Australia’s opposition has vowed not to oppose the higher education funding overhaul in federal parliament’s lower house, pending a Senate inquiry.

Andrew Wallace, deputy chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, said the opposition coalition would wave through the “Open the Doors of Opportunity” bill in a House of Representatives vote, expected next week. But Wallace highlighted the “extraordinary ministerial powers” in the legislation.

“This bill shifts Australia away from a system in which institutions retain meaningful flexibility towards a system in which the minister, directly or indirectly, holds extraordinary power over the sector,” he told parliament. “We shouldn’t legislate on the assumption that this minister nor every future minister will exercise broad discretionary power cautiously, transparently and wisely.

“Parliament must assess the machinery it creates, not simply the intentions of the government currently occupying the Treasury benches.”

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A Senate committee enquiring into the bill has scheduled a public hearing on 24 August, before reporting on 3 September. Wallace said the coalition would finalise its position after considering the report.

Universities say they support the bill, but want substantial changes. Shadow education minister Julian Leeser said they should be careful what they wished for. “Your future financial health, the number and size of your courses, your internal policies and effectively any other aspect of your institution [would come] under the control of the minister,” he told a Canberra gathering.

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“Not just this minister but every minister into the future. It might be me. It might be someone else altogether. This is what you asked for.”

Leeser said there were “good reasons” for the opposition to consider supporting a bill that could empower future coalition ministers to redirect teaching grants to private providers, force students away from the cities and oblige universities to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. “This is what you asked for when you told the government you wanted managed growth.”

Submissions to the committee have warned that the provisions could stifle rather than encourage participation while limiting students’ choice on what and where to study. Education minister Jason Clare, who is due to address the Australian Financial Review Higher Education Summit on 18 August, rejected the criticism.

“I’m a kid from western Sydney whose life changed because I had the chance to go to university,” he . “If you think I’m going to do anything that means students get less, not more, opportunity, that’s just flat out wrong.”

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Fellow Labor parliamentarians have backed the bill wholeheartedly. “This landmark legislation did not appear out of thin air,” said Western Australian MP Trish Cook. “It is a culmination of rigorous, systemic and deeply consultative work.”

Queenslander Julie-Ann Campbell said the reforms were designed for people from disadvantaged backgrounds “whose lives are often shaped by challenges that many of us will simply never face. This bill speaks directly to the word that’s been thrown around this place so often of late. It speaks to ambition.”

University of Canberra vice-chancellor Bill Shorten, a former Labor frontbencher, said “the bill should go through” although he favoured a more “granular” measure of disadvantage than the current suburban-based approach.

The bill provides for universities to seek additional teaching subsidies through “mission-based compacts” negotiated with the Australian Tertiary Education Commission. Shorten told a webinar that universities should specialise rather than competing “like 37 milk bars trying to be a general store and selling everything”.

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Crossbench MPs told parliament that they had reservations about the bill, despite supporting its intent. “We’ve heard amazing headlines before in this house,” said independent MP Dai Le. “My job is to ask whether the substance matches the slogan.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com