Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Settlement) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise today to speak in support of the Education Services for Overseas Students Legislation Amendment Bill 2010. The bill seeks to amend the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 to strengthen the registration criteria for providers of education services to overseas students. It was introduced very much as a risk management approach for the regulation of the providers.

The international education industry in Australia is the fourth major export industry and it is worth an estimated $18.5 billion. An Access Economics report into education in April 2009 found that it creates an extra $12.6 billion contribution to our economy through teaching, food and accommodation for international students. These figures combined mean that the international student market contributes $30 billion or more to our economy.

But the world is changing. We have had a global financial crisis. There has been more competition from other countries and overseas providers, particularly the United States, which is now at parity with our exchange rate. In recent years there has been a more aggressive approach from other countries, particularly in targeting overseas students. In countries like China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia domestic capacity is increasing. Many of the universities in China, for example, are also introducing English faculty courses. This will provide us with much stiffer competition. As I said earlier, the United States is certainly in there and so is the United Kingdom. There have been cuts in the United Kingdom’s education system and they are looking abroad to find some way of redressing that particular loss of income to their particular industry. So we should not be complacent about this industry that we have had for a very long time.

I want to place on record my strong support for the VET system and the wonderful work that they are doing. Previous speakers have spoken about the need for redress and the fact that there might have been a couple of colleges that have collapsed in recent times, but that does not mean that the integrity of the whole system is at play here. The majority of providers that I meet through ACPET and through the governing bodies are professional people who work at ensuring we have the best quality education sector in the private provider sector. I want to place on record my absolute support for the great work that they do.

But we have to find a balance. We have to find a balance between regulation and a good education system, and we must balance the needs of our migration system as well. In this interface you have migration law, private sector educational facilities that come under stage training departments and Commonwealth law. So you have a lot of government regulation in this industry. I think we have to be very careful that we do not strangle an industry that has created so much opportunity for Australia and our providers.

The bill seeks to introduce provisions that will strengthen the registration process for the approved providers. It also has a demonstrated capacity to provide education of a satisfactory standard and providers will have to demonstrate access to the financial resources to meet the objectives of the act. They must have a sustainable business model, the capability and the government structures and management to deliver education of a satisfactory standard. The purpose of this measure is to build on a previous amendment which introduced two registration criteria and to further raise the bar of entry into the international education sector.

This is building on risk management, particularly in the re-registration process which was introduced by a previous amendment to the ESOS Act. This particular measure will extend a risk management approach to all registration throughout that registration period. The purpose is to identify risk and to ensure a consistent assessment of risk by all state designated authorities to reduce the number of high-risk providers entering the international education sector or to set appropriate conditions on that registration, including for ongoing monitoring to better manage risk. This measure will ensure that, when assessing a provider for registration, the registering body will set a period of review on any conditions that should arise from the assessment of the provider’s risk profile. In addition to registration, a risk management approach will target regulatory activity to reduce duplication of effort and unnecessary regulatory burden. The risk management approach will be supported by limiting a provider’s registration period to no more than five years. This will introduce consistency into the registration regime to allow ESOS to formally recognise and align with limited periods of registration for each provider set by the states and domestic quality assurance frameworks.

One example of a quality and highly valued private provider of education to international students in Brisbane is the Charlton Brown group, which I have had the pleasure of working with for many years. Charlton Brown is a leader in skills training both in Queensland and overseas, and it has a very long and exemplary teaching service. I recently went to the opening of their new college at the Valley, where they have 1,500 students on the three campuses in the child services, aged care disability and welfare studies disciplines.

I spoke earlier about risk management, and that needs to be supported by enabling conditions placed on a provider’s registration when the provider is first registered or at any time throughout the registration period related to risk. This measure will allow the Commonwealth and/or secretary to impose a condition on a provider’s registration on their own initiative, rather than on a recommendation by a state designated authority, and for reasons other than noncompliance. Imposing a condition on a provider’s registration will arise from a provider’s risk profile, and that will be provided by the state designated authority where risk is identified separately by the Commonwealth as part of ongoing compliance monitoring.

This measure will also extend existing sanctions and strengthen the ability to take effective enforcement action by introducing financial penalties for a broader range of non-compliant behaviour to better address emerging issues confronting the international education sector, such as unethical recruitment activity and maintenance of student records. There is no doubt that there have been a few colleges engaged in some of these unethical practices. In addition, the changes in this bill include expanding the role of the Commonwealth Ombudsman, particularly to cover complaints from international students that relate to service providers. The proposed new overseas students’ ombudsman will also provide advice to private providers on complaints-handling processes, and that is a very good thing and something that is well overdue. For a long time, we have had overseas students who need to speak to someone about the terms and conditions of their courses.

We in the opposition support the Education Services for Overseas Students Legislation Amendment Bill 2010 [2011]. I know that it will go some way to improving particular services for students. I want to add to the comments of the previous speaker, the member for Mitchell. We need to balance flexibility and enforcement to make sure that we have a thriving industry we can continue to be proud of, which is recognised world wide as being of the highest quality standard and which has for a long period of time contributed, as I said earlier, over $30 billion to Australia. We need to support this industry, so today I support the Education Services for Overseas Students Legislation Amendment Bill 2010.

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