Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make some comments in relation to the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Amendment Bill 2015, and I echo the comments made by the member for Parkes. I also have concerns about this sector, and indeed the way in which many students have been left vulnerable and exposed as a result of the failure to properly regulate the provision of such training to these young people. Therefore, anything this bill can do that can provide better oversight for this sector and better accountability to the students—and indeed to the parents of those students, who quite often would be providing support for them—is a good thing.

There is no doubt that there have been some significant concerns about the way in which the VET sector has been operating. Only recently there has been a spate of media reports of unscrupulous registered training organisations preying on vulnerable students and signing them up for large VET FEE-HELP debts. In many cases, the students are not even aware that they have signed up for a course, let alone that they have a significant debt—often around $20,000. It is shameful that we could have a sector that exposes young people to such an awful and vexed situation.

Under VET FEE-HELP, students are able to access up to $97,728 in total for most courses offered by eligible RTOs. One of the real problems with this area is that it has been exacerbated by RTOs employing brokers to recruit students on their behalf and then attempting to distance themselves from the actions of brokers. This bill, the opposition accepts, goes some way to putting responsibility on the RTOs for the actions of brokers. There is also a change to allow a more rapid response to quality standards issues by the minister and the regulator. We will have to wait and see whether the remedial action by the government will have the intended effect in this area, but we certainly hope it does. I share the concerns of members, not only from this side but indeed the previous speaker, the member for Parkes, who raised real concerns about what has happened to young people as a result.

The VET sector is a very important area and a very significant area, not only for young people acquiring skills in a labour market that is changing so rapidly but also to meet the demands in the labour market, to ensure that we can anticipate the emerging demands in skills and to ensure that employers are able to employ people with requisite skills in those areas of demand. Therefore, we have to have a flexible but very robust arrangement so that people are not being ripped off when they seek to undergo training and so that employers are able to find people with requisite skills to fill vacancies in a very fast-changing labour market. It is this critical area that needs to operate effectively. Beyond even the intent of this bill and its effect, we have to examine this whole area as to its effectiveness in delivering what it is intended that it deliver. We have seen already some state governments make some awful decisions about taking out significant resources in the VET sector and also allowing bottom feeders, if I could use that phrase, to come into this area without the expertise, dedication to the students or rigor required to provide the skills necessary for these young students and trainees.

It is an area that I think has had significant challenges. If this bill can in some way mitigate the problems associated with the exploitation of students and the problems with the relationship between the RTOs and the brokers, then that has to be a good thing. But I think more needs to be done, not only at the federal level but at the state level as well. I think there have been too many providers without sufficient standards. As a result, we have seen students undertake mickey mouse courses, left with debt and therefore not better off but worse off. So, there is a lot to be done here, and not only does the Commonwealth have to attend to these issues but state governments also have an obligation to ensure that they defend the VET sector.

I think a terrible thing was done when money was ripped out of the TAFE sector by a series of state governments—the previous Victorian government and indeed the current New South Wales government—but I do not think these problems are purely the result of conservative governments. I think it is an area that needs attention to the extent that concerns may be properly rectified, concerns that the minister is seeking to rectify with the enacting of this bill. The opposition supports them, and we hope that we see fewer students exploited, that we see fewer students ripped off by dodgy providers and that wee see a regime that is there for the students, ensuring that they acquire the skills necessary to be employed in the labour market, to be productive and to be able to contribute to their community and to their country.

Having said that, I think the state governments have to have a rethink in this area, along with some of the efforts by the federal government. I think a lot more could be done to ensure that the training that is provided is going to be something that employers are in need of and something that prospective employees, namely young people looking to enter the labour market, will be better off with—of that examination of the deficiencies in the system is undertaken and proper reform is enacted.

Debate interrupted.

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