Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Bill 2011, the TEQSA Bill. The relevant background to the TEQSA Bill is contained in the Bradley review's report on Australian higher education. This report, handed to government in December 2008, outlined a broad vision for the future of the higher education sector. The key recommendation from this review was an aspirational goal of 40 per cent of Australians between the ages of 25 and 34 holding at least a bachelors degree by 2025.

As I have previously made mention in this place, including in my comments yesterday in the House with respect to the Higher Education Support Amendment (Demand Driven Funding System and Other Measures) Bill 2011, the coalition have agreed to support this target. There is a key challenge that lies ahead of us, however. Increasing the participation level to 40 per cent will require a considerable increase in the intake of undergraduate students at Australian universities. It is thought to be approximately an additional 220,000 students annually, which means there is great concern in the sector that educational standards may decrease in order to fulfil this goal. There has also been a concern about the quality of some of Australia's non-university higher education providers which has created flow-on reputational effects for the major university providers, especially in relation to international students, who offer a critical revenue stream for universities.

To counter these concerns, Bradley recommended the creation of one single national standards agency. The standards agency was suggested in order to take on the regulatory functions of the current state based agencies and provide a new national basis for regulation and quality assurance. In May 2009, in response to the Bradley review, the government announced they would accept this recommendation. Shortly thereafter, the then Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, announced the intention to introduce legislation to create the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, colloquially known as TEQSA. In response, the coalition gave its in principle support to this recommendation to create a national regulator for the higher education sector. TEQSA will reduce the number of standards agencies from nine, which is currently one for each state, one for the Northern Territory and one which is the federal regulator. They will become just one.

The principle that underpins this bill is that TEQSA is to take a risk based and balanced approach to its regulatory activities. The TEQSA Bill makes amendments to the following existing legislation: the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000, to provide TEQSA and its staff with the ability to undertake functions relating to provider registration and monitoring; and the Higher Education Support Act 2003, to recognise new registration requirements for higher education providers. The bill also provides for the relevant transition of functions from the current state and territory regulatory authorities to the new agency.

There has been a lengthy process in drawing up the legislation. During stakeholder consultations in 2010, there was initially widespread concern with parts of the proposed legislation. This resulted in the government delaying introduction of the TEQSA bills, and a draft bill was released for consideration in February 2011. In March this bill was introduced into the Senate by the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations, Senator Chris Evans, and was immediately referred to the Senate Education, Employment and Work­place Relations Legislation Committee.

The explanatory memorandum states that TEQSA will have appropriations of $54 million between commencement of the legislation in 2011 and 2014.

The coalition cautiously welcomed the legislation at first glance, as we support the central idea behind the legislation, which is that our higher education system is simply too small to continue to have a multitude of regulatory authorities. We recognise that robust national standards in Australia are required so that any student undertaking a higher educational qualification can then be assured that they are getting an excellent and valuable education, regardless of which state or territory they choose to study in.

But, with this bill, it was critical to have a Senate inquiry and I am pleased that my colleague in the other place Senator Brett Mason insisted on an inquiry. Not only did this bill need the close and thorough scrutiny of the parliament but it was also essential so that the various stakeholders who may be affected by these changes had ample opportunity to make wide-ranging submissions about this process.

The Senate committee tabled its report on 10 May 2011. The report supported the bill, subject to certain amendments, which have been incorporated by the government into this bill before the House today. Specifically, seven recommendations from the committee report were incorporated. Recommendation 1 is:

… that the primary TEQSA Bill be amended to explicitly provide that universities have the authority to self-accredit courses of study, except where TEQSA limits or removes that authority consistent with the basic principles of regulation stated in Part 2 of the TEQSA Bill.

Recommendation 2 is:

… that the Intergovernmental Agreement to be negotiated between the federal, state and territory governments include protocols for communication between TEQSA, state and territory governments to ensure that the process of registering new universities by TEQSA proceeds in parallel with the process of establishing universities through state and territory legislation.

Recommendation 3 is:

… that the higher education sector be consulted on the development of the Standards Framework prior to the setting of the Standards by the Minister.

Recommendation 4 is:

… that the definition of Threshold Standards in section 5 be amended so that it does not include subclause (c) any other standards made under paragraph 58(1)(e).

Recommendation 5 is:

… that clause 167(2)(b) of the TEQSA Bill be amended to include reference to the interests of staff working in the higher education sector.

Recommendation 6 is:

… that the Bill be amended to provide for a nine month maximum period for TEQSA to accredit a course under sub-clause 49(2) and a further nine months under sub-clause 49(3).

Recommendation 7 is:

… that the National VET Regulator work closely with TEQSA, once established, to harmonise and streamline the regulatory approach for multi-sector providers in advance of any future decision to combine TEQSA and the National VET Regulator in a single regulatory agency.

I believe the first recommendation is particularly important to address, with appropriate amendments. As noted in the committee's report:

Self-accreditation refers to the ability to enjoy academic autonomy in determining both course and degree content. The notion carries both symbolic and substantive weight, and is a central characteristic of universities as independent institutions of knowledge and learning. As the peak body for Australia's universities, Universities Australia strongly expressed its concern that "the overall implications of the Bill for university autonomy remain unclear." Universities Australia also pointed out that self accreditation was a first order principle of universities, and as such should be included in the primary, not secondary, TEQSA legislation.

I am particularly pleased to learn that the concerns regarding the provisions in relation to the self-accrediting status of universities have been subsequently fixed. Until the coalition called for a Senate inquiry, some stakeholders were shut out of the government's highly secretive consultative process, but I am pleased to note the committee's work has resulted in a vastly improved bill that we can now support.

I would particularly like to point out that this bill would not be in its current shape without the efforts of my parliamentary colleague Senator Brett Mason, shadow minister for universities and research. Senator Mason put in many hours of consultation on behalf of the coalition in the lead-up to this bill being passed. He has travelled all around Australia, engaging with universities about this issue and many others facing the sector, something that I would suggest his government counterpart Senator Evans failed to do, given the many concerns from stakeholders that were raised with Senator Mason and me over the last year. This is reflected in the comments made yesterday by Professor Denise Bradley AC, in her capacity as interim chair of TEQSA, when she welcomed its passing in the Senate. I note she was pleased that 'both sides of politics, the educational bureaucracy and sector representatives have been ready to work cooperatively and responsibly'. The provisions in this bill are far reaching. They will affect not only universities but also other higher education providers. The new regulatory agency will have powers that no other regulator has possessed before. Stakeholders, particularly higher education providers, overwhelmingly support the establishment of TEQSA. They support it particularly as it will not only simplify their regulatory arrangements but also help to protect brand Australia in the international education industry, which remains one of our largest non-minerals export industries. Given that education is our fourth largest export industry and a key driver of economic growth and productivity gain, it is important that this reform for our higher education sector was given as much attention as possible by this parliament in order to get it right. I commend the bill to the House.

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