SARAH FERGUSON: On the loan repayments, there's been widespread criticism of the inequity involved. Bruce Chapman says they disadvantage women and the poor in particular. Are you prepared to listen to him, the architect of HECS?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well I'm listening to everybody in the debate. Bruce Chapman and Tim Higgins, his co-author, are one - are two particular people. There've been, as I outlined at the Press Club today, a lot of support for the Government's reforms from vice chancellors and others in the higher education sector. I'm listening to everyone because that's the best way to get the best reform possible through the Senate. Now, ...
SARAH FERGUSON: Let's just talk about these interest repayments because it does seem to be an area - yes, it's true, that there is a lot of support for your reforms, but from those people you talk about, the vice chancellors, they have said that they are very worried about the inequity contained within those loan repayments. Is that something that you're going to consider changing?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well let's see what the Senate decides, Sarah. I'm not going to pre-empt the cross enches, I'm not going to assume that they're going to do one thing or the other, but I will certainly talk to them about all aspects of the package ...
SARAH FERGUSON: But have you been persuaded by Bruce Chapman and the arguments of the vice chancellors that those loan repayments that hurt low income earners and women in particular should be removed from the package or altered?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: I think it's fair for the students to pay the same interest rate that the taxpayers are paying on their behalf. I think the students should pay back at the same rate that the taxpayers did, otherwise there is an in-built subsidy for the students and the students are already getting at the moment 60 per cent of their tuition fees paid by the taxpayer. I think that's fair.
SARAH FERGUSON: But when Bruce Chapman - forgive me, but when Bruce Chapman explains to you that the effect of setting the repayments at the government bond rate in the way that you have hurts women and poor people, those people whom you want to encourage into the universities, are you saying that you'll only change that if the crossbenches demand it? You don't see any innate benefit in that?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, Sarah, if you're saying that Bruce Chapman is the oracle and that everything he says, we have to do, then I would advise Bruce Chapman to get himself elected to Parliament, to become a cabinet minister and the Minister for Education and then he'll be able to do that. His voice is a valid one and I will respectfully listen to him, but he's not a member of the cabinet.
SARAH FERGUSON: However, do you accept that there is a hit in the way that you've set up the loan repayments that hurts women and poorer people more than it does high income earners? Do you accept that's the consequence?
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: No, absolutely not. And I don't accept it because what will happen at universities is that vice chancellors and their leadership teams will know that they should not charge and will not charge higher fees for courses which are typically going to be studied by people who'll be nurses and teachers and therefore not earn high incomes over a period of time. Now, women are well-represented amongst the teaching and nursing students. They will not be able to earn the high incomes that say dentists or lawyers will earn, and vice chancellors in framing their fees, their fee structure, will take that into account. Therefore the debts of teachers and nurses will be lower than the debts, for example, of lawyers and dentists.
SARAH FERGUSON: But what happens to a female lawyer or a female dentist who takes, say, 10 years out of from the workplace to raise a family? She will pay a great deal more for her degree than a man who has no children.
CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well, Sarah, I feel like you're sort of caught up on this subject and the reforms, the higher education reforms are a great deal more than simply the deregulation of fees. So, while you're a bit caught up on one aspect of it, there are many very good aspects of this reform package which I think the Senate will find very attractive.