Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare and Early Childhood Learning) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak today on the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2011 and the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Registration Charges Consequentials) Bill 2011. I will say at the outset that the coalition supports these bills. The bills will create a new fee structure for higher education providers who wish to be registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students—CRICOS. The fees that they will be able to charge will more accurately reflect the actual costs of supervision to these providers. The bills change the current fee-charging structure for the compulsory annual registration charge payable by all CRICOS registered providers. The new base fee, the compliance history fee, charge for student enrolment and charge per registered course is designed to cover the administrative costs of the registration process and reflect the size of any associated supervision, compliance or enforcement activity needed to ensure that only reputable providers are permitted to operate. hese amendments have come about in part as a result of the Baird review into education services for overseas students, which was called for by the government in light of some significant concerns with the way some providers were offering substandard services, bringing down the overall quality of Australia's international student education sector. We need to ensure that as a country we offer world-class education services to both domestic and international students.

I am alarmed at the downturn in what is our third largest export. The international student market was worth $17.2 billion to Australia in 2008-09, making it one of the greatest exports of this country. Yet, the June 2011 monthly summary of international student enrolments shows a 6.8 per cent decline in year-to-date enrolments from June 2010 figures. Vocational education and training figures are especially disappointing, with enrolments and commencements at year-to-date June 2011 falling by 18.7 per cent and 4.1 per cent respectively from the same period in 2010. Certainly the high Australian dollar is acting as a deterrent for some overseas students; however, various changes to the visa requirements implemented by Minister Evans have played a major role.

From 1 January 2010, students had to demonstrate or declare evidence of access to $18,000 a year to cover their living expenses. This is an increase of $6,000 from the previous year. In addition, providers have informed me of the significant blowouts in the visa approval process and student concerns over the changes to the approved Migration Occupations in Demand List, which will prevent many current students from staying on in Australia to work in the industry for which they have trained.

Changes to the ESOS framework are necessary to ensure the sector can be better tailored to provide education of the highest level possible. We do need to ensure that the interests of overseas students are protected and that we promote Australia as an international education destination. Given the substantial decline in enrolment figures in the vocational education and training sector, the VET sector, in particular, we have a lot of work ahead of us.

Last week I was in Western Australia. I met with representatives from the TAFE sector and other registered training organisations. They see huge potential for this industry, with one provider indicating that he felt the sector could expand to be worth $25 billion by 2015. However, this would not come about without significant changes to the existing visa framework.

We want a strong sustainable VET sector. We should acknowledge that the revenue stream from international students is a vital part of that. Providers of education have previously relied significantly on the public purse—and there are good reasons that that, to an extent, needs to continue—and there are community service obligations on our TAFE sector as well, but there is also a vibrant, innovative and really very exciting opportunity for services to international students that is not being taken up. I condemn the government for its lack of action in this area. We have to ensure that all education providers offer a high standard of education, on a par with best practice. The coalition is committed to ensuring that we have sufficient safeguards in place for international students. We have in the past needed to propose amendments to education services legislation; however, in this instance, we do support the bills.

Andrew Leigh (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The opportunity to study overseas is a unique one. I was fortunate myself to have the opportunity to study in the United States as an international postgraduate student. For me it was an invaluable experience. It was an experience in which I got to learn about new subjects and to look at my own country with the benefit of a little distance. It is so true, as they say of the United States and the United Kingdom: two countries separated only by a common language. One gets the same perspective as an Australian living in the United States. Cross-cultural relationships can have their advantages too, and my own international study experience gave me the life-changing opportunity to meet my wife, Gweneth.

It is important for Australia that we encourage international students to come to this nation to study. International students are a vital part of our universities, and increasingly they are becoming an integral part of Australia's social and civic fabric. In my former career as an economics professor at the ANU, I had the privilege of guiding and supervising international students in their postgraduate studies, both masters students and PhD students. Working with and benefiting from the experience in the classroom of students born in countries other than our own is something that I have continued through an internship program in my parliamentary office today. Only recently, Ruth Tay, an ANU economics student on a scholarship from the Singaporean government, worked with me analysing mental health policy and immigration policy. Those experiences and Ruth's background very much opened my eyes to new perspectives on the issue and new systems of government. I am sure Ruth will take back some of those ideas to her work in Singapore.

Teaching international postgraduate students, as an ANU economics professor, gave me the privilege of spending time with people from a wide range of backgrounds, cultures and perspectives. I learned a great deal from them, as I hope they did from me. Some examples were Cathy Gong, a Chinese student who completed her PhD in 2008 and has gone on to publish important work on education, intergenerational disadvantage and unemployment, working with NATSEM at the University of Canberra. Cathy and I, working with Xin Meng, have even published a paper looking at intergenerational mobility in China. Dinuk Jayasuriya, born in Sri Lanka, completed his PhD in 2010 and his first position was with the World Bank. He now works with the monitoring and evaluation operations for the bank's private sector arm in the Pacific. His research looked into issues such as microcredit and behavioural economics. Daniel Suryadarma, an Indonesian PhD student who works on poverty and the economics of education, is now a research fellow at the Australian National University. Students such as these have given a great deal to their fellow students and to the institutions in which they study. I expect they will all, over the course of their careers, make substantial contributions to the developing countries in which they were born. The contribution that these students make informs the issues that we are grappling with in this place.

The Gillard government is committed to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the international education sector. We want to protect Australia's reputation as a provider of world-class international education that continues to attract and retain overseas students. My electorate of Fraser has a particularly large community of international students. There are 4,280 international students at the Australian National University and 2,481 at the University of Canberra. On top of this, the electorate of Fraser boasts campuses of the Canberra Institute of Technology, the Australian Catholic University and UNSW @ ADFA. They all have international students. These students make a valuable contribution to local businesses, the local economy and academic research and provide a kaleidoscope of cultural variety that we in the Fraser electorate enjoy.

In recent times there has been a slowing of growth in the sector that is related to the strong Australian dollar, the Dutch disease that affects international education, as it affects tourism and manufacturing, and partly the downturn that has resulted from the global financial crisis. But the fast and decisive action that this government took during the global financial crisis and our recognition of the Dutch disease issues that can arise from a high Australian dollar have been important in ensuring that the impact on overseas education is as minimal as possible.

It is true—there is no getting away from it—that Australia is no longer as cheap an international education option as it once was, and that means that our higher education providers must compete on quality. Our sector is of high quality and we need to guarantee that it continues that way. We are placing higher fees and stricter requirements on new entrants into the international education market and are rewarding low-risk providers that have a proven track record of delivering world-class quality education for international students. This bill ensures that our international education sector maintains its high-quality reputation.

