Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to rise to speak on the Universities Accord (National Student Ombudsman) Bill 2024. For many young people, starting university marks a new beginning in their lives. It is an opportunity to focus on an area of study they are passionate about and to make new experiences and forge new relationships. But it can also be a time when the reality of gendered based violence—a pervasive and longstanding issue here in Australia—becomes all too real.

The National Student Safety Survey found that one in six students had experienced sexual harassment since starting university and one in 10 had experienced sexual assault. Overwhelmingly this is an issue that affects more women than men, and it obviously affects transgender and non-binary people, who are overrepresented in the statistics. Sadly, but perhaps not surprisingly, only one in 30 students who were sexually harassed had made a formal complaint. Only half knew that there are formal reporting processes available to them or support services they could access.

This bill is for everyone who has experienced gender based violence at their university and who has been frustrated by the arduous, complicated processes they must go through to seek action—action that can be crucial for students' ongoing engagement with studies and moving forward with life. As my colleague, the Minister for Education, said when tabling this bill: 'Thousands of staff and students want our universities to be safer places to learn in, and they want a better system that does not re-traumatise those who come forward about their experiences.'

I'd like to particularly acknowledge the work of organisations like Fair Agenda and End Rape on Campus for their years of advocacy that have led to this moment. I'd also like to thank and acknowledge Patty Kinnersley, CEO of Our Watch, the national organisation for the primary prevention of violence against women and children, for her leadership of the working group which provided advice to the Minister for Education about how this ombudsman and other student safety measures could be delivered.

The National Student Ombudsman will enable all higher education students to escalate complaints about the actions of their higher education provider, including complaints relating to gender based violence and other student complaints if they are unsatisfied with their provider's response. Importantly, it will be independent, impartial and will provide higher education students with an effective trauma-informed complaints mechanism. A trauma-informed approach is crucial. The process to make a complaint has too often been a re-traumatising experience for victim-survivors, who are made to retell their stories over and over, or asked to resolve the issue informally. The ombudsman will have the power to make recommendations to providers about the administrative actions that should be taken to resolve a complaint and to work cooperatively with regulators to identify and respond to systemic issues and promote best practice complaints handling across the higher education sector.

The National Student Ombudsman will: consider whether decisions and actions taken by providers are unreasonable, unjust, oppressive, discriminatory or otherwise wrong; deal with a complaint while the provider is still considering the issue if there are unreasonable delays or the provider is acting unreasonably; recommend a provider takes specific steps to resolve a complaint where appropriate; share information with relevant regulators to further compliance action if needed; and offer a restorative engagement process between students and their provider where appropriate. The National Student Ombudsman aligns with the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children by addressing gender based violence through the lens of prevention, early intervention, response and recovery in healing.

Of course, this new ombudsman was a key action of the Action Plan Addressing Gender-based Violence in Higher Education, agreed to by all education ministers on 23 February this year. The ombudsman's ability to identify and respond to systemic issues will be a huge step forward in seeing the change in the rates of violence in higher education settings through the prevention of further harm occurring at the systems level, and through improving, over time, the response of universities to individual situations. Trauma-informed, transparent and timely responses will also contribute to the recovery and healing of victims-survivors who experienced gender based violence at universities, and we hope this provides them with the support to continue their studies as they choose.

These powers of the new ombudsman will also go beyond assisting gender based violence. The same powers apply to a broad range of issues which students may have in relation to the conduct of their universities. Students with a disability will be able to use these powers to raise concerns about their reasonable accommodations, because all students have the right to a safe and supportive learning environment.

I acknowledge the Minister for Education's work to inform this bill by listening to the voice of victim-survivors and for his engagement with the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children, which provides the national policy framework to guide the action of all Australian governments to end violence against women and children.

The Albanese Labor government has made the safety of women and children experiencing family, domestic and sexual violence a national priority. This bill is just one of our government's concerted efforts to end gendered based violence in one generation—efforts which have put the voices of victims-survivors and their lived experience at the centre of our work. We will continue to listen to those victims-survivors who share their experiences in the hope of creating change in relation to this legislation and further work to come through our mandatory national code for universities to prevent and respond to gender based violence. The national code will set standards that universities must meet to make their students and staff safer. The national code and this bill to establish a new ombudsman are examples of the Albanese Labor government's work to end gender based violence, and these efforts are well underway. I commend the bill to the House.

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