Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise this evening to speak on the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Amendment Bill 2015. I might just comment on the member for Canberra's contribution. One of the reasons that the Abbott government has to be financially responsible is because of the mismanagement of the economy by the previous government and the fact that, despite the problems in the VET sector, nothing was done and millions of dollars have been squandered because action has not been taken until now.

I too have some experience in the VET sector. Before I came to this place, I was the chairman of the Gwydir Learning Region, which is a community based learning organisation. We were involved in delivering a whole range of training and education, not only to school students through the local schools in the Gwydir Shire but also to many adults. What we saw was quite transformative as many adults in their mature years, after their children had grown up or at least were at school, obtained certificates in aged care, child care, IT, management, rural skills and retail—a whole range of things—and became actively involved in the workforce. Indeed, I think well over 100 people have been trained in aged care by the Gwydir Learning Region and those people are now working in aged care right across the north-west of New South Wales.

This bill has been introduced as part of the rolling reforms for the sector which are about improving quality, recognising the good work of VET providers and ensuring that students are given the right protections in the VET market. Before I go any further, I will say that in my electorate we have many VET training organisations that are completely legitimate. They do the job that they are supposed to do. They are dedicated to education and the students that they provide it to. I will talk about some problems that we have had, but they have mostly been because of out-of-town organisations and fly-by-nighters that have come through.

This bill is necessary to address the concerns that have had some media coverage about organisations that have been targeting vulnerable people to sign up to courses without a full understanding of the implications. This was brought to my attention at about the middle of last year. I had a meeting with a training operator in my office in Dubbo who came to me quite concerned that there had been some training operators targeting aged-care facilities—going to aged-care facilities and signing up the residents of those facilities to courses for which they had no ability and they possibly had no understanding of what they were signing up to. They were signing these people up to a large debt that ultimately was against their name. It is completely unscrupulous behaviour.

I notified the minister at the time that this was a concern and that we needed to be on the alert for this type of behaviour. Not long after, in November last year, I got alarming reports in the town of Coonamble, which is in the north-west of New South Wales, where an operator—maybe several operators—over a period of time came to town and were offering $50 cash inducements. They set up in a local club and people turned up in their droves. I heard anecdotally that possibly 100 people turned up. They received $50 cash in hand and the promise of an iPad and a laptop to come down the track. They were signed up to managerial type courses, and many of these people were illiterate and really had no concept of what they were agreeing to. They were just told that, if they spoke to a particular person, they would get $50 cash. These people signed up to a debt that is against their name. Admittedly, some or many of them will not get to the income threshold where that would need to be paid off. Possibly, they will never get to a position where they will be able to pay that off. Not only have these people been badly affected but the Australian taxpayer as a whole has been ripped off by billions of dollars.

If the Commonwealth government were going to put money into a town like Coonamble for training purposes, I could guarantee you that there would be many other ways of providing such a large sum of money—as much as these companies have ripped off—that would have benefits to the people in that community. I am very pleased that this bill will clamp down on that behaviour. I certainly believe that there are ongoing investigations into this behaviour. Personally, I would like to see these organisations not only stripped of their licence to operate but prosecuted. This is fraud on a massive scale. The previous speaker mentioned the dollars that have gone into this VET fee program. It is a program that I am very fond of and very passionate about. Education is transformative. People in my electorate, in many cases, missed an opportunity in their younger days to stay at school. This program gives them an opportunity to upskill, to get into their first job or to gain skills that would get them into a better job.

I am a big fan of this program, and it makes me sick in the stomach to talk about this unscrupulous behaviour. The citizens of the town of Coonamble were justifiably outraged at this behaviour—that someone could blow in from out of town and not only sign all these people up to a debt that would be permanently against their name but also rip off the Australian taxpayer for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

There is a duty to protect students from unscrupulous training providers, and we want good quality vocational training systems that we can trust. We also need to ensure that the link between training and jobs is real. What we saw with the Labor government was that they were interested in training for training's sake. The coalition believes in assisting people into real jobs in order for them to experience the prosperity that comes with employment. The coalition is committed to focusing on helping people to develop the skills that employers want—skills that lead from training to a job. The previous government, as I mentioned before, failed to safeguard the standards, and now the coalition has to go in to clean up the mess that was left. There was an indication that these dodgy operators had been there for some time.