International education is overall an increasingly important part of the Australian economy. It is Australia's third-largest export and the number of international students studying here almost tripled in the seven years from 2003 to 2010. The sector is now worth tens of billions of dollars to the Australian economy. I have already mentioned the factors that have influenced the sector in recent years. There are a number of challenges today—the stronger Australian dollar, the global downturn and increased competition in the global education market—but we have seen international enrolments in the Australian higher education sector continue to show modest growth.

The government is very focused on strengthening the regulation and consumer protection framework for international education. The sector is really as diverse as the students in it. When we talk about the international education sector many people think of the private providers established to deliver training specific to the international market, but we sometimes forget that schools, TAFEs and public universities are also included in that sector. The range of education courses offered to international students includes everything from a year 12 certificate to a PhD. International students contribute enormously to the learning experience of local students in the classroom and outside the classroom. The diverse backgrounds that come into a lecture theatre make it such a rich experience in an interactive classroom environment.

Problems arise in the international student market when we start allowing high-risk providers into the market with little regulation or allow them to continue to operate when we know that they have a history of not meeting their regulatory requirements. It is in no-one's interest in this sector to have a market dominated by high-risk providers. Students are not offered certainty about the ongoing existence of their provider. Parents are not offered certainty about the investment that they have made in their child's education. We all know that the decision to invest in a child's education is a stressful one for parents. How much more so when your child is studying in a foreign country? High-risk providers mean that teachers and support staff do not have certainty about their wages, entitlements or job security.

The Australian education sector gains an international reputation for being uncertain if we allow high-risk players. It gets the reputation of not being a sector where we can provide students with a high-quality degree. Australia as a whole loses out. We place at risk our diversity and multiculturalism if we allow high-risk providers. So it is important that we ensure the sector is of high quality and that the messages that get out through word of mouth about higher education in Australia are uniformly good ones. We do not want to make it too easy for risky entrants to set up, because that places every provider at risk. We are taking this important action to ensure that high-risk providers are faced with an additional requirement to enter the market. We do not want to promote and subsidise education providers if they are putting at risk the whole overseas student sector. In this process we want to recognise that we need innovation. We need to encourage providers to put in place new products and innovative products, but we want to distinguish between that and high-risk providers. e want to ensure that we have new diversity in the market—much as we have seen, say, from the University of Melbourne's shift to a different style of undergraduate teaching—but we also want to ensure that that innovation does not threaten the sustainability of the sector.

The Baird review into the ESOS legal framework recommended that the government take a risk management approach to the sector, and the government agreed. By linking the risk level to the fee structure, the Gillard government is adopting a model favoured by insurance companies all over the world: the greater the risk, the greater the fee. The fee paid by a provider will be based on four indicators of risk. The first part is a flat fee—a charge that all providers pay to cover the administrative costs. The second tier is a size fee that covers the costs of ongoing regulatory activity based on the size of the task. It is a combination of a charge per student enrolment and a charge per registered course for each provider. Third, there is a compliance history fee imposed in circumstances where the minister has in the past 12 months taken action against a provider under section 83 of the ESOS Act for breaching the act, the national code or a condition on the registration. Fourth, there is an entry to the market fee. Evidence suggests that providers with a shorter history of registration present a greater risk and therefore a greater regulatory and supervisory burden. New providers will be charged a fixed fee for each of the first three years of registration.

There have already been several measures adopted by the Gillard government to promote and enhance risk management in the international education sector. These include introducing review systems and periods, enabling conditions to be placed on a registration when the provider is first registered, and strengthening the ability to take compliance and enforcement action.

The Gillard government is interested in providing rewards and incentives for higher education providers who demonstrate their ability to continue to provide high-quality, low-risk education opportunities for overseas students. Government-funded schools, TAFE colleges and public universities that accept international students will pay the lower fee structure in recognition of the lower risk that they present in this sector. These low-risk providers will pay the flat fee and the student enrolment component of the size fee. These low-risk providers will be exempt from the course component of the size fee as they are already subject to rigorous quality control processes through other government requirements for local students and courses.

Overall, there will be a reduction in the level of the annual registration charge paid by the sector as a whole. This is because the low-risk providers comprise a significant share of the market. The revised charging structure will result in a more sustainable international education sector through better protection of international students and an ongoing commitment to continual quality improvement. Providers representing a greater risk to the market, such as new entrants and those with a history of non-compliance, may pay more under the new arrangements. We make no apology for this. We want to create an international education system that provides incentives for providers to improve their performance and to continue to deliver great quality education.

The reforms that we are talking about today are a small part of a wider suite of reforms to the international education sector. This legislation addresses the annual registration charge component of risk management. It is the second package of reforms, and will be complemented by the third package later this year.

During my time as an academic, one of the first things I learned was that collaboration is essential to research. Sometimes the other experts in your field are from countries that are not your own. Sometimes the best person to assist you and guide you through your postgraduate studies is an expert on the other side of the world. Here in Australia we want to ensure that we are offering attractive options for international and domestic students—the best researchers, the best facilities, the best quality of outcome for any type of qualification.

I am enormously proud of the Australian higher education sector, and particularly those institutions in my electorate of Fraser, and I want to make sure all Australians feel that sense of pride. We want to make sure that the best people to guide others through their postgraduate research, to lecture the undergraduates or to offer hands-on vocational training are located here in Australia. We want there to be all the factors possible that make Australia the best option for students who are looking to study overseas. I commend the bills to the House.

Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2011 and the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Registration Charges Consequentials) Bill 2011. These bills have come about through a process that was first considered by the Bradley review. A report into overseas education conducted by the Hon. Bruce Baird—and I have to say that it was a substantial report provided to the parliament—highlighted issues that need to be addressed. These bills, in part, go a way towards addressing those issues.

This legislation will create a new fee structure for higher education providers who want to be registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students, the CRICOS. Registration of the CRICOS allows higher education providers to offer courses to overseas students. This would occur through amendments to the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Act 1997. The charges are a result of the review entitled Stronger, simpler, smarter ESOS:supporting international students, which has become known as the ESOS review.

A new fee structure would be introduced, including a base fee, a compliance history fee, a charge per student enrolment and a charge per registered course. It is designed to cover the administrative costs of the registration process and the supervision requirements associated with it.

This legislation is designed to help ensure that only reputable providers are allowed to offer education services to overseas students and it will provide funding for the regulatory activities. What I just said is the critical issue: it will help to ensure that only reputable providers are allowed to offer education services to overseas students. Currently in Australia we have a $17 billion economy that is based around overseas education. In fact, 430,416—or eight per cent of the visitors aged 15 and older who come to Australia—came for the purposes related to education. That was according to the March quarter edition of International visitors in Australia, published by Tourism Research Australia. t identified that this education group spent a total of 60 million nights in Australia, which is almost one-third of all international visitor nights. On average, each person spent $15,206 during their trip, and that number is growing. That is a massive contribution to our economy, to our retail and accommodation sectors. On top of that, with each overseas student comes families and friends who visit and spend time holidaying in Australia, in both city and regional areas. Overseas students are not limited to the major capital cities; a lot of regional and rural universities and registered training organisations are away from the cities. So the spread of the spend is significant throughout the whole footprint of Australia.

