability to access higher education should not be defined by where they live or where they were born. This is about fairness, and it's about creating a more sustainable, more equitable education system for all of those Australians who choose to access it.

The Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee, of which I am chair, conducted an inquiry into this bill. The inquiry spanned two months and received 62 submissions from a diverse range of stakeholders, including public universities, peak bodies, and staff and student representative organisations. I would like to thank all of the senators who participated in this inquiry.

I thank Senator Faruqi, who is in the chamber, for her constructive engagement with it. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to reflect on you, in the chair, Senator O'Sullivan— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator O'Sullivan ): I'll allow it! Senator MARIELLE SMITH: but I acknowledge your work on the committee and the work of all of the members of that committee.

As usual, we were able to conduct an inquiry which had a great degree of civility, and I appreciate the engagement and work of all senators on it. Throughout the inquiry, there was broad support among participants for the bill's intent to ensure that more Australians can access and succeed in higher education, regardless of their background or where they live.

The committee heard that the managed growth funding system will ensure the higher education system is sustainable and directed to the priorities of the nation. We also heard that needs based funding is one of the most important improvements to university funding in a generation and that it has the potential to be the most significant and enduring reform arising from the universities accord.

However, the committee also heard concerns that the bill lacked a legislative floor of student places and provided the minister with additional powers. The committee noted that the Minister for Education listened to the concerns of the sector and noted his work in moving amendments in the House of Representatives to clarify provisions of the bill, limit ministerial powers and increase transparency.

Nonetheless, the committee did acknowledge the concerns around ministerial powers and the definition of 'low-SES student' and encouraged the government to consider undertaking further work to address these matters. Overall, this bill is another meaningful step to implement the recommendations of the accord. So far, the Albanese Labor government has implemented more than 30 of the accord's 47 recommendations in full or in part.

We have made HECS better and fairer. We've cut the HELP debt of all Australians with a student loan by 20 per cent, wiping $16 billion in student debt. We have capped indexation on HECS debts to the lower of CPI and WPI, moved to a marginal repayment system and raised the minimum repayment threshold.

We've established the Commonwealth prac payment for the first time to support teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students while they are completing their practical training at university, and now we're expanding this important program. On 1 July 2027, the Commonwealth prac payment will be expanded to include more students undertaking mandatory placements in priority disciplines, including physiotherapy, paramedicine, clinical psychology, radiography and pharmacy.

I've talked to a number of these students, who are absolutely delighted at what this will mean for their ability to stay engaged with their studies, continue on their course and be able to make ends meet while they undertake this critical training, which will lead them to work in professions which we all benefit from and which we all need. Previously, we heard from students who were left with no choice but to resign from their paid part-time jobs to attend their placements or who had to move back home, if that was an option, because they simply could not cover the rent whilst juggling their placement and their paid work.

For those students, these changes are absolutely life-changing. They're not just relevant to the students who receive that payment—these are students undertaking training in professions that we all need. They're undertaking training in the professions that care for us now and into the future.

I think it's a really important policy, and it's one that is being received very well. I'm absolutely delighted that we have extended it to those skills as well. Our government has also doubled the number of university student hubs by establishing 14 suburban university study hubs and 20 new regional university study hubs, one of which I was proud to open just recently on Kangaroo Island in my state of South Australia.

Now students in Kingscote can remain connected to their families and community whilst also investing in their future by undertaking university-level studies close to home. I've visited a number of these study hubs right around our state, both those in regional areas and the suburban ones. When you talk to the students who are utilising them it's really extraordinary, because we know it's often students from remote areas or from the outer suburbs, in South Australia in particular, who find it particularly difficult to take up university education with the pressures on the cost of living.

Just being able to move away from home to undertake studies is out of reach for too many young people. I was really fortunate to be able to leave Adelaide with a scholarship when I was young, at 18, and go study interstate, but that is becoming less and less possible for young people now, given the cost of rent and the cost of living, which can make that difficult.

To have these study hubs close to home means you can still participate and engage in a university education but hopefully live with mum and dad or live in an area with more affordable rents or live in your local community. For instance, Kangaroo Island is a fair way from the mainland. To be able to stay on the island makes a big difference for those students.

It also has an impact, we know, in the retention of those young people in their community afterwards. When they're studying for those degrees and those qualifications which local communities need, there's a greater likelihood that they'll stay there if they also stay for their education. The one up at Elizabeth is doing fantastic work.

I give a shout-out to Matt Burnell, the member for Spence in the other place, for his advocacy in getting that established. We've also established the National Student Ombudsman and the national code to prevent and respond to gender based violence. Earlier this year, we formally established the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, the ATEC, as a steward of the tertiary education system.

These are all really important reforms in higher education. They form part of the broader spectrum of work we're doing in education from those very early years right through to tertiary education. I'm a bit of a broken record in this place on how I believe investment—particularly in the early years but right through the spectrum of education—creates absolutely life-changing, transformative potential for individuals and benefits all of us.

We all benefit as a nation when we invest in the education of our young people, whether that's investing in our young children at preschool learning to read and write and count and sing and the impact it has on their later education or investing in tertiary education and the skills that Australia needs and the skills that our workforce needs. It's not just about the individual who receives that education; it's about the contribution that they then are able to go on and make to our nation, whether it's in the caring professions, in the medical professions or in our broader economy and the sectors which are growing and changing and employing Australians.

It benefits all of us when we have a highly skilled, highly educated workforce, and it benefits all of us when every young person in Australia is given the opportunity to reach their full potential and make their fullest contribution. That's why investment in education is so important. It's not just a social policy measure; it's absolutely a fundamental economic measure and productivity measure.

We are doing some really important work as a federal government in this space. This bill represents part of that agenda. So, again, I'm really proud to chair the committee that looked into this bill.

I'm very grateful for the engagement of all the senators who come to that committee with the same degree of passion for our education sector and what we can do to make it better. Of course, we will at times have differences of opinions in how to do that, but it's important work. It's nation-building work.

I think this bill is very, very important because every Australian who chooses to go to university should have that opportunity and that option that's good for them and is good for all of us. Achieving this new funding system will be essential in meeting that goal and helping Australia meet its future skills needs. On that basis, I commend the bill to the Senate.