Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Refunds of Charges and Other Measures) Bill 2020.

Educating overseas students is an important industry in Australia and it's very important in the seat of Moncrieff. Pre COVID it was worth $1.6 billion to our economy on the Gold Coast. And educating overseas students is about far more than education providers making money; the Australian experience is that it helps to attract international talent to Australian businesses. Also, when international borders reopen it will return to being a driver for tourism, which is worth $5 billion to the Gold Coast economy. Students themselves and their visiting families spend considerably with tourism operators and those small businesses which need that extra injection right now. Moncrieff is missing these very welcome visitors and we look forward to the day when we can welcome them back.

Significant challenges—or, indeed, a crisis like the pandemic—can understandably cause individuals, businesses and governments to focus on the large and most obvious problems. That's necessary, to an extent, but the Morrison government is being very disciplined by listening to industry stakeholders and applying their detailed insights to other addressable reforms. This is just such a bill. Stakeholders in Moncrieff tell me that these are achievable reforms which will benefit them now, and especially later, as our education exports recover as circumstances permit.

Shortly I'll go through some of the detail in this bill but, firstly, I will give a bit of an overview of the bill and what it will do. It will maintain quality without unintended disincentives to genuine short-course education providers who are seeking to address market demand. It will promote the competitiveness of the Australian education system by maximising the quality of the Australian experience for students. That's very important. By allowing students to pursue personal interests through short courses and permitting workplace components of their substantive study this bill will facilitate the growth of our education industry with all of the economic benefits which flow from that. Ultimately, through a more vibrant education sector this bill will promote better quality experiences and choices for Australian students too.

The first question that Australians might ask is: why do we need these amendments to the ESOS Act? Currently, all courses, including single units of competency, such as first aid courses, may only be offered to overseas students where the course and provider are registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students—CRICOS. The requirement for CRICOS registration to offer courses to overseas students is constraining supply by placing a regulatory burden on providers of very short courses which they may judge as too arduous to be worthwhile.

Registration on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students is deliberately onerous to create barriers to entry by low-quality providers. Genuine providers which specialise in short-course provision are being discouraged. For example, in the VET space, only 29 of the 1,070 RTOs with supplementary courses have sought and obtained CRICOS registration. These changes mean providers will be able to offer these short courses to the 450,000 overseas students currently in Australia and will not have to check a student's visa status before enrolling them in the course—a much simpler process. Finally, it will allow students to pursue their personal interests that complement their formal studies, enhance the quality of their Australian experience, as I mentioned before, and attend workplace components approved as part of a substantive qualification.

You might be asking: what are the changes? This bill removes regulatory barriers for education providers and enables overseas students to study some supplementary courses, such as first aid—which is something that everybody should do—responsible service of alcohol and construction white cards, which are all very important. Two changes to the ESOS Act are needed to achieve this. The first change refines the definition of 'course' in the ESOS Act. The new definition will refer to existing definitions for formal education qualifications in Australia and will have the effect of removing hobby or recreational courses from its scope. Only courses that lead to a substantive educational outcome will need to be registered. This enables providers to offer recreational or hobby courses, such as craft, cooking or scuba diving, without registering them on CRICOS, unless the courses are delivered by a higher education provider, in which case all courses will need to be registered with CRICOS. The second change is to provide a power for the minister to make a disallowable legislative instrument to include or exempt certain courses from the ESOS Act. This will specify skillsets, modules or the units of competency, such as first aid, responsible service of alcohol, construction white cards, hygienic food preparation, and infection control. International students will be able to undertake these supplementary courses in addition to their main course study.

The next question is: when and how will the legislative instrument be introduced? If this bill is passed in autumn this year, the minister for education will be able to create an instrument to exempt courses from the ESOS Act. As the instrument is disallowable, it is of course subject to parliamentary scrutiny. What else? Only a limited number of courses will be available for supplementary study. The ESOS legislative framework imposes stringent monitoring and reporting requirements on the student's primary course, and these will remain in place. All supplementary courses will remain covered by the same quality assurance mechanisms that apply to other domestic courses and students, including oversight by the Australian Skills Quality Authority, or ASQA, as it's known. The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, TEQSA, which a tongue twister, will identify and respond to any malpractice. Like domestic students, international students will be protected by Australian consumer law for supplementary courses, which is good news.

Other questions are: will these changes adversely affect international students' primary course of study, and how will the risk of course overload be monitored? I'm sure that, on the other side, that question is of interest. Existing mechanisms equip the primary course provider to oversee student progress and take action, as needed, with consequential effects on visa conditions. The amendments will not alter these mechanisms in any way. There will be communications and guidance material produced dealing with this particular concern. Members opposite will be pleased to hear that. The amendments will not make it easier for providers to poach students, as all the same transfer restrictions will apply if a student decides to change providers for their primary course. Will there be sufficient oversight of the minister's power to include or exempt courses through the legislative instrument? That is another very good question, which I will answer for the Federation Chamber.

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