That same report showed that 24 per cent—almost one-quarter of international visitors to Australia—arrive to visit friends and family. To give you an idea, in one of the reports, the number of student visa applications granted in 2010-11, to 30 June 2011, by citizen by country, shows that at 19 per cent we had 54,541 granted applications to citizens of the People's Republic of China. Unfortunately that has diminished by 8.6 per cent. In India, our second-largest market, there were 29,826 approved visas, making up 11.6 per cent of the market. Again, that softened by 2.9 per cent.

What concerns me are countries like South Korea and Brazil, where we have seen a softening of some 19.5 per cent and 14.5 per cent. In Thailand we have seen a softening of 21 per cent. Some of the smaller countries have seen an increase—for example, 45.4 per cent in Nepal. We had just over 9,000 applications approved last year from the United States of America, and we saw a softening there of 4.9 per cent. Student visas were granted for 270,499 applications. That number is down 7.4 per cent on the previous year.

I know that certain aspects of this are in relation to the strengthening of the Australian dollar, but it concerns me, and it is highlighted in the report by Bruce Baird, that there are concerns raised in some sectors about the quality of the education that is being provided. In April and May 2009 and also in a newspaper article in April this year, there were concerns expressed about the safety and security of overseas students. In particular, in the Australian on 16 June 2009, an article by Kumar Parakala from ACS highlighted the point that there needed to be greater safety for international students, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne where they had been singled out for robbery and violence. As one of the articles on 29 May 2009 in the Sydney Morning Herald by Arjun Ramachandran reported: 'There is a name for these racist attacks—curry bashing'. I remember well, as everyone in this House will, the outrage that occurred not only here in Australia but also particularly in India about Indian students being singled out for attack. And it is not just in Sydney and Melbourne. There was an article on 16 May 2009—so around the same time—by Dan Proudman in the Newcastle Herald that talked about Korean students, in my own area of the Hunter, attending Newcastle University having also been singled out for attack.

We need to put an end to the situation where people looking at making an investment in Australia—and it is substantial investment—by attending university or higher education or vocational training, feel that they are not secure in this country and feel they are not getting value for money. This was clearly highlighted in the report by Bruce Baird. He said:

… I spoke to nearly 200 students and education providers from the tertiary, school and English-language sectors and other stakeholders at consultation forums. I also met with provider and student peak bodies, regulators, state and territory government officials, embassies, education industry bodies and Members of Parliament. The review received around 150 formal submissions and more than 300 people registered with the online discussion forum. I have also considered recommendations from the International Student Roundtable held in September 2009.

He also said in the report:

Concerns raised during consultations included reports of: false and misleading information provided by some education agents, poor quality education and training, gross over-enrolments, lack of appropriate education facilities, providers paying exorbitant commissions to education agents, limited financial scrutiny of providers, ineffective application and enforcement of regulation, low English language entry requirements, poor social inclusion of students in their institutions and the broader community, inadequate complaints and dispute handling services and some duplication between Commonwealth and states and territories leading to confusion and unnecessary regulatory burden.

These are the things that will directly affect the bottom line of Australia's ability to continue to attract students, particularly considering the extra strong push by US and European education facilities into the Chinese and Indian markets. We need to do what we can to protect those markets and we need to ensure that we deliver a quality education at an affordable price. s I said, the amount of money brought into our economy by this sector is $17 billion and it needs to be secured. Already we have seen a softening in the numbers. As I said, there has been a 7½ per cent decrease in the number of student visas granted. Hopefully the implementation of this legislation will see a strengthening in the process and we will weed out those that are more focused on the money than the educational outcomes for their students. It is critically important that we do that. As I have said, it is not just the education and the dollars; the spin-off effect is value-add to the tourism market. The economic benefit is not just while these people are here studying; it is when they go back to their country of origin and start to talk about the great experience they had in Australia. Indeed, they themselves may end up returning to Australia as tourism visitors. So it is critically important that we do not allow anything to stand in the way of the quality of education or indeed the safety and security for international students.

The report highlighted the number of education facilities that have failed. It said that 21 providers closed between January 2008 and September 2009, and only five of those were able to meet their obligations to reimburse students. So 16 facilities shut down and took the money, without any recourse for their students to recover their money. That does not do a great deal for Australia's reputation. In fact, it soils it quite badly and even affects those quality education providers that do everything they can to make sure that people are accommodated and get a quality education. They suffer the bad reputation that comes from charlatans like this in the industry who set up a get-rich-quick scheme and then shut down with little care and no responsibility.

The report that led to this legislation being brought forward is very long and detailed and unfortunately I do not have the time to cover in detail all of the aspects of it, other than to say that this industry needs absolute transparency in what it is doing so that those who are making this investment decision have a clear understanding of what will be desired. The ESOS Act is only one part of the equation. There needs to be greater cooperation between state and federal agencies to make sure that we can bring about the further benefits that were raised, such as opportunities for trade, increased tourism, diplomacy and government relations, productivity and social inclusion. These need to be addressed as broader issues.

Finally, the aim of this legislation is to ensure that only courses and providers registered with the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students may offer and provide courses to students on student visas and to ensure that international students in Australia receive the education and training for which they have paid—thereby protecting the reputation and integrity of Australia's education and training export industry and strengthening public confidence in the integrity of the student visa program. If these goals and ideals and the aims of the legislation are achieved, then we will move towards increasing the overseas student numbers in Australia and not see them softening as we have in the past year. I commend these bills to the House.

Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be speaking on the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2011. It gives effect to the recommendations arising from the review of the Education Services for Overseas Students Act, the ESOS Act, conducted by the Hon. Bruce Baird and known as the Baird review. In accepting and implementing the recommendations from this review, the government has introduced a series of amendments to the ESOS Act, including the amendment bill before the House today.

The Baird review recommendations on the regulation of the international education sector include a stronger focus on risk management and improved use of resources. The amendments being discussed today will create a new fee structure to replace the current annual registration charges paid by all registered international education providers. Overall, there will be a reduction in the level of fees and charges paid by the sector as a whole. The changes to the registration charges will allow for fees paid by international education providers to be based on risk and will lead to improved regulatory activity. The risk based changes to the education charges will help ensure that resources are more effectively targeted right across the sector, placing greater scrutiny on those institutions that present the greatest risk. The change in registration charges is a key element of an overarching approach to managing risk in the international education sector.

