Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I join with other members of the House in expressing my delight at seeing you in the chair, Deputy Speaker Dick. I reiterate some of the points that have been made about Labor's support for the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2021 and cognate bills, which aim to streamline cost-recovery arrangements for the regulation of education providers who provide services to international students.

I would like to commend the member for Sydney for bringing forward the bill, the member for Moreton for the amendment that he has moved and speakers on both sides who have contributed thus far to the debate on this bill. I found the contribution by the member for Curtin to be particularly refreshing. It is refreshing to see an individual who has the level of experience in the higher education sector that she brings to this parliament contributing to this kind of debate and bringing that experience here. It is refreshing, particularly, to hear her acknowledgement of the value of Australia's education system—not just its economic value but its value in terms of its diplomatic efforts and cultural connections with other countries—and that this doesn't affect just our university students but a range of providers to international students. As somebody who worked in ELICOS, taught ELICOS and worked as an administrator at a university, as a teacher at a university and as a researcher and professor at universities, I'm proud to stand up and speak in defence of all of those providers within the higher education sector who provide education services to international students.

As I mentioned, Labor supports these bills, because Labor will always support bills that make it easier and cheaper for students to access education and for providers to deliver quality education to Australian students. These bills, though they make minor and consequential amendments arising from the registration charges bill, do contribute in some way to a broader shift to full cost-recovery for the regulation of higher education providers. Labor has, however, proceeded with caution, particularly around the fact that most of the details to be set in these bills will be set through regulation, which is something that members on this side have spoken against because that does not lend itself to the kind of transparency that Australians expect and the accountability that Australians should be getting from their government.

So, whilst we're not opposed to cost recovery in principle if it's well thought out, and we will not oppose these bills, we will be raising those issues, the ways in which these bills fall short and the regulation of the provisions set in these bills.

I'll have more to say about universities, particularly the devastating impact on universities not just through COVID but through this government's actions, both active and passive, where it has either actively attacked the university sector or—

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