TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING
MEMBER FOR SYDNEY

 

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA
TUESDAY, 20 OCTOBER 2020
 
SUBJECTS: University fees; national integrity commission; cash for visas.
 
TANYA PLIBERSEK, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING: American sized university debts are coming to Australia. We saw the Liberals’ higher education Bill passed through the Parliament yesterday. And what that means for Australian students is huge fees and huge debts. I feel so sorry for the year 12 kids this year. They have had the year from hell. They've been remote learning, they've had events cancelled, school formals, sports carnivals, final assemblies. They've really had a tough year and it's just so cruel that the Liberal Government is now telling them that they'll be paying up to twice as much for a university degree. What we're talking about are fees of up to $60,000 for a basic degree. So kids will be finishing uni, going out into a more insecure labour market, and at the same time as they're trying to save a deposit for a home of their own, start life as an adult, they're going to have this debt hanging around their necks.
 
All these young people want is a fair go. All their parents want for them is the opportunity to have a rich life, a good job. And during a recession when we've got one in three young people looking for a job or more hours of work, it is just inexplicable that Scott Morrison would rather have them on the dole queue than going to uni. Any questions? 
 
JOURNALIST: Home Affairs investigating this Daryl Maguire, NSW ICAC drama. Is it concerning that he might have spoken to, or might have made representations to federal MPs on some of those cash for visas that he was working on?
 
PLIBERSEK: I think absolutely we need to get to the bottom of any such suggestion. I'm very pleased that the strong integrity measures that we have in New South Wales with the Independent Commission Against Corruption is able to investigate allegations like this and it really begs the question, why do we have no equivalent national body? A national integrity commission is long overdue. This Government promised years ago that they would introduce a national integrity commission. The first model they've floated is the integrity commission you have when you don't want to have an integrity commission. It has no teeth. You would have to ask the question that, if someone at a federal level suspected such wrongdoing around the visa scheme, who would they report it to? How would it be investigated? Would we ever get to the bottom of it? I think as a federal MP, I'm very concerned about the reports from New South Wales. But I'm also very concerned about what we're not discovering at a federal level because we've got no federal integrity commission.
 
JOURNALIST: Scott Morrison was Immigration Minister at the time wasn't he? 
 
PLIBERSEK: I'm not going to make any comments that would pre-empt the investigation. It is absolutely vital that organisations like the NSW ICAC and any equivalent federal investigations are properly allowed to investigate any allegations made. I'm not going to pre-empt any of those investigations. Thank you.
 
ENDS