The Education Services for Overseas Students Act protects and enhances Australia's reputation for delivering quality education services and provides financial and tuition assistance to overseas students. On 9 March 2010, the then Minister for Education, the member for Lalor, Julia Gillard, released the final report of the Baird review, titled Stronger, simpler, smarter ESOS: supporting international students. The report sets out the issues facing the sector and makes a number of recommendations along two central themes. Central to theme 1 is ensuring students are better supported through improved information, management of education agents, stronger consumer protection mechanisms and enhanced support to study and live in Australia. Theme 2 seeks to improve regulation of Australia's international education sector and to find ways to make the ESOS Act stronger, simpler and smarter to ensure Australia maintains its reputation as a high-quality study destination.

Recommendation 3a of the Baird review suggests that ESOS regulators adopt a consistent, comprehensive risk management approach. The recommendation suggests that this approach be developed, in consultation with stakeholders and experts, to profile providers at entry to determine the level of scrutiny, evidence, tests and costs that should apply at registration. The changes to the registration charges in this bill are all part of this overall approach.

In light of the Baird review and changes in the international education sector since the annual registration charges were last amended, in 2003, including unprecedented growth in student enrolments, it was very timely to revisit the registration charges. Revenue raised through the registration charges contributes to many things, including maintaining and developing information to support administration and enforcement, ongoing registration, regulatory supervision, compliance and enforcement activities t also contributes to the Overseas Students Ombudsman's role in investigating complaints.

Together with the change, registration charges resources will be better targeted at higher risk providers to ensure a robust and comprehensive supervisory and compliance regime is implemented. The changed registration charges will reflect the number of courses offered by each provider as well as the overseas student cohort in order to more accurately recoup the costs involved in the monitoring and enforcement activities, relative to the size of individual providers. The revised registration charges will be risk focused and based on the following four components: the first tier, a flat fee per provider charge to cover the administrative cost of the registration process; the second tier, which is a size fee and will be comprised of a charge per student enrolment and a charge per registered course for each provider; the third tier, a compliance history fee, which is a flat fee imposed in circumstances where the minister has, in the past 12 months, taken action against a provider under section 83 of the ESOS Act—this fee would reflect the additional supervisory activity which would be involved in relation to these providers; and the fourth tier, which is an entry-to-the-market fee and is based on evidence which suggests that providers with a shorter history of registration present a greater risk and therefore the greater regulatory and supervisory burden applies.

On this basis new providers will be charged a fixed fee for each of the first three years of registration. Providers that are representing a lower risk, such as government funded schools, TAFE colleges and public universities, will pay the flat fee and the student enrolment component of the size fee. These low-risk providers will be exempt from the course component of the size fee as they are already subject to rigorous quality control processes. As the amount of revenue to be cost recovered through the changed registration charges is expected to reduce from approximately $15 million in 2011 to less than $7 million in 2012, the vast majority of existing low-risk providers will experience considerable relief in this regard. The Australian Government Actuary has modelled the new fee schedule based on an assessment of the risk posed by education providers.

Australia has an international reputation for excellence in all areas of education and training. This reputation has been established and maintained by a strong regulatory regime put in place over many years to protect students and ensure the quality of our education and training courses.

In 2000, the Australian government introduced the ESOS Act. The ESOS Act ensures that, in order to enrol international students, institutions must first meet requirements for registration. All institutions which meet registration requirements are listed on the publicly available Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students, CRICOS. If an institution does not meet stringent standards for marketing activities, education delivery, facilities and student support services, it just is not registered. That means it cannot enrol international students.

The ESOS legislation provides consumer protection. This means students will receive the tuition for which they have paid and their fees are protected by law. Institutions must ensure that the marketing materials they provide to international students are accurate and not misleading. Before issuing proof of enrolment, the institution must first provide students with current and accurate information such a requirements for acceptance into the course; the course content, duration and the qualification that it leads to; the modes of study and assessment methods; the facilities, equipment and learning and library resources available; indicative course related fees, including advice on the potential for fees to change during the course; and relevant information in terms of living in Australia, including indicative costs of living and accommodation options.

Institutions must support international students in adjusting to study and life in Australia, achieving their learning goals and satisfying the learning outcomes of their course. This includes providing information on arrival about issues such as student support services available to help facilitate a smooth transition to life in Australia; legal services; emergency and health services; complaints and appeals processes; and any student visa conditions relating to course progress and/or attendance, as appropriate. Throughout a course, institutions must help students access study support services and welfare related services if they need them.

The Australian government acknowledges and values the contribution to Australian life of the international students who come from all over the world to study, live and work here. International students enrich Australian communities throughout the nation, whether they are in urban or regional areas. They bring much energy, diversity and enthusiasm and offer new ways of seeing things. What is really important is that international students expand Australia's global networks and link us to the world in so many ways. Their high-quality life experiences in Australia contribute to, and reinforce, our regional and global standing.

The Gillard government is committed to expanding the horizons of our educational institutions and their reach in overseas markets in which they can attract even more students to our shores. As part of this commitment, I was very pleased to announce a new brand for Australia's international education sector, Future Unlimited, on 6 June this year. Future Unlimited builds on Australia's new nation brand, Australia Unlimited, and is designed to refocus attention on the benefits of Australian educational qualifications and the doors they open for international students. The new brand, which is already reflected on the Australia government's website for international students, Study in Australia, which received over 3.3 million visits in 2010-11, will be incorporated into the activities undertaken by Austrade's global education network.

The growth of Australia's international education sector over the past 25 years has been a notable success. Australia is the preferred choice for international students from many countries and is the third most popular English-speaking study destination for these students. t is very important to remember, and a number of speakers have commented on this, that Australia's international education sector is our largest services export sector and our third-largest export overall. In fact, it contributed $18.3 billion to the Australian economy in 2020, so it is a very important part of our economy. In 2010 there were 617,000 enrolments recorded by students, representing more than 195 nationalities, at educational institutions in Australia. These are figures we can be proud of. And thousands more were studying Australian courses at offshore campuses established by Australian institutions. In addition to all this, the Australian government currently invests over $200 million each year in international scholarships which at any time are supporting around 5,000 international students, researchers and professionals studying in Australia and Australians undertaking study, research and professional development overseas. So we have a very strong commitment to this sector.

Australia's education sector is crucial to our economy and our global reputation and for our connection to the world economy at large. As students from overseas come to study in our institutions, they not only bring this very large investment in our country but develop very strong ties and relationships with Australia and our people that last long after they have ended their studies here. So our educational institutions provide one of the greatest networking opportunities imaginable with so many the future leaders around the world in different areas, whether in government, in business or in the not-for-profit sector. When many people who have studied in Australia return to their own countries, those wonderful networking ties continue and we can build upon them, increasing our global reputation as a result.