The bill will create a new measure, a quality standard, so that any problems with VET providers or courses can be dealt with quickly. Another frustration I have had is that the people who could see that something was drastically wrong but there was no clear passage for those concerns to be brought to light. It is important to strike while the iron is hot. The current system around standards, established in 2012, requires the agreement of the states and territories and the whole process can take up to 12 months. Through this legislation and the newly-created quality standard, we will be able to deal with emerging and critical issues that are impacting on quality training. This is effectively an 'emergency power', whilst still maintaining avenues for consultation with states, territories and industry stakeholders.

Through this legislation changes will be made so that it must be absolutely clear to a student which organisation is providing the training. I have heard some of the other contributors to this debate say that there is an arm's length approach between RTOs and recruiters. It is a way of ring-fencing their organisation from the dodgy operations and that way they do not have to take responsibility for what others do in their name. Service providers will now be responsible for the services delivered on behalf of the brokers, and these arrangements must all be covered by a written agreement. Once again, I am hearing that some of these people who signed up that day in Coonamble may not have even signed a written agreement.

Through the changes in this bill ASQA will now be able to pursue anyone who does not make it clear who is responsible for the quality of the training. ASQA will have further authority to request information to assist in their investigations and to allow ASQA to share the information that they gather with other agencies.

The bill changes the registration period from five to seven years. It is important to recognise that most RTOs are doing the right thing—I said that at the outset. The RTOs I am aware of in the Parkes electorate are upfront, high-class organisations, and they are doing the right thing. It has been shown that the re-registration process is particularly poor at identifying whether a training organisation is performing to the appropriate standard. Instead, this re-registration funding will be used for ASQA to target those services which are under-performing and are not acting within the guidelines and new quality standards.

What has the government already done? The government has already acted to improve quality in the VET sector. For new providers from 1 January, and existing providers from 1 April, it is compulsory for training providers to make it clear to students exactly what they are signing up for every time their debt increases. The new regulatory standards make training providers responsible for the services delivered by brokers on their behalf. The government has established a direct line for the public to bring forward any complaints or issues that they have. This makes it easier for complaints to be heard and dealt with. There is a national complaints hotline—133873—and an email address—skillin@education.gov.au—as well as information on the government's education website. When people started to be concerned about the massive fraud in Coonamble, they did not know where to go. They contacted me and, with the help of the minister's office, we could deal with it. But this new service will give anyone who has a concern a direct hotline. They can find out whether an organisation is legitimate and they can have the comfort of knowing whether they are doing something that is above board whether they should be wary of what they have been told. I would encourage anyone who believes that they have been targeted by an organisation which has not been clear about the arrangement to be entered into through VET Fee-Help to ring the national complaints hotline and get an investigation under way.

The government has allocated the Australian Skills Quality Authority $68 million over the next four years to enforce these new tough standards. ASQA will be focusing on those RTOs, marketers and brokers who are doing the wrong thing and allowing those who are doing the right thing to get on with the job of providing vocational training in order for people to get into the workforce. The government is looking at further action to ensure that the right level of regulation and compliance exists to deal with those RTOs who are not delivering a quality service. It is important to get the balance right by ensuring that those RTOs who are doing the right thing get on with the job—and the extended period of registration will help with this—and ensuring that those with poor or dodgy practices are identified and brought up to standard. I feel privileged to have been able to speak of this piece of legislation—to take an issue that has been of great concern to my constituents, to support legislation that will alleviate their concerns and that will put some stability into what is an essential service for the people of Australia.

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