Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill 2026

Senator O'SULLIVAN (Western Australia—Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) (10:33): The coalition will not oppose these amendments on this sheet. Amendment (3) of sheet HG147 is about supporting more kids in specified cohorts to go to universities. As senators would have seen, the coalition has circulated amendments specifically to ensure that.

In addition to the funding for regional delivery, regional students are also included as an equity cohort. As I have said, and the coalition has said, we will always stand up for the regions. We know the challenges that kids from the regions face when it comes to going to universities.

When the time comes to vote for our amendments, we'll see whether the government also agrees. Amendments (4) to (6) are largely technical and governance measures. They are about the timing of a decision and the requirements for it to be in writing.

The implications, as we understand them, are likely to be minimal in practice and may assist to improve certainty in the sector, so we will not oppose them. That brings me to amendments (1) and (2). The government will tell you that this is all about locking in growth.

It's about putting a floor under the total allocation pool for Commonwealth supported places. Well, let me say a few words about that. What we've been asked to do here is to prohibit precisely what the government did in 2025, and it's doing it again now here in 2026.

In the evidence before the committee, which I'm a member of, it was clear from pre-eminent experts on higher education, like Professor Mark Warburton, Professor Andrew Norton and Emeritus Professor Clive Smallman, that the government ripped $1 billion out of funding from university places in 2025 and 2026. Let me say that again: at the same time as they were talking about managed growth and opening the doors to opportunity, the Labor Party ripped $1 billion out of funding for Commonwealth supported places.

That means that fewer Australian young people are able to go to uni. It's quite an amazing level of hypocrisy, and it was hidden from the Australian people. Not only did the government cut $1 billion from Commonwealth supported places over this year and the last; they didn't put it in as a budget measure that they knew would be scrutinised by the Australian people.

Instead, they buried it in estimates variations. This is all spelled out in detail and in writing in the evidence provided to the Senate committee from Professor Warburton. So let me be clear for everyone in this chamber, for those watching on and for Hansard for posterity: Labor ripped $1 billion out of funding for Commonwealth supported places in 2025 and 2026 and then tried to hide it.

For those who want to check, it's laid out in detail not only in Professor Warburton's submission but also on page 4 of his answers to questions on notice from Senator Scarr. Let me read again what Professor Warburton's submission said so that it's written here as the record in this debate: In the 2024-25 Budget, there was sufficient funding for 2025 and 2026 to fully fund more CSPs than delivered in 2024.

Since that time, funding for the 2025 and 2026 years has been reduced by more than $1 billion (around $550m less for 2025 and $470m less for 2026). Then, at the bottom of page 4 in his answers to questions on notice from Senator Scarr, it spells it out like this: it says that the reduction in funding across 2025 and 2026 is $1,025,520,000. Let's be very clear: there was a cut of $551,701,000 in 2025, and there was a cut of $473,819,000 in 2026.

Together, this is a cut of more than $1 billion. That is bombshell evidence, and the answer goes on to explain how the government chose not to put these cuts in its budget and instead presented them as estimates variations, saying: Most of the downward variation in estimated CGS expenditure for CSPs appears to have occurred as estimates variations, rather than as 'measures' identified in Budget documentation.

So let's be clear about what happened here in relation to items 1 and 2. The Labor Party cut $1 billion out of funding to send Australian kids to university. Those cuts started last year and they're continuing right now.

Then they came into this chamber and moved an amendment saying that governments shouldn't be allowed to do that. Well, do you know what? That's not even a question of policy or financial management.

It's about integrity. It's about whether you can believe what that lot over there have to say. Let me also say this: any group or body that wants to be seen as credibly advancing the interests of the sector must, from time to time, be prepared to stand up for the sector even where it is politically inconvenient to this government.

That means going beyond the unbalanced and tired old complaints about Job-ready Graduates, where the government has given political licence to criticise even while it adopts its own Job-ready Graduates program as part of its own policy; it means calling out major cuts to university places that Labor has made; and it means things like acknowledging that this government cut $2.3 billion out of research through the Australian Economic Accelerator.

It means acknowledging that this government terminated the Trailblazer Universities Program, which generated over $1 billion in research investment in this country, and it means acknowledging that the budget allocation to Australia's research capacity program is now $920 million lower than it was when the coalition left office. It means acknowledging that the government has ripped $1 billion out of Australian student places in the last two years and it means acknowledging that, when it comes to the number of places for Australian students on current funding projections, the government will not surpass the coalition 2021 figures until 2029.

Let me spell that out. In 2021 there were 796,000 places against the census count of only 25.4 million people. Based on Professor Warburton's analysis, it will not be until 2029 that we will see a higher number of places in the system.

Therefore, it's lower in every year in between. By 2029, there will be 658,855 CSPs, just over what it was in 2021, but the Australian population is projected to reach 29 million people. On the available data, that is an extra 5,000 places for an extra 3.6 million people.

That brings me back full circle. This government is trying to prohibit the exact thing that they have done for the last two years. What is more, they are saying that, even with those flaws in place, they will achieve far less than what was achieved by the coalition.

Question agreed to.