Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Vocational Education) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for that indication. I will put on the record that we will pursue this particular issue—though I understand the amendment will not get up—to specifically have that capacity for the person to let the sign-up student go, because they cannot take any further action until they submit the paperwork to the department. That is a conversation I am very happy to have with the minister. My concern with this proposal to date from the government is that there does not seem to be any opportunity, as yet, to stop a provider sitting with the student as they log in and do it. That may be something we can address, and I appreciate the intention of working through that.

I honestly believe, and I get the impression the government believe, that a significant part of this potential bad debt—which is debt accumulated by people who never really understood, if they even knew, they were signing up for a debt—is most unlikely to be recouped by the government, and would never occur in the first place if someone has to come back and say: 'Yes, I did understand that debt. Yes, I do want to proceed with it.' They simply will not come back. That is what will happen. They get these sorts of contacts, and go: 'I don’t want that. 'I'm not going to do anything with that.' By not coming back, they deny the training provider the funding in the first place.

All those reputable quality providers, who are out there trying to do the right thing, will manage this sort of system very effectively, and those who are building a business model on the rip-offs—and, sadly, we have to design this system for the ones who intend to not do the right thing—will find this system undermines and destroys their model. I am firmly of the view it will help towards a significant decrease in potential bad debt for governments. I still would like the government to support the amendment because I would prefer it was legislated, but I will indicate that I will continue to work with the minister to build those principles into an opt-in system.

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