Gavan O'Connor (Corio, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Education Services for Overseas Students Legislation Amendment Bill 2007 is the latest of several pieces of legislation setting out the legal framework for the responsibilities of Australian education providers to overseas students who come to Australia on a visa to study in the higher education area, the vocational education area, secondary high schools or the English language sector. The seminal act covering the Commonwealth’s regulatory regime in this policy area is the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000.

This is the third amendment bill to tighten the administrative and regulatory framework governing the provision of education and training services to overseas students in Australia. Regrettably, we do not even live in a near-perfect world and these amendments are necessary to protect and enhance what has become a valuable export earner for the nation, now worth over $7 billion to the Australian economy. Some put that figure as high as $10 billion. As this industry has developed over time, it has become obvious that unscrupulous and mercenary operators are extracting profit from this activity and, in the process, damaging the reputation of genuine Australian education providers and potentially damaging a very important industry which, as I understand it, now occupies the position of our fourth-largest export.

An independent evaluation in 2005 made some 41 recommendations for improving the regulatory framework and the accountability of providers both to their client students and to Commonwealth departments, such as the Department of Education, Science and Training and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Without labouring over the more technical amendments, I will outline what this legislation’s major amendments cover.

This legislation adds an objects clause to clarify the main purposes of the ESOS Act. It also facilitates course delivery across state boundaries by allowing designated authorities to approve arrangements where a provider other than the registered provider is located in a different state to the registered provider. This of course reflects the reality of education within Australia today.

The bill enables a more accurate reflection of the actual allocation of the roles and responsibilities of the Australian government and the state and territory governments in relation to the investigation of breaches of the National Code 2007, which will come into effect from 1 July 2007. It also recognises the role of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to resolve the visa status of an overseas student, while the role of the education provider is to advise DIAC of that breach. The bill also makes written agreements with each overseas student mandatory under the National Code 2007.

We on this side of the House regard these amendments as both necessary and appropriate at this time to complete the strengthening of the regulatory and administrative environment that governs this trade. The provision of education services to overseas students is an area where the responsibilities of the Commonwealth and the states and territories are held conjointly. The states and territories have a primary responsibility for the registration, monitoring and evaluation of education providers and the courses they offer, while the Commonwealth provides the overall regulatory framework and the necessary visa and immigration services that enhance and secure this education services trade which is so important to Australia.

This is a trade of mutual benefit not only to the students who come to Australia to be educated but to the country from which they come, and to Australia as a nation which hosts these students and provides them with their education. For the overseas student, it is an opportunity to study in a world-class education institution at a competitive cost and in a relatively secure and friendly environment compared to others overseas. For the student’s own country, the ability to access reasonably priced, quality education in the region for many of its students relieves some of the burden on the government to provide the full range of education services, allowing opportunity cost investments and resource allocations to other socially and economically productive areas of the society.

For Australia, this service trade offers an opportunity to earn substantial export income and to maximise returns from education infrastructure and training investments already made here in Australia. It offers Australia the opportunity to project its influence in a constructive and unique way in the region. Long term, that has quite profound security implications for this nation. Therefore, it is incumbent on this parliament to get the regulatory regime right and to get the best possible cooperation between the Commonwealth and the states in providing educational services second to none in the world to overseas students.

We on this side of the House are very proud of the efforts and vision of the Hawke and Keating governments in setting up this important opportunity that the nation now embraces. It is Labor’s vision for a world-class education service offered to overseas students that is being realised every day as this important area of economic activity bears fruit for the nation. Indeed, if you were to listen to Howard government ministers, you would think that the history of the world only began when they were elected to this parliament. We hear this every day from the Prime Minister in his reference to the economic performance of the nation over the last 11 years, conveniently not disclosing to the Australian people that it was a Labor government that broke the back of Liberal inflation, provided a very low inflation regime, had the unemployment statistics heading south at a great rate of knots and provided an economy that had grown at four per cent for four years before the Howard government came to office. Likewise, in the education services area, you would think the history of the world only began with the election of the Howard government—but it did not. It was the visionary Hawke and Keating Labor governments that put this enormous opportunity front and square before Australian education providers, and we see the results today.