It is therefore vitally important that we protect our hard-earned reputation for the excellence and integrity of our institutions by ensuring that they continue to provide very high standards of education and training. We have a strong commitment to that because we understand the value for our international reputation of having such a strong regulatory regime in place. We know how important the investment return from international students is for our local economy, flowing through as well to so many sectors such as tourism, which has been mentioned by a number of speakers. So there are many benefits and we should all be very proud of the very good international reputation we have. The amendments in this legislation will build upon that. Australia, for all the reasons I have mentioned, is a very popular place for people to study because we have such high standards and excellence.

This bill will have many positive results, not just for the education providers but for all the students who will come here and, of course, for the Australian economy, which is vitally important. The bill will strengthen the governance arrangements and ensure that our nation continues to lead the world in the international education sector. We should be very proud of this fact. We will continue to recognise its importance and build on it. The Gillard government is very committed to providing high-quality educational resources, both domestically and for our international students, and to their continuous improvement. Australia's record in this area has developed over the decades and the sector has grown to the very large size it is today. I commend the bill to the House.

John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill and the related bill. These bills seek to amend the ESOS charges act to create a new fee structure for higher education providers who apply for registration on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students, or CRICOS. Registration on CRICOS is necessary for providers to be able to offer recognised courses to overseas students. This is an area of particular interest to me due to the large population of overseas students enrolled in courses at Macquarie University in my electorate of Bennelong.

We on this side of the House will not be opposing these bills as we support the improvement in processes that arise from the Baird review. Yet this change today is reflective of the possible improvements that could be made if this government genuinely understood the nature of the problems in this important industry. The financial measures implemented by these bills need to be expanded.

The sharp increase in overseas student numbers over the past decade or two has seen a marked change to the leafy suburban areas surrounding Macquarie University. I am not sure of the correct collective noun, but, just like the industrious beaver, I will say that a 'lodge' of boarding houses has popped up throughout my local area, leading to the development of a community action group, MARS—Marsfield Against Residential Suffocation. These concerned residents are campaigning not against the students but against the lack of involvement by the higher education institution in providing for and, indeed, protecting the students. The lack of suitable and affordable accommodation has led to these illegal boarding houses, sometimes with up to 15 people crammed into a three-bedroom apartment. The impact this has on the infrastructure and the amenity of the area cannot be overstated.

Allegations have been made of students with poor English language skills being taken advantage of, sometimes financially and sometimes sexually, in return for accommodation. This is an issue that the higher education providers are not required to take responsibility for through a formal duty of care. As a result we have seen incidents at and around a multitude of Australian universities that have precipitated a massive fall in numbers.

Australia is one of the largest providers of education services for overseas students. Education is our nation's largest services export industry and currently our fourth largest export earner overall, following coal, iron ore and gold. I have talked of this in this place in the past and will repeat it to emphasise the importance of further changes in this field. In 2008-09, education contributed more than $17 billion to our nation's export earnings and was linked to the employment of approximately 120,000 people. The total value-add generated by international higher education students was $9.3 billion. On average, each international higher education student studying in Australia contributes over $50,000 to our economy each year. Two-thirds of this amount is spent on goods and services, injecting vital income into the economy and generating more jobs. any overseas students will remain in Australia, contributing to our nation in a variety of economic and cultural ways. Others will return home and share their affection for their second home as a legitimate business, study or tourist destination. In short, government inaction, or poor policy action, can have massive repercussions for our nation's economic wellbeing, on each education provider's financial viability and on the costs of tertiary study for our own citizens, thereby impacting on the professional and intellectual capacity of our future generations.

Over the past few years we have observed a sharp decline in commencement numbers of international students. One of the great failings by our higher education providers, those bodies that will be registered under CRICOS through this legislation, is that they do not prioritise the package education experience for international students as we see in the United States, Canada and the UK. In these countries it is common for first-year students to receive accommodation on campus in order to assist their transition into a new country and culture. Our providers must compete with these countries and take a more proactive role and responsibility for the broader student experience. Accommodation in the first year should be a minimum requirement, a starting point from which to launch the rest of the package experience. This may occur in private accommodation close to the university, but it should at least be administered and monitored by the provider to ensure that the student and their experience are being protected. I understand that these matters operate alongside the specific matters raised in these bills, yet I cannot ignore the fact that we are willing to go down the path of amendment legislation to alter the fee structures for higher education providers to overseas students but not consider measures to save this important dwindling export industry.

Some of the issues I have raised relate to state and local government powers, yet, just as the federal government has the authority to amend the fee structures through these bills, it also has the ability to implement a duty of care, a standard of values that we expect our institutions to follow. The focus of our parliament must not be to promote unnecessary regulation and bureaucracy to hinder the performance of our great institutions, but the importance of this industry to our national economy is too great to rely solely on self-regulation. We have a responsibility to motivate our great schools of learning to be proactive in attracting the best young minds of the world, giving them the standard of support they deserve and assisting them to reach their full potential. The flow-on benefits to our country will be significant.

As mentioned earlier, we on this side of the House will not be opposing this bill. We support the improvements in the processes that arise from the Baird review, but, just as the Baird document is titled, we are craving a stronger, simpler and smarter system for the provision of education services to overseas students. As I mentioned in my maiden speech in this place, I will remain committed to this goal. For the important role this industry plays in our local economy, for the individual students being taken advantage of and for the residents in Marsfield being suffocated by boarding houses, I hope that the resident of our other Lodge treats this issue with the seriousness it deserves.

Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

International students bring an enormous benefit to Australia. Economically, education is our third largest export, second only to coal and iron ore, and it is estimated that each international student studying in Australia generates $29,000 value added to our economy. Given international students' contribution to our economy, as well as the benefits they bring in diversity and culture, it is vital that legislation relating to this industry ensures its continued success.

The bills before us today have four main aims: to ensure that only courses and course providers registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students may offer and provide courses to overseas students; to ensure that international students in Australia receive the education and training for which they have paid; to protect the reputation and integrity of Australia's education and training export industry; and to strengthen public confidence in the integrity of the student visa program.

The bills today—administering compulsory registration fees for providers of courses for overseas students—have been introduced to provide for recommendations arising from a review of the Education Services for Overseas Students legislative framework, which was conducted by the Hon. Bruce Baird AM. This review was commissioned in 2009 after a series of violent events against international students, coupled with revelations of a few very questionable practices by some education providers which left the sector facing a crisis. This crisis has not yet been stemmed, with the Australian reporting in May last year that the sector saw a 40 per cent decrease in overseas student applications in one month alone. At the time, Stephen Connelley of the International Education Association of Australia cautioned that, should this decline continue, the sector could lose up to 35,000 jobs by the end of 2011.

The Sydney Morning Herald also reported in February this year that the number of international students choosing Australia for their degree course has fallen. Student visa applications from outside Australia decreased 32 per cent over the past six months of 2010 compared with 2009, where they had already fallen 22 per cent compared to the same period in 2008. This drop in international student levels can have serious effects, with Monash University—Australia's largest—announcing that it would lay off 300 staff to cover the budget shortfall caused by the reduction in international students at that institution.

