Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the Higher Education Amendment (VET FEE-HELP Reform) Bill and also put on record my support for the important amendments that Labor's shadow minister has put forward.

Vocational education is critically important to the future economic prosperity of our nation. Labor understands how essential vocational education is as a pathway to the practical hands-on, highly-skilled jobs of the future. That is why, when in government, we significantly resourced and reformed the vocational education sector—something that had been left neglected by the Howard government and that we put significant effort into.

Far from being the runner-up to Australia's higher education sector, VET plays an important part, or the other side of the coin, when it comes to higher education. We need to support our young people to follow pathways into further study, whether it is higher or vocational education—both are incredibly important. Equally important is ensuring that young people can access—and not just young people; I have to emphasise it is also about people retraining such as those who want to change career or, in some very unfortunate circumstances, have found themselves made redundant and need an alternative pathway into employment.

Whether it is higher or vocational education, it must be accessible and affordable. That is why our VET FEE-HELP, if it is used in a prudent, responsible way, is an important part of the process. However, in the last two years, we have seen reports that the reputation of Australia's vocational education training system and the VET FEE-HELP program are now at risk, increasingly, as a result of unethical behaviour. One can only call these people shonks and unscrupulous private vocational training providers.

I must say at this point: there are some great private providers who deliver high-quality vocational education and of course our public provider, TAFE, does a great job of delivering high-quality vocational education. But, unfortunately, we have seen reports of some private providers who have come into the marketplace and have not been providing high-quality education. We have seen reports—particularly in the area of child care, management and business—where less than suitable training has been provided. Some young people have signed up for courses thinking they will get a childcare qualification that will allow them to step into a job when all we have seen is very, very poor-quality training provided by these organisations. Some childcare providers have blacklisted graduates from some of these training providers. So it is not a good outcome, and these students have ended up with significant debt.

What is equally concerning are reports of students being signed up to training courses without their actual knowledge. Just last week an individual in my electorate told me that a training provider rang him and said, 'Look. Do you want to do a course in management?' He said, 'I'll think about it.' Without his knowledge, they signed him up to that course. They said they would send him an iPad to do his course on. He never received the iPad nor heard from them again. Unfortunately, at tax time, he found that he had a VET FEE-HELP debt, which he is now required to pay back after receiving no funding.

We have seen the VET FEE-HELP debt increase from $700 million in 2013 to $1.7 billion in 2014. This is extremely concerning, and I think that figures and time frame show that this has increasingly become a problem in the last 18 months or so. In fact at the end of 2013-14, the number of students accessing VET FEE-HELP had grown by 103 per cent and of course, unfortunately, a lot of these people who signed up for VET FEE-HELP and enrolled in vocational education training have not been supported to complete their course. In fact only 24 per cent of VET FEE-HELP assisted students actually completed their course.

So we have got a problem. We have got an issue, and the government has not taken responsibility for it. They continually blame Labor and of course they fail to recognise that they have actually been in government—and we may have a new Prime Minister—for the last two years. It is time they took some responsibility for this increasing problem and did something about it.

While it is belated, we certainly welcome these moves and some of the other moves that the government has made but we do not believe they go far enough. Our VET system should be designed to skill up people in preparation for a world of work, giving high-quality training and ensuring that they have the skills for the future. We have seen the Abbott-Turnbull government sitting on their hands, tinkering around the edges while not actually dealing with these shonks and unscrupulous training providers, who have exploited disadvantaged and vulnerable people in the name of obscene profits.

As I said, numerous people have contacted me and, unfortunately, we have seen the regulator being overwhelmed by these reports. It is time that we have a regulatory framework that is fit for purpose, which I why I think it is very important that the government takes Labor's amendments seriously, in terms of an ombudsman. We think that this is a very important improvement that the government should have a look at. This has been supported by the Australian Council for Private Education and Training—they have called for an ombudsman as well. The report from the Senate inquiry into the operation, regulation and funding of private vocational education and training providers in Australia has also recommended a national VET ombudsman. We think this is an important element to complement ASQA, the Australian Skills Quality Authority. We think that this is very important and that it is something that should be seriously looked at.

In addition to this, we have also called for an auditor-general to investigate VET FEE-HELP to ensure that skills funding is being used in accordance with the intent of the legislation. The Auditor-General has requested that a performance audit be included in the Australian National Audit Office 2015-16 work program, and we think this is really important. In fact, Labor has been calling for this for some time. We also think that the amendments we have put in place, to ensure that students are aware that they are signing up for and actually getting a debt, are really, really important. What Labor is calling for is making it really, really clear that students know what is happening and that they are signing off on it. We think the government should look very carefully at our amendments and ensure that they are brought into line.

Like I said, there are many good private training providers out there, and what these shonks in the system—these poor quality training providers—are actually doing is tarnishing the reputation of our whole vocational education system. Our vocational education system does and will play a critically important role into the future. But, without ensuring that there is a good reputation in the system and around the country, how will people know, when they sign up to a vocational education training pathway and incur a debt, that they are getting high quality vocational education and training and that that training will lead them to a job? This is so critically important.

I think it is also a timely reminder and it is concerning that, despite the evidence we do have on hand, the government does want to pursue open slather arrangements when it comes to higher education. Among a number of things in their plan to deregulate the university sector, one of the big calls they had was to include private providers and allow private providers to access HECS-HELP subsidies and Commonwealth support. I think what we have seen in the vocational education system is that you do need strong regulators and a strong regulatory framework to ensure that this is not abused and that vulnerable people are not abused. Certainly, I think it is time for the government to, perhaps, not just tinker around the edges, but actually do something concrete. We believe that the amendments that we have put forward strengthen the bill before the House and we really urge the government to look at this.

I think it is also important to recognise, and I will take this opportunity to talk about, the important role that TAFE has in the vocational education system. TAFE, as the public provider, is an important element. As I said, there are some strong, positive private providers in the system; however, we have also seen some shonks. Unfortunately, TAFE has not been treated well by Liberal governments, and Liberal governments have attacked TAFE. TAFE plays a critically important role; that is why Labor has made a commitment to and understands the critical role that TAFE plays for many industries. There are many areas that TAFE will provide courses in that the private providers will not. I think it is well recognised that, in industries that are going through significant transition, TAFE comes in and works with those employees to ensure that they get training for jobs.

It is important to recognise the role that TAFE plays in English as a second language, supporting people actually getting a handle on English as new migrants to this country. It is critically important. That is why Labor has announced, recognising the central importance of the role that TAFE plays, that Labor will work with premiers and chief ministers to ensure that there is a TAFE funding guarantee and a national priority plan which will properly define and support TAFE and the role that it plays. We think that this is an important move in strengthening our vocational education sector. It is an important move to ensure that the role that TAFE plays is properly recognised and ensure that they can continue to deliver the high quality education that they provide.

But, of course, in terms of some of the reports that have come out about some of the very poor practices that we have seen in the private vocational education sector, we need these to be dealt with and dealt with quickly. The government has been sitting on its hands and tinkering around the edges. It is now time for the government to act. We cannot have these vulnerable people being taken advantage of by organisations that have no intention of delivering training or, indeed, do, but provide very poor quality training that will not lead to young people and those transitioning into new careers finding a job.

It is time that we see the government act on these shonky providers and stop making excuses about why they have not acted. It is their responsibility, they are in government and it is time that they do not shirk their responsibility and actually address this issue. Please look at Labor's amendments. We think these are strong amendments and we hope the government will indeed accept them.

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