Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to indicate that Labor will be supporting the VET Student Payment Arrangements (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2020. This bill proposes sensible administrative changes that are worthy of the parliament's support. These include amending the Higher Education Support Act 2003 to resolve and phase out obligations and arrangements relating to the previous VET FEE-HELP scheme. The bill will also amend the VET Student Loans Act 2016 to improve administrative efficiency by enabling the direct re-crediting of a student's Higher Education Loan Program balance in certain circumstances. This will replace the current process, in which the Commonwealth seeks to recover the amount from a provider once the amount has been paid to a provider and re-credited to the student's HELP balance. The bill will also enable the automatic revoking of the approval for an approved course provider once that provider ceases to be a registered training organisation. I note the assurance provided to the parliament in the explanatory memorandum that students will not be adversely impacted by the proposed amendments to the Higher Education Support Act 2003 and that related protections in the bill prevent providers from pursuing students for amounts the Commonwealth does not pay as a result of these amendments. I also note the assurance in the explanatory memorandum that VET providers were consulted on the bill's proposed changes via a working group with no critical issues being identified by them.

The vocational education and training sector is profoundly important to our nation and to working Australians, with around 4.2 million Australians enrolled with training providers. It is a sector that is vast. It positively impacts the lives of millions around our country, whether we are talking about a kid straight out of school who is just embarking on their career journey or an experienced worker looking to retrain and broaden their skills and qualifications. This is a critical sector, and, again, I note that the government has cut billions of dollars from TAFE and training, with the number of apprentices and trainees dropping by 140,000 people. Nevertheless, Labor supports this modest and sensible administrative change which is proposed in this bill.

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