Estimates by Access Economics also show the impact of a five per cent increase—or decrease—in international student activity. The effects of a five per cent decrease are significant, reducing the total value-added contribution by more than $600 million. s seen through the Monash example, however, the most telling effect of a decline in international students is its impact on employment rates, with a five per cent decrease resulting in an employment fall from 126,240 full-time equivalent workers to just 119,900—a loss of more than 6,000 FTE workers.

This is a serious issue. Education export from Australia is by no means a small industry: the benefits of international students are vast. International students contribute $12.3 billion, value added, based on student expenditure of $13.7 billion and visiting friends and family expenditure of $365.8 million. While students spend about 46 per cent of this—$6.4 billion—directly on their education, they also spend money on other items such as food, accommodation and travel. Again, based on an average $14.3 billion, value added, it is estimated that for every $1 an international student spends on their education there is a flow-on effect of $1.91 economy wide, value added—nearly double. This in turn, of course, generates jobs for Australians.

Tourism Research Australia suggested that for every two formal students one friend or relative visited Australia throughout the duration of their studies. These travellers contribute an estimated $314.7 million to the economy, comprising $179.7 million in labour income and $135 million in gross operating surplus. Indeed, Brisbane City Council, through Brisbane Marketing, initiated a student ambassador program to try to maximise the effect and impact of visiting friends and relatives. These students now Twitter and Facebook their experience in Brisbane so that when their family and friends come to stay they do not immediately want to go anywhere else; they want to see what their family member has already experienced in Brisbane—Australia's new world city.

It is clear that international students contribute enormously to Australia as a whole, but the effects are also evident when broken down to a state-by-state level. In Queensland international students and their friends and visitors contribute approximately $1.7 billion, value added, to the state's economy. Comparing this to the gross state product of $214 billion, international student flow-on effects account for 0.81 per cent of GSP. Of this, $1.2 billion is in the direct form of employee wages, with the remainder representing a return to capital investors. International student activity in Queensland contributes close to 17,500 full-time equivalent workers, including almost 14,000 jobs in my hometown of Brisbane alone. This equates to $970.4 million in direct wages and $416.8 million as returns to capital investors, with the sector contributing $4.15 billion to Brisbane's economy.

When broken down to a local level the contribution and importance of international students becomes particularly clear. Once again, Brisbane City Council joins with many of the consuls and other institutions providing education services and holds a function welcoming international students once a year to emphasise how much we appreciate these students contributing to our city and to our local economy.

This is why legislation that supports this industry is vital. It was very concerning back in 2009 when stories emerged of scam institutions guaranteeing students results in the IELTS—the International English Language Testing System—exam in exchange for thousands of dollars in fees. We heard tales of shonky providers threatening students with deportation unless they paid more fees upfront and, of course, there were students who were forced to make advance payments on courses at colleges which were then shut down and the students lost their money.

Stories about students falling victim to these scams were damaging for the industry's reputation and unfairly stained the image of hundreds of good private colleges. It was a blow to the industry and, as I have previously detailed, it was also a major blow to the economy.

International students are valuable to Australia. We do not ever want to see a repeat of 2009, when international students were so let down by shonky providers. The bills before us today go some way to ensuring this does not happen again: we cannot afford to lose our international students.

Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the proposed amendments to the Education Services for Overseas Students Act, known in the ESOS Act, contained in the Education for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Bill 2011 and its related bill. The inclusion of these amendments will create a new fee structure for higher education providers who wish to be registered in the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students, known as the CRICOS.

Higher education providers are required to register with the CRICOS in order to offer their courses and programs to international students. The amendments to the act will allow for the fee structure to be set to more closely reflect the cost of supervision of these providers. The bill will amend the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Act 1997 to provide for recommendations that have arisen from the Stronger, simpler, smarter ESOS: supporting international studentsreview, known as the ESOS review, conducted by the Hon. Bruce Baird AM.

The Bradley review recommended that an ESOS review take place before 2012. The review came about from the significant growth in the number of overseas students and the changing composition of this group. The ESOS review received around 150 formal submissions and more than 300 people registered with the online discussion forum.

The ESOS Act has been evolving through substantial reforms since 2000, when there were allegations of immigration rorts, poor quality education services, college closures and exploited students. orty-one recommendations were endorsed from an independent evaluation in 2004-05 to improve the act's effectiveness. Following this, amendments were then made to the act in 2006 and 2007. However, in 2009 there were further allegations of unethical behaviour reported by the media and this led to protests by the Indian community against assaults on Indian students and resulted in the closure of a number of colleges.

In 2009 the government introduced amendments to the ESOS Act pending a review. The amendments to the act made in 2009 required a number of things including re-registration of all institutions registered on the CRICOS. Two new registration requirements were introduced in an effort to strengthen the education credentials of education providers and have all providers list the names of their agents and comply with the regulations relating to them.

In just over a decade reforms and amendments to the ESOS Act have been implemented to ensure a fair treatment of the international student body. The proposed amendment bills that I am speaking on today will further potentially strengthen and reform the existing act. The ESOS Act exists to ensure that international students in Australia receive the education and training for which they have paid, to protect the reputation and integrity of Australia's education and training export industry and to strengthen the public confidence in the integrity of the student visa program.

The ESOS review commented on course delivery that supports quality education experiences for international students. Currently, all of the courses open to international students must be registered on the CRICOS and there are specific requirements for courses for international students. These include requirements that the international student be located in Australia and that their primary purpose for being in Australia is to study. I note that these requirements are intended to support the integrity of the student visa program, and this was also noted in the ESOS review.

I would like to take this opportunity to expand on the importance of our reputation as an international education destination. The international education industry is suffering according to the latest Australian Education International data. Contributors to the current downturn include the strong Australian dollar and the current government's policies, which include tougher student visa conditions, tighter skilled migration and the crackdown on private colleges. The latest AEI data, for June 2011, showed international enrolments across Australia declined 9.1 per cent compared to the same time last year, and this compares to a previous annual growth rate of 11 per cent since 2006. According to the AEI, the education industry across Australia totalled $18.3 billion in export earnings in 2010. However, the full economic value to Australian businesses and local communities is considerably higher than this figure, which excludes international student expenditure on things such as accommodation and living expenses.

Our reputation is made vulnerable when international students feel we are taking advantage of them and our reputation becomes even more vulnerable when these students are victims of crime. In the review of education services for overseas students, Baird commented on this issue and raised the concerns of most Australians, including me, by saying:

The recent attacks, predominately on young Indian students, have saddened me as an Australian.

