Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

As I indicated in my remarks on the bill on 15 August, Labor supports the Higher Education Support Amendment (Extending FEE-HELP for VET Diploma and VET Advanced Diploma Courses) Bill 2007. The bill extends FEE-HELP assistance to full fee paying students in diploma and advanced diploma courses, accredited as vocational education and training qualifications. Labor supports FEE-HELP arrangements for private hire education providers and will not disturb the current arrangements in place. Labor also supports this bill because it provides some relief from the up-front costs of some vocational education and training.

Labor believes that the government’s approach is too narrow, excluding many vocational education and training students from the operation of this bill. Access to the current FEE-HELP loan scheme is limited to full-fee students undertaking studies at an accredited higher education provider. Students undertaking equivalent level vocational education and training qualifications are not able to access this scheme and, as a result, often pay up-front tuition fees. Labor regards the continuation of the situation as inequitable and inconsistent with the importance of vocational education and training for Australia’s economy. Labor believes that FEE-HELP is an important instrument in providing assistance through deferred payment of up-front fees to students attending higher education courses at accredited private education providers.

This bill only extends FEE-HELP assistance to full fee paying students in diploma and advanced diploma courses that are accredited as vocational education and training qualifications and where credit towards a higher education award is available. That means that those who are undertaking vocational education courses that do not articulate into a higher education qualification, such as a university degree, are not eligible for assistance. Importantly the bill, as presented to the House, also excludes the two most senior vocational education and training qualifications from FEE-HELP, namely, vocational graduate certificates and vocational graduate diplomas, by virtue of the fact that these qualifications do not lead to a higher education qualification. The legislation should allow for FEE-HELP to apply to those higher qualifications without the requirement to articulate into a university degree.

In addition to these restrictions, the Queensland state government has also expressed concern over the criteria for eligible vocational education and training providers. The Queensland state government has argued that the definition of a vocational education and training provider in the bill is too narrow, requiring providers to be classified as a body corporate. The Queensland government has expressed concern that this definition excludes Queensland TAFE institutes, which are not currently, but will be in due course, constituted as corporate bodies.

Since debate on this bill adjourned on 15 August, the government has circulated amendments to the bill to extend FEE-HELP to vocational graduate certificates and vocational graduate diplomas. I welcome the government’s recognition of the importance of these certificates and diplomas and the fact that these courses will not need to articulate into a university qualification. I do, however, question why the government has not proposed to remove the requirement for vocational diplomas and advanced diplomas to articulate into a higher education qualification, a requirement that fails to recognise the value of a standalone vocational qualification. I indicate at this point that Labor will support the amendments circulated by the government. They reflect the comments I made in my earlier contribution and they reflect the recommendations of the Senate inquiry into the bill.

This budget measure goes some small way to addressing some of the post-secondary school vocational education needs of our nation. Labor support this measure, although we do not believe that it goes far enough. The amendments proposed to be moved by the government, however, go some way to addressing these restrictions but the requirement for diploma and advanced diploma qualifications to articulate into a university degree continues. Similarly, further consideration as to the eligibility of institutions is warranted. It is, in my view, unfair that those students engaged in vocational education and training studies in Queensland miss out on FEE-HELP eligibility purely on the basis of the corporate status of the TAFE sector in that state.

As I indicated in my remarks of 15 August, I have a second reading amendment and I now formally move that amendment:

That all words after “That” be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:“whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1)

welcomes the extension of FEE-HELP but notes it has been unnecessarily restricted by requiring eligible providers to be corporate entities thereby excluding more than 7,000 VET students in Queensland TAFE Institutes, and secondly by limiting eligibility to those courses that give credit for higher education or University qualifications; and

(2)

notes the Senate Inquiry into this legislation also shared Labor’s concerns through their recommendation that the Government consider the practical examples raised regarding the exclusion of the vocational graduate certificate and vocational graduate diploma to ensure the legislation adequately meets its stated objectives”.

As I indicated in my earlier remarks, the government has now circulated amendments that meet paragraph (2) of the second reading amendment. In that respect, I now commend the bill and the second reading amendment to the House.

See this speech in context