Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

In areas like the one I represent from Western Sydney, we not only need good educational opportunities in primary schools, secondary schools and universities but also, importantly, in vocational education. We do need to be able to train up people for the massive skill shortages that exist across a number of industries, and we need to have the confidence that when students take up a course in a vocational provider, be it public or private, that they are getting a good quality course. There have been concerns for some time, particularly with the private providers, whom I do support existing within the system because they do provide an opportunity for us to increase the number of pathways open to people who want to engage in vocational education. There have been concerns about the way in which people are being lured into particular private providers and the methods that are being used and the consequence of bringing people into courses and not delivering the outcomes that are required.

Back in March, ABC via 7.30 detailed some of these cases. It was brought home to me in very stark terms, because the people that were involved or whose experiences had been covered by that particular report came from Mount Druitt, a suburb within the Chifley electorate. When I heard some of the stories, I was astounded at what was occurring. One former teacher at Evocca College, Mount Druitt, detailed to 7.30 the types of instances where people would, literally, get off the train at Mount Druitt, walk down to a Westfield shopping centre and they would go straight in and there would be Evocca set up in a stall in the shopping centre—day after day. They had been there for nearly two years according to this report. The representative spruiking on behalf of Evocca College would say: 'Oh, just take the iPad. Just sign up, just take it. It's all good. It doesn't cost anything, it's free.' But it is not free, for reasons I will detail later.

And what would happen? Some of these students hard pressed for income would take the iPads down to local pawnbrokers and try to sell them. The pawnbrokers know they cannot accept the equipment because the equipment is still the property of the college until the student graduates. There would be reports, as detailed in this 7.30 report, where some pawnbrokers were getting five students a day attempting to sell their iPads. This is not the worst of it. It was deemed by the teacher that I quoted earlier, Steven Fogerty, who was on the report, that it was:

unscrupulous, absolutely unscrupulous. Zero interest in education and training, it is all about getting these people in, keeping the number up and churning them through—churning them through.

What is happening as a result? These students are then forced to shoulder huge, huge debts. The coalition government claims that this type of case is a minority. But this minority, in Evocca's case, was one where they had received nearly $150 million in federal funding and were enrolling students to courses where the students doubted they would be able to hit the income level to be able to start repaying the debt. The concern has been—again, detailed in this report—that most of the students struggle with basic reading and writing and it was unfair of Evocca to sign them up for courses they did not have the skills to complete. So they are lured in, they are not tested properly to see whether or not they have got the capability to go through and complete the course and they then get, debts that are in staggering amounts. In one case, one student whose story was detailed in this 7.30 report, owed nearly $30,000 for a diploma he is not sure he will ever finish. As another branch manager of Evocca said:

It's just dishonest. I'm unhappy that students have so much debt for either nothing or for very little outcome.

This, at its heart, is the massive problem that is being created, particularly for young people who feel the guilt of wearing a debt that they doubt very much they will be able to repay.

I spoke about this back in March in the Federation Chamber. I raised the point that we need to be able to see more people undertake vocational education and we need more skilled people in our economy. I certainly want more young people from our area involved. In fact, I was proud to be associated with the launch of Evocca Collage in Mount Druitt a few years ago because it is good to see more opportunities present for young people to be able to build up their skills base.

I have also seen some great students from Evocca in my area. In fact, on the weekend I was out at the Shalvey PCYC at the Festival of Hope, an initiative designed to raise funds for the PCYC in helping people in our area who are doing it tough and need to get their lives back on track. The PCYC has had a long-standing commitment to doing just that in our community. A lot of the event was organised, supported and run by Evocca Collage students. They are a great asset to our local area, but these students should not be tarred by the misdeeds and the 'unscrupulous', as it has been labelled, decisions by people within the management chain who are quite happy to lure people in, and not make sure that the people who are in can complete the course or do complete the course.

I had people from different parts of the country contact me after they had heard my criticisms of Evocca and they said that they were stunned at the way they had been treated. In fact, they had written to Evocca about their incompetencies and unprofessionalism, and one student: 'to which I address to Evocca to announce my cancellation after many issues with them and have since found out so many more discrepancies with this college I am completely appalled with. I have been lied to by course consultants, student service officers, tutors and now compliance managers—possibly more than I have found evidence of yet.'

Another person who wrote to me detailed, over a six-page letter, a series of concerns that they had—for example, that Evocca had failed to weed out students who honestly did not have a chance of finishing the course; that they had even been expected to google required answers or assistance if they needed it; that they would get tutorials sourced off YouTube; and that the course structure had been changed midstream. That was in one letter from someone from Queensland who wrote to me, from Deception Bay. This person—and this is the human toll—said: 'All this time I have felt that I am a failure, that I am the one who is stupid for struggling so badly. Today my eyes were opened when I researched Evocca to find out how many people in gaming have had the same issues as I've had.' People should not have to feel that way. People should not have to feel that they have been in some way, shape or form to blame for this.

What have we had in response from the government? I have heard a number of speakers because I have been following this with keen interest. A number of government speakers have said: 'Oh, Labor knew about this in 2013.' What happened in 2013? In 2013 we had a federal election, a change of government. You have known since that time that there has been a problem. What was your response? Your response was to continually blame Labor the whole way through. In fact, in early January this year, Minister Birmingham was again going out blaming Labor. It took a 7.30 report in March, and now, nearly at the end of the year, we get some legislation to deal with it. How many students have had to go through this process of wearing the extra debt, being saddled with something that they cannot possibly repay and feeling guilty that they will be unable to pay it back? They want to repay the government. They have not been able to complete the course, but they have the debt hanging over their head.

Mr Chester interjecting—

Accept responsibility, Parliamentary Secretary. You do not need to go and read quotes and go back. You have had two years to do it. It is on your watch, Parliamentary Secretary. You and him and him and all of your side have had two years to fix it up. It has been on your watch, and what have you done on it? What have you done?

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