Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Paterson once again just waffled away and forgot the many things that happened during his time in the former Howard government. They want to forget the dark years when education and training were almost made horrible words. They did not want to talk about it and they did not want to do anything about it. We saw the cuts in education.

The member for Paterson said we have a skill shortage in certain areas. When they were last in government we had skill shortages across every area because they never invested any money at any time in education to support that. As we said when we came to government, it is going to take time—and it is taking time—to address the widespread skill shortage that is a hallmark of the Howard government. As the member for Paterson said, it is only in certain areas now as we are still working to support people who want to take on higher education.

I am very pleased to support the Higher Education Support Amendment (Streamlining and Other Measures) Bill 2012 because education is one of the Gillard government's priorities. We have been taking action to ensure Australians have every opportunity to fulfil their potential and succeed in life. This bill will result in measures to deliver improvements to the HELP schemes, schemes like FEE-HELP and VET FEE-HELP, and make them more accessible by creating a more transparent and responsive administration of the Australian government's Higher Education Loan Program.

The bill acts on the recommendations from the VET FEE-HELP Assistance Scheme final report 2011 and on the arrangements from the April 2012 COAG meeting, which led to the National Partnership Agreement on Skills Reform. The higher education support amendment will allow the government to strengthen its ability to better protect public funding by managing risk and to better protect students by strengthening the suspension and revocation provisions for approved providers. It will make sure that decisions to revoke or suspend low-quality providers, made under the provisions of the act, can take effect on the day notice is registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments, offering increased protection to students.

The legislation will allow for enhancing the quality and accountability framework. These new requirements will assist the minister by allowing the minister to consider investigation reports from the national non-referral jurisdiction education regulators when making a decision to approve, revoke, suspend or suspend approvals under HELP schemes.

Other measures of the bill will improve the responsiveness and flexibility of the tertiary sector's ability to deliver education and training by moving census date requirements into the legislative guidelines. This will allow the industry to be more responsive to students and the sector's needs by offering rolling enrolments without arduous administrative requirements. The bill will see a managed trial of the VET FEE-HELP specified certificate IV level qualification by amending the definitions of a VET course of study. The Higher Education Support Amendment (Streamlining and Other Measures) Bill will assist with the streamlining and strengthening of administrative procedures, ensuring a more effective and efficient system resulting in reduced complexity and duplication, by consolidating three sets of legislative guidelines into a single set. That will reduce red tape, which we know the education sector fully supports. This will make it a lot easier for providers to understand and clarify their obligations and responsibilities by further streamlining information. The improved deregulation powers will permit the minister and the secretary to delegate powers to an Australian Public Service employee. So regardless of which department has responsibility, the schemes, programs and funding requirements under the act will be able to be continued uninterrupted.

This bill intends to reduce more of the administrative burden placed on providers, and encourage the uptake of the scheme by more quality providers, by streamlining the approach to approvals and administrative compliance for low-risk applicants and providers already approved under the schemes. The amendments will allow the minister to determine a category of providers and financial reporting requirements for low-risk VET FEE-HELP applicants and approved providers.

Only Labor, and a Labor government, will continue to build confidence and fairness into the education system. We already know that the Liberal Party's attitude to higher education is that it is a privilege and that students should not complain about fee increases. It is no secret that the Leader of the Opposition wants to charge students more for university degrees and to introduce a cap on places. But, as with so many areas of the opposition policies, he has failed to release their higher education policies for scrutiny and costings, probably because he knows it is going to contribute to the $70 billion black hole in their costings at present. What we know from leaked reports over the last couple of months, from multiple sources in the coalition, is that they are looking for a 25 per cent increase in university HECS fees, pushing higher education beyond the reach of students from poor backgrounds, and particularly those from regional Australia. Other details of the opposition's plans suggest that HECS fees will jump 10 per cent in the first year of price deregulation, should Australia be forced to suffer under a coalition government. This should not be a surprise at all, because the Leader of the Opposition was the chief draftsman of the coalition's 1993 Fightback! policy—a policy which sought to wind back HECS and return to a system under which only the rich could afford full fees and would be able to attend university. When the coalition came to power in 1996, they almost doubled HECS directly.

Opposition members interjecting—

You would not want to talk, given your history on education in regional areas. The evidence is already available to see what an Abbott government would do with education. Just have a look at what they have done in Victoria. I am sure, Madam Deputy Speaker Owens, that in your home state there are a lot of people reeling from the attacks that they get from Liberal-National governments on education. What we see in the state is a glimpse of what we will see should we be forced to have an Abbott-led coalition government. In Victoria alone, $481 million has been cut from education. That is stripping schools of the opportunity to pay for things like excursions, pencils for children from low-income families and uniforms. Taking their pencils is just appalling, but that is what happens when you get an LNP or Liberal-National government. Every TAFE across Victoria is suffering because of the $300 million that has been ripped out and the sacking of staff.

Mr Tehan interjecting—

Have a look: the member for Wannon sits there, smiles and laughs. He must be really proud to go to TAFEs in his electorate and see the damage that has been done. GOTAFE, or Goulburn Ovens TAFE, over in my electorate, is a great TAFE that has been building and building and building. There is a bloke there who shares the same last name as the member for Wannon. There is only one difference: he cares about education and this clown does not. He wants to grow the TAFE, bring in more courses—

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