Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment Bill 2013. I will reflect quickly on some of the comments that the previous speaker made. I want to say how sad it is that higher education has become the biggest exporting industry in Victoria. To become the biggest exporting industry in Victoria, it means that we have lost others. For higher education to be the biggest exporting industry, it means that as we have seen today, last week and yesterday with Toyota, we are starting to lose other industries that are important to our economy, such as our manufacturing industry. I do not believe that it is something that we can celebrate without acknowledging that other industries we rely on, ones that employ other people and create wealth and jobs, are disappearing.

The future of this country cannot rely solely upon a strong higher education sector. Higher education is important, as all the previous speakers have suggested, and international students are particularly important. The figures that we are talking about are over $15 billion and there are over 100,000 jobs in the higher education sector. Like every industry, it needs to be regulated to ensure that those purchasing the product get a good quality product and that those receiving the education get the best education they can for the dollars they provide.

I turn to why our universities are so reliant on full-fee-paying international students. It is not right to talk only about the higher education sector as an export industry, like coal, iron ore or manufacturing. We need to grow this sector because funding for our university sector was radically cut during the Howard years, which put us on a path to universities needing to rely on international students to supplement their budgets.

I support the amendments in the bill before us in relation to the Tuition Protection Service. The amendments aim to ensure that the TPS has the power to force a refund of prepaid fees where the provider fails to deliver the service, a course is cancelled or a visa is not issued. These safeguards ensure the quality of services provided by the education system. It is no secret that we have had some shonky and dodgy colleges taking advantage of international students by suggesting that if they complete their studies they will get permanent residence in Australia. Whilst this bill does not go to those issues, it ensures that if an international student has a visa cancelled or has enrolled in a course that is cancelled, they will receive a full refund. The aim is to build in safeguards that do not already exist so overseas students get the education they seek.

In providing additional financial security, these amendments will ensure there is a policy connection between the federal and state agencies to support the international education sector. In my state of Victoria a lot of work was done by the former Labor government to try and get rid of dodgy providers and rogue operators who popped up in any corner store. In fact, a place across the road from where I live was given as the address of college claiming to teach motor mechanics, but it was just an empty house. When international students turned up on the day their classes were supposed to start there were no classes. This occurs and, without government stepping in to clean up these practices, such practices will continue. These sorts of practices are not good for our reputation as they send a message that Australia is not serious about higher education, but rather is a country where students need to pick and choose so as not to end up across the road from my place wondering why it is not a mechanics institute, as was thought.

I acknowledge the contribution international students make to our society. Many of these students choose to stay in Australia. I have talked to a number of students in my electorate who have chosen to stay and make Australia their home once they have navigated their way through the system and successfully completed their education and asked them about the changes they feel are needed. I asked them what we could have done to support international students and about the challenges they faced. I draw on some comments made by Abi Awasthi, who is today working at La Trobe University's Bendigo campus. His comments include ensuring that, apart from having access to courses of high quality, international students in Australia have access to affordable, safe and adequate accommodation services and that international students also have access to student services. For many international students this is a foreign country and they may not be used to our practices. This may be the first time they have left their home country, so there is a need to support them when they arrive particularly if they believe the college they attend is not delivering the services they paid for.

Another issue raised is the need for good jobs with good pay and working conditions so international students can properly support themselves. Dodgy contractors employing international students are very similar to dodgy colleges in that they take advantage of the students not knowing a lot about Australian legislation, so being easy to rip off. We need to support international students by ensuring they get good quality education, the course they believe they have signed up to and good jobs. I draw to the House's attention a recent report by United Voice, the cleaners union representing international students working in the cleaning industry. This report found that a number of international students are working for fly-by-night subcontractors who often cheat the students out of at least $15,000 a year in pay. These students lack the knowledge of their rights, which makes them extremely vulnerable to exploiters.

This is happening in the cleaning industry in capital cities as well as regions. Why do international students take up these jobs? Often their courses are quite expensive and they need the work to support themselves while they study. Across the whole area, when it comes to international students, whether it be the courses that they take up, the jobs that they have or the accommodation services that are provided, we need to do better to ensure that they are treated fairly and we need to do better as the host country.

As mentioned earlier, Abi is an example of the kind of international student who is coming here. He arrived in Australia in 2008 as a full-fee-paying international student to pursue his masters at La Trobe University. He says that his experience is a good experience, but the experience of some of the other international students he knows is not so good. He talks about people being picked up at the airport and being dropped off with their bags at an office, and that is it. He talks about people who have had accommodation found for them that is an hour and a half, two buses and a train away, from where their courses are. He talks about the courses that they have been offered, the one-on-one tutorial time that they are told they will get and the payment that they will get to do their placements, but when the students take up the placements they are not paid. That is another major problem for international students today.

In some courses these students are becoming free labour, almost slave labour. As part of their course, they are required to do work experience, but the work experience might be three months working nine till five. You see these schemes being rolled out and rolled out. To complete their course, the international student has to work for free for long periods of time. That is something that Australian students would balk at and say, 'That is simply not fair.' This is why the changes being proposed to the Tuition Protection Service are important.

Across the sector, we need to make sure that we are doing better by our international students. Why are international students so important to university funding? I flagged this earlier in my speech. I know that some would argue, particularly in my community, that we should train our own first, that the growing number of international students is at the cost of Australian places. The truth is that the higher education sector would have collapsed without the funding of international students.

This situation was created under the former Howard government's bad Liberal policy of the late 90s and early 2000s. The funding that was cut from the higher education sector and the rate at which it was cut forced our universities to look for alternate funding streams. It was shortly afterwards that we saw the explosion in international student numbers. They have enhanced our universities and are building a strong culture. However, we cannot step away from the fact that cutting university funding has created a market for international students where sometimes our institutions are more interested in the money they are getting than the courses they are delivering. We need to ensure that our students and our guests in this country are receiving the quality education that they are seeking to pursue.

I want to go to comments made about the reduction in international student numbers in the last year. That is not the result of changes to the visas but purely and simply because of the cost of study in this country. Australia is now ranked as the highest in regard to the cost of study. Our courses are going up and there is the effect of the Australian dollar and the cost of living. That is why I have attempted to highlight the need to do more for international students when it comes to their jobs, their education and their accommodation. Whilst I support these measures to ensure that we have quality within the system, I would like to reiterate my warning that we cannot rely on higher education continuing to be our largest export sector. If we continue down this path of just educating people and not having jobs for them, we will soon run out of people to educate. We need to make sure that we have strong industries—industries such as higher education, health and manufacturing. It is not always the best news to be the largest export sector; it means that other sectors are doing badly. To say that it is wonderful and is the future of jobs in this country, I think, is a bit sad particularly following the announcement by Toyota that they are withdrawing. We need an economy where we are growing jobs across the board, not just in our higher education sector.

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