Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was referring to Senator Eric Abetz, not the well-known drag queen Erica Betz. In closing—and this is important in terms of the coordinating mechanisms that oversight initiatives such as the Tuition Protection Scheme, along with the complementary mechanisms—the National Coordinating Council, which this government put in place, is a great initiative and I applaud it. It comprises ministers from across the government—including immigration, education, vocational training and so on—as well as sector experts. Of course, it is only as good as its attendance—I don't think ministers have been taking this seriously; I really hope to see improvement on that front—and there has been stakeholder and expert frustration in terms of the support and performance of the Department of Education and Training and its revolving set of GMs.

I support this bill as sensible. I call on the minister to take a break from cutting school funding, cutting university funding and jacking up university fees and sort out his department and step up the thinking and support for this critical sector.

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