Baird consulted broadly and identified a number of concerns including:

Concerns raised during consultations included reports of: false and misleading information provided by some education agents, poor quality education and training, gross over-enrolments, lack of appropriate education facilities, providers paying exorbitant commissions to education agents, limited financial scrutiny of providers, ineffective application and enforcement of regulation, low English language entry requirements, poor social inclusion of students in their institutions and the broader community, inadequate complaints and dispute handling services and some duplication between Commonwealth and states and territories leading to confusion and unnecessary regulatory burden.

Many related issues raised were out of the scope of the review such as alleged workplace exploitation, migration and visa issues, deficient and expensive student accommodation, lack of transport concessions and health matters.

The Gold Coast cannot afford the impact of any negativity towards our international students. The education sector of the Gold Coast is well developed and currently includes four universities: Southern Cross University, Griffith University, Central Queensland University and Bond University. There are also 160 registered training organisations, 32 private schools and 64 state schools. In May 2010 employment figures showed that education institutions on the Gold Coast employ over 17,500 people. The Gold Coast's two largest universities generated more than $1.6 billion towards the Gold Coast's economy in 2010.

Two studies detailing the economic benefits of Griffith University and Bond University show both institutions contribute significantly to the Gold Coast community. Griffith University injects more than $1 billion annually into the local economy and accounts for more than two per cent of local employment. Privately operated, not-for-profit Bond University injects $600 million and 2,200 regional jobs. mportantly, these economic impact figures do not include development of human capital provided by the education of graduates or the flow-on effects of research and development conducted by the universities. Griffith University and Bond University together have over 20,000 students enrolled and many of the graduates remain on the Gold Coast after graduation, which increases the human capital and knowledge base of our community.

The depressed state of the Gold Coast's main industries in tourism and construction along with the above average unemployment rate highlights how crucial it is that the Gold Coast's education sector continues to develop. I would like to see the Gold Coast economy mature and broaden to include an excellent education and research industry to complement the existing emphasis on our industries.

Overseas students are clearly critical to the Gold Coast economy. They provide a very welcome boost to our tourism industry in particular. Where we are able to welcome the overseas students to the Gold Coast and they have an experience that is favourable towards them, they are most likely to encourage their friends and their relatives from overseas to visit and to holiday on the Gold Coast. So the flow-on effects of overseas students to the Gold Coast economy are in fact enormous.

The Gold Coast economy has been struggling for some time and we have been very dependent on two industries. Clearly, tourism is a major industry for us, as is construction. It is long overdue for us to develop a second layer of industry on the Gold Coast, but I should say that we are well on track to doing that now. The second layer comprises our manufacturing industry and, importantly for today's purposes, the education industry. We should be doing what we can to strengthen and develop the education sector on the Gold Coast.

In my electorate of McPherson, Bond University's international student population is around 30 per cent of total enrolments. So it is a significant proportion of Bond student enrolment. Safeguarding students' interests is key to the success of the international student sector. The global financial crisis has not helped this goal, as numerous providers have had to close due to events that are largely out of their control. Risk management is therefore important so that the interests of this sector and the wider economy are assured. The ESOS review commented that a provider's risk profile should not only guide entry to the sector but influence the level of regulatory resources dedicated to monitoring and supporting a provider.

We support the education sector and recognise that overseas students are a critical part of this industry. Therefore, I believe the changes are a step forward for the industry, the international students and our overall reputation as an education destination. As I indicated before, education is a sector that is crucial to the Gold Coast both now and into the future. I actively support the development and growth of our universities and tertiary education providers and give my commitment that I will work with them into the future to make sure that the Gold Coast is well placed to be an education centre of excellence.

Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2011 and the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment (Registration Charges Consequentials) Bill 2011. The coalition, as an organisation and as parties, do not oppose these bills. As the member for McPherson just said, with education being such a vital level of our economy now, we have to pay a lot more attention to it going into the future. Places like the Gold Coast and Townsville rely so much on education facilities. In fact, James Cook University as an organisation has in Townsville an economic footprint of some $500 million per annum. That is just one organisation. James Cook University has a campus in Townsville, a campus in Cairns and a campus in Singapore. Extrapolate that across the country and you will see just how big this industry is.

These bills aim to modify the charges for institutions registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students, CRICOS, to offer courses to international students. These changes will better reflect the costs involved with administering the registration process and supervising these institutions. The new cost structure is vital in ensuring that only reliable and trustworthy institutions are allowed to operate in the market of educating overseas students.

As my good friend and colleague the member for McPherson has just alluded to, the last thing we need to see as a city in Townsville, the last thing we need to see as a state in Queensland and the last thing we need to see as a country in Australia are pictures beamed home of international students being picked on, being vilified, being mistreated, being assaulted and worse. They are the things we have to watch out for. People must feel welcome when they come to this country.

The issue is of great importance to Townsville, where we have around 10 education providers registered to provide courses to overseas students. These are all exceptional institutions catering for both secondary and tertiary education. High schools such as Townsville Grammar School, The Cathedral School, St Patrick's College on the Strand, Ignatius Park College and Calvary Christian College all have a strong reputation for providing students with a rounded education that both local and international families have recognised. I pay special recognition to St Patrick's College, which offers a great boarding alternative for girls from the Torres Strait and from Palm Island and gives a great all-round education. The Strand is not a bad part of the world either. ames Cook University and the Barrier Reef Institute of TAFE are also registered on the CRICOS. Both of these institutions are a credit to the Townsville education sector, offering high-quality tertiary education, often tailored to the region's unique tropical environment—one of the many factors that have helped them engage with students across the Asia-Pacific region. The beauty of TAFE is that it is across so many organisations; it goes so far.

It is often said that the nearest capital city to Townsville is in fact Port Moresby. We are closer to another country than we are to the city of Brisbane, our state capital. We as a city and as a region need to interact more with Papua New Guinea. Those states there need to be able to access our facilities in Townsville so that they can become better in their results when it comes to times of national crisis and emergency, becoming safer places when earthquakes, fires and cyclones hit. Those are the sorts of places from which students come to James Cook University. I was lucky enough to be present last night when the US ambassador spoke in relation to the universities all the way around Australia—from Flinders University to Murdoch University to Charles Darwin University to James Cook University to Griffith University—and the research that they are combining to assist with the way that we react to disasters and share information. I think it is a very positive thing.

I also want to acknowledge the work of Youth with a Mission in Townsville. YWAM is a global Christian movement that helps young people around the world. The Reef to Outback office in Townsville is run by Ken Mulligan, one of the nicest blokes you are ever going to come in touch with—but, by jingo, I will tell you he just does not let up. He will go on and on and on to you about his programs and how good and organised they are. YWAM has reached out to young people throughout Australia and South-East Asia and are currently very active and connected in the Townsville community with Papua New Guinea, working to improve the quality of life for young people in Papua New Guinea and help that country achieve its Millennium Development Goals. Training young people is a big part of YWAM's role, educating them on how to reach out and help youth with serious problems around our part of the world and, in doing so, strengthening our relationships with our neighbours.