In my own electorate of Corio, in the Geelong region, we are indeed blessed with world-class primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions. We are able to offer to overseas students education services that are very competitive, of the highest quality and second to none. In our own secondary school sector, several schools have taken the opportunity to offer places to overseas students, not only to earn income from the assets they have already invested in education but also to provide a broader cultural context and learning environment for their own students. Indeed, in our secondary system there has been significant investment from overseas—from Japan, particularly, in Kardinia International College. As a result, not only are there important student exchanges now taking place between Australia and Japan but considerable resources have been invested in providing a broad curriculum and quality education for all students, from Australia, Japan and other countries throughout the region.

In the tertiary sector, both Deakin University and the Gordon TAFE make significant course offerings to overseas students. In 2006, the Gordon hosted some 113 overseas students from Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Thailand and Taiwan. With new student interest coming from emerging markets in China, India and Indonesia and from as far away as South America, the Gordon is well placed to capture a slice of this very important trade in education services.

In a speech to this House in September 2006 on amendments to the education services act, I outlined the offerings of Deakin University as far as the overseas education services trade is concerned. At that time, there were in the order of 616 of those enrollees at Deakin University, with the major sources of those students being India, Zimbabwe and China. Of course, the students who came participated in a range of courses right across the tertiary curriculum offerings of Deakin University.

I will not labour on the elements of that speech. Suffice it to say that both the Gordon TAFE and Deakin University take their responsibilities to overseas students very seriously indeed. They spend a lot of time and energy in preparing students for their educational life in Australia, and they do that with the support of the Geelong community.

We are very fortunate in the Geelong region in the quality of the primary, secondary and tertiary education resources that are at the community’s disposal. It is pleasing to see that education institutions across the spectrum are taking advantage of these very important opportunities that are emerging to educate and train overseas students and, at the same time, making their contribution in those areas of the life of the nation that will be very important in securing our future. The Geelong region is ideally placed to provide these education services to overseas students. We have a laid-back lifestyle. We have quality education institutions that can provide courses at competitive costs. And, of course, we have a very supportive multicultural community which embraces diversity, so that overseas students who do come to the Geelong region feel very much at home and very secure.

This is a very important industry now to Australia in so many ways, as I have outlined. The industry is a major business. It is the largest provider per head of population and the third-largest English-speaking provider of international education services, with seven per cent of the market, behind only the USA and the UK. We are not dealing here with a tin-pot country—as some would say—at the bottom end of the world; we are a major player in this trade in an international sense. It is incumbent on Commonwealth and state governments to get the regulatory regime right so that overseas students who come to Australia remember their experience well and take that back to their own countries for the rest of their lives.

I recall going on many delegations to our region where I sat down to briefings with embassy officials, particularly with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and there was always a focus on educational services and the important work being done to grow that trade within our region. When one travels around Asia in particular, one continually comes across people who were educated in Australian educational institutions, and they fondly remember their experience here.

Before I entered parliament I worked with former industry minister and senator John Button. I recall accompanying him to Indonesia on one of his delegations and sitting down with, I think, then Minister Hartarto. Minister Hartarto had worked part time on the wharves in Melbourne while he studied in Australia and he held quite fond memories of the Australian friendships that he created during his education here. What price can you put on that goodwill? It is an extraordinary asset, and it demands that we make sure that the unscrupulous operators who drag the standards of this industry down are brutally weeded out in the national interest.

There is no place in this trade for any education provider that seeks to abuse an overseas student, a friend of Australia who entrusts their education to our care. There is no excuse for that, and any measure that the minister and the government might take to make sure that these unscrupulous providers are weeded out will get very strong support from the Geelong community and, I am sure, from this side of the House.

Likewise, we ought to be aware that this is a very competitive area of global trade. Perhaps I should not mention educational services strictly in trade terms because, as I have outlined to the House, I see the importance of this trade in its wider dimensions. However, it is absolutely important to Australia’s national economic export performance that this trade be enhanced, that our great educational assets be used efficiently in Australia’s long-term national interest and that the regulatory frameworks that we are able to devise in legislation coming through this House protect this very important aspect of our economy. There is no place for those who seek to abuse the enormous opportunity for the nation to secure its future both in an economic and cultural sense within our region.

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