QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr CLARE (Blaxland—Minister for Education) (14:43): I thank my friend the dazzling member for Deakin for his question. Some good news—this year more Australians than ever before have started a university degree. I can tell the House now that the number of students starting a teaching degree this year is up 7.7 per cent, the number of students starting a health degree, and that includes nursing and midwifery, is up 6.6 per cent, the number of students starting a psychology degree is up 9.8 per cent and the number of students starting an engineering degree is up 10.5 per cent.

I can also tell you that the number of kids from the bush, the number of kids from the regions starting a uni degree this year is up five per cent and the number of kids from poor families starting a uni degree this year is up seven per cent. That's all good news, but it's just the start, because just over an hour ago the parliament passed laws that will open the doors of our universities even wider.

It will mean more Aussies get a crack at going to uni, at getting the skills they need and getting the skills that we need. Today, about one in two young people in their 20s and 30s have a uni degree, but that's not the case everywhere. It's certainly not the case in the western suburbs of Sydney where I grew up, where it's about half that.

It's the same story in the outer suburbs of Brisbane and Melbourne, our other big cities. It's the same story in the regions where it's about half that. It's even lower in the bush, and that's not because of a lack of talent.

Talent is everywhere. It's opportunity that's not. It's this sort of legislation that can help to change that.

To give you an idea of what's possible, a couple of years ago we passed laws through this place that meant if you're an Indigenous kid and you've got what it takes to take on a university degree then you get a guaranteed place at university. I can now tell the parliament that the number of Indigenous kids starting a university degree since we passed those laws has jumped by 24 per cent.

This legislation that we've now passed today does the same sort of thing for all kids from poor families and all kids from the regions and all kids from the bush. It means an extra 230,000 Australians will get a crack at university over the next 10 years. It means more kids from the regions get to study in the regions and stay in the regions and work in the regions.

It means opening the doors of opportunity wider. It means more teachers. It means more nurses.

It means more midwives. It means more psychologists. It means more engineers.

It means Australia gets more of the skills we need.