Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Warringah for that question. It's my intention, as I'm sure you would want it to be, that it apply to enrolments to rather than offers. What we want to make sure of is that, if a university is given a number of students, it is able to have that full number of students at that university. If, for different reasons, they make a number of offers but aren't able to fill that full number of students at that university, that would be self-defeating. I don't want that to occur. We think that what's included in the code, which is existing at the moment, helps us to do that, but I want to do further work with my department to make sure that we're properly addressing your concerns. I might be able to do that with you face to face or via correspondence.

In relation to the explanatory memorandum, there may be the ability, when the bill reaches the Senate, for us to address some of the concerns that have been raised by the member for Goldstein as well as, I think, by the member for Curtin around transferring powers to an independent Australian tertiary education commission through the explanatory memorandum. We can't do it in the bill, because the ATEC doesn't exist yet; it won't exist until it's legislated. But it could be pointed to in the explanatory memorandum. So, when you talk about the EM, that's where I think there might be some value in making an amendment to the EM.

Question negatived.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

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