Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill 2026

Senator WHITTEN (Western Australia) (13:27): I move the second reading amendment on sheet 4100: At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate: (a) notes: (i) the additional cost burden on rural and regional students going to university and the need for additional funding to ensure that they have the same opportunities for higher education as students in metropolitan areas, (ii) that additional funding and payments should be provided based on need and not on immutable characteristics such as race or gender, (iii) that funding should be provided directly to students to address their additional costs, not to the universities, many of which already suffer from bloated administrations, (iv) that the centralisation of university placements in the hands of the bureaucrats of the Australian Tertiary Education Commission is .anti-competitive, will result in a lower standard of education and will create an environment that promotes political favours and lobbying to be awarded more favourable placements, and (v) that this bill continues the Labor Government's aggressive expansion of ministerial powers; and (b) calls on the Government to: (i) provide additional, needs-based funding directly to students to address their own education needs, and (ii) stop centralising control of Australian institutions in the hands of ministers and government bureaucrats".

The PRESIDENT: The question is that the second reading amendment moved by Senator Whitten on sheet 4100 be agreed to.