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

Well, your government has known about it for ages.

Labor have put forward—and I am proud to see that we have put forward—a series of important amendments. I want to commend the shadow minister, the member for Cunningham, on coming forward and thinking of a range of areas where we have put forward amendments that we think will strengthen the response to what has occurred. We have, for example, said that there should be an industry funded, national VET ombudsman to go through and to provide a greater degree of protection. We have said, for example, that the Auditor-General should do an audit of the VET FEE-HELP scheme. We have said that the department should write to people—that we should have measures in place to avoid people being saddled with this debt, that they should be made aware of the likelihood of the debt that they will assume and that they should respond. It is not enough just to send the letter out and let people know. The prospective students should respond, come back and say that they acknowledge the likelihood of the debt that they are going to be taking on board. We have also called, for instance, for examining the options to cap tuition fee levels and lower lifetime limits on the size of the loans.

These are all practical, sensible suggestions being put forward to ensure that there is greater integrity in this system. A number of us have been concerned to see the types of trials and struggles that people have had to undergo, particularly in my area, as a result of the misdeeds and, as people have called them, the shonky operators. It is not good enough to just sit on our hands and believe that this situation will resolve itself. The sector has in fact, I think, not moved quickly enough to deal with this.

My biggest concern is that it undermines confidence in particularly the private providers of vocational education, who do have a role to play—a definite, concrete role to play—in providing vocational education. We should not have to put up with this. Particularly in my area, I feel strongly that students in Mount Druitt should be able to get a top-quality vocational education. They should be skilled up. This is an area where we have unemployment higher than the national average, and we have the scourge of youth unemployment affecting us. We know that there are jobs there. I know from the employers that I speak with in my area, where there is massive job growth expected. I do not want to see those jobs necessarily going to people outside the area when we have a massive issue that we need to deal with in terms of unemployment.

We need to train people up. We need to have them ready for those jobs. We need to be prepared for those requirements and make sure that employers can have the confidence that people have been trained up properly. We do not need people sitting in debt; we need people working in jobs, and they need to ensure that they have the skills to do those jobs. I certainly commend the amendment that Labor, the opposition, have put forward because we believe that this will provide a stronger response to something that has been a massive issue for people, particularly the people I represent in this place.

Debate interrupted.

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