THE HON JASON CLARE MP MINISTER FOR EDUCATION
SPEECH

AUSTRALIAN TECHNOLOGY NETWORK 25TH ANNIVERSARY GALA DINNER

WEDNESDAY, 9 OCTOBER 2024

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Acknowledgements omitted.

Rankings are in the media today. And I have said this before, but I will say it again.

When I think about the best universities in Australia, I don’t look at rankings.

I look at what they do.

And when I do that I see universities like you.

Universities that are the real deal when it comes to fairness and opening the doors of opportunity.

When it comes to helping more people from poor families and the regions to get a crack.

Things that are important to me.

On average only about 15 per cent of university students are from poor families.

Across your six universities combined, it’s much higher than that.

At universities like Newcastle, it’s as high as 24 per cent. At the University of South Australia, 25 per cent.

That sort of university doesn’t just change the lives of the students they teach.

It ricochets through generations.

They transform communities.

And I am going to give Newcastle a plug again, because there is no better example of that than their Open Foundation program.

It’s been running now for 50 years.

A free program that helps people who aren’t ready for uni to be ready.

About 70,000 people in the last 50 years.

One in five people who get a degree from Newcastle Uni today start with one of these free courses.

People like Jennifer Baker.

Jennifer was a mum at 19. She worked in hospitality for 10 years. One day, just by chance, she saw an ad in the paper for one of these free courses.

Now she’s got a science degree, an honours degree, a PhD and a Fulbright scholarship.

She’s a computational medicinal chemist.

That’s what these courses do. That’s what I call a great university.

And that’s what I am trying to replicate across the country with the legislation in the Parliament right now, that massively expands these Fee-Free Uni Ready Courses.

This is supported by a funding injection in the Budget of an extra $350 million.

I know you are doing a lot of the heavy lifting already.

Reforms like this, and the ones to come, are because I want you to do even more.

Of course, it’s not just equity that binds you together or makes you great.

You can see it in your name.

The ATN was formed 25 years ago from the five largest Institutes of Technology. And you are still focused on that mission.

Still doing the heavy lifting when it comes to producing engineers in this country.

But what makes you great in my eyes isn’t just what you are doing here at home.

It’s what you are taking to the world.

I am talking about the campuses you have set up around the world – from India to Vietnam, Singapore to Malaysia to Indonesia.

You get that international education isn’t a one way street.

That it shouldn’t just be about students coming here to study, but it can also be about taking what we do to them.

Almost every one of you are doing this.

And that tells me this a group of universities that doesn’t just expect things to happen, you go out and make it happen.

There’s a bit happening at the moment.

The international education legislation is being debated in the Senate this week.

The first of the Accord Bills is being debated in the House.

That’s the one that uncaps funding for those free university ready courses. It also wipes about $3 billion of student debt for three million Australians and introduces the Commonwealth prac payment.

The second of the Accord Bills – the Bill that establishes a National Student Ombudsman, has just passed the House.

I will also introduce legislation to establish a National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence.

And before the end of the year I will also set out the details of the next stage of the Accord.

What the Australian Tertiary Education Commission will look like. And the details of managed growth and needs based funding.
And that’s just higher ed.

There is also legislation in the House to implement the 15 percent pay rise we announced for early educators a few weeks ago.
And tomorrow I will introduce legislation to increase funding to our public schools.

To remove the ceiling that stops the Australian government providing more than 20 percent of the funding needed for public schools, and make it a floor.

To help finish the job that David Gonski started more than a decade ago.

And to tie that funding to the sort of reforms that are needed to help more young people from poor families and from the regions to finish school and knock on your door.

None of these reforms are easy.

All of them are hard.

And all of them are necessary.

If we are going to really build a better and a fairer education system, these are the sorts of things we have to do.

And you are an important part of that.

You know like I do how important all of this is.

That education is the most powerful cause for good in this country.

That it’s the greatest tool we have to build a country where your chances in life don’t depend on who your parents are, where you live or the colour of your skin.

A country that the Prime Minister describes as a place where no one is held back and no one is left behind.
We can be that country.

And our education system can make it real.

But that means serious reform.

The sort we are doing now.

And more.

And it will be better because of your input.

Thank you for the work you do and for the constructive role you have played for the last 25 years.

I look forward to continuing to work with you as we build a better and a fairer education system for all Australians.

ENDS
Media contact: Chrysti Moran – 0484 521 418