Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

I thank all those members who spoke on the Education Services for Overseas Students Legislation Amendment Bill 2010. I have to say that given that we do now have a national curriculum which particularly looks at issues around making sure that we have full opportunities for students from foundation year to year 10 to learn English, history, maths and science, this is a substantial step forward for us and one which I am sure all members would applaud.

The Australian government is deeply committed to ensuring that international students who choose to study in Australia receive high-quality education and training. The Education Services for Overseas Students Legislation Amendment Bill 2010 builds on recent changes to the Education Services for Overseas Students Act and the re-registration of all providers on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students, just completed, to further strengthen registration, monitoring and enforcement of education providers delivering services to overseas students. It also makes consequential changes to the Ombudsman Act 1976 to ensure all international students have equitable access to a robust complaints mechanism regardless of whether they attend a public or private institution.

These amendments are the next step in concerted government action since mid-2009 to address regulatory challenges for international education following a period of rapid growth and change. These include a full review of the ESOS legislative framework conducted by the Hon. Bruce Baird, the finalisation of International Students Strategy for Australia under the Council of Australian Governments and a number of student visa integrity measures. It is pleasing that this bill has received a high level of support, including in the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Legislation Committee’s report handed down on 22 November 2010 which recommended that the bill be passed.

The Baird review made 19 recommendations relating to student welfare, risk management and the tuition protection system. This bill forms the first phase of the government’s response to the review with a focus on introducing risk management approaches to registration and ongoing monitoring of providers, giving regulators more options for effectively enforcing requirements and for improving complaints mechanisms so that students and providers can have every confidence in the international education sector. The new requirements will build a more sophisticated regulatory system that recognises the diversity of providers across sectors. Given the number of providers and overseas students, it will allow better targeting and less duplication of regulatory resources so that problems are addressed early and impacts on students and the industry are averted or minimised.

These amendments, together with the completed re-registration measure, will go a long way towards positioning ESOS for the planned handover, in large part, to the national regulators for the vocational education and training and higher education sectors when established under separate legislation this year. Consultations are currently underway on the details of this risk framework and on the remaining Baird recommendations, including those relating to consumer protection, for a second tranche of legislative change expected to be brought forward later this year. The government is committed to bringing in these changes through, knowing that they will provide the necessary benefits for this sector. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that the bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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