Straight after Cyclone Yasi hit Townsville—we were hit with a feather duster in comparison with Cardwell and Tully, but we had a lot of people with power out, and people were without power for two or three weeks—the kids from YWAM were straight on the road, going into people's backyards and helping little old ladies in West End and pensioner couples. They targeted those people and made sure to get into their backyards and clean them up. That is the sort of thing that YWAM will do.

In relation to training, YWAM has a ship that leaves Townsville and goes to places in Papua New Guinea that cannot be accessed by normal health measures and programs. They go to the places where there is no electricity and there are no buildings, and they see people. People like Daryl Holmes from the 1300SMILES dental practice go up there; Dr Holmes will perform four days of nothing but extractions. We have people going up there to put glasses on other people or to talk about immunisation. The work they do with TAFE, with James Cook University and with all people trying to get a better result for our friends in Papua New Guinea is to be admired. The boat has gone around Australia and we are working very hard towards securing another boat to do more in that region.

All of Townsville's CRICOS-registered institutions like YWAM play vital roles in the local community, welcoming and nurturing international students and businesses into the city. Townsville is a very diversified place and a transient place. We always say that there are two locals in Townsville; they both drink at the Bellevue and no-one speaks to them. It is a great place because we are all from somewhere else. The thing that we have in common with the Gold Coast is that we are a place that people come to. Two of my three children were actually born in Townsville, but they did not have any grandparents there. I think the one thing that draws us all together as a community is that we do not have family there so we must reach out and engage.

International students also play a key role in Townsville and in Australia's economy, with the overseas education market creating local jobs and helping these schools and institutions provide more services to all students. You will see that happen more and more in Townsville as local builders and industrialists try to engage more and more with our first Australians and with our nearest neighbours.

It is nevertheless important that all the institutions involved in this market be as reliable as possible and provide services of the highest standard. Those in Townsville do, and the government needs to ensure that this is always the case. I am married to a teacher, and so education is very high on the debate list at our dinner table. My wife is forever explaining to me my failings in the area of education and how much better the world would be if we just focused on early childhood, because then everything else would fall into place. I will let you know, Mr Deputy Speaker, that she is in fact an early childhood teacher. Fancy that!

Australia's reputation for quality education is second to none, and rightly so. We have a great country and a great education sector, but we must continue to improve and we must never lose focus on that. That is why so many families overseas choose to send their children to our schools and why so many overseas students want to further their careers through tertiary education in our universities. But we cannot afford to take this for granted. As the world changes and becomes more and more global, institutions such as our universities will be challenged by other universities and other institutions to maintain a service that is needed in the country and in the world.

James Cook University, with its work with the Australian Institute of Marine Science, is founded on the premise of life in a tropical world. Every course it offers has to have an emphasis on how it operates in a tropical world. That is where most of the people in the world actually live, and that is where most of the problems going into the future will be and will come from.

The market for educating overseas students has been vulnerable to the setting up of dodgy institutions that do not mean Australia's high standards or are financially unstable; I think that is what the member for McPherson was alluding to earlier. We cannot let the ball drop. We cannot let people offer substandard institutions, because if that happens then we all suffer; everyone in the sector suffers. You need only one bad story to wipe out the 3,000 good stories that we have to tell.

Both major parties agreed to maintain our reputation with a more robust registration process, and tighter supervision of registered interests is required. However, while supporting this bill, I caution the government on the problems that this can cause, particularly for the smaller providers. I have spoken to a lot of Townsville's registered schools about their international students program. he concern they repeatedly raised was the burden of administration they faced in trying to encourage as many international students as possible. This one-size-fits-all approach makes it very difficult for schools with only a small international program. Ignatius Park College, for example, takes only one or two students every year and does so for reasons of social justice. It recently had a student from Papua New Guinea, who was supported by a local resident for years 11 and 12. The school enrolled the student but was frustrated by the extensive administration needed to admit just one international student. Many similar schools would be prevented from offering services to international students. Surely, there is a way that CRICOS administration can cater to schools with small international student populations. They say to me continually that whether you apply to have 100 kids or one child in the school the level of paperwork is exactly the same. Much of the administration they have to do is already their core business. They are already a recognised high school and already recognised as providing the correct curriculum, and why they have to go back over that, providing reams and reams of paperwork, is beyond anyone's understanding.

The other concern they raised with me is a problem associated with student visas. The high Australian dollar is already making it difficult for schools to encourage more international students and, to top that off, students have to wait much longer to get a study visa for Australia than elsewhere. As an example, a student from Hong Kong can get a study visa for America within a few days; for Australia it takes a minimum of three weeks. We have to be sharper at the pointy end of providing services to make sure we are competitive. The United States of America, Canada and New Zealand all compete in this market, and it is far cheaper and easier for a student to get a visa to those countries than to come to Australia. I am not saying we should lower our standards; we just have to quicken the process. This is a hurdle that needs to be fixed if Australia's overseas education industry is to continue to grow. These bills allow for adequate funding to administer the registration process and supervise CRICOS institutions to ensure that they meet the high standards that the Australian education sector should be expected to meet. For that reason I do not oppose the amendments, but we must be careful not to overburden institutions.

I cannot let the opportunity pass to warn this government of the dangers it faces when it comes to research funding. James Cook University and the Australian Institute of Marine Science have had their funding capped and have had incremental funding cuts. So, while they are getting grants to run the ocean simulator and their boats, their fuel costs have been cut. They have a great boat there, but they cannot use it as often as they should. If we are to tackle climate change correctly and if we are to do the scientists justice, we must have access to the funds needed to complete this research. A carbon tax is not going to make it any easier for institutions like the Australian Institute of Marine Science, which uses diesel. You can shake your head as much as you want, but a carbon tax will raise the cost of diesel to institutions that rely on science to answer the very questions that you are putting in front of us. If we want to act on climate change, we need these people to answer the questions for us and we need to give them access and funding to get out there and do the work. You cannot sit there and continue to make it harder and harder for educational institutions to do the research by cutting their funding.

Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I join with my colleague the member for Herbert in his wise and profound remarks on the Education Services for Overseas Student (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2011 and cognate bill.

A government member interjecting—

Good remarks! The member for Herbert and I have been compared to Waldorf and Statler occasionally in question time, but we are actually funnier than those two, I think. This is an important piece of legislation and I do want to join with the member for Herbert in what he was saying about the smaller providers. Quite often when this government acts, there is a series of unintended consequences to its legislation it does not consider. The small player is often ignored by this government. While it may seem appropriate from the recommendations of the Baird report to review registration fees as proposed by this bill, there is a lot of diversity in the smaller colleges. Colleges with small overseas student numbers are delivering courses to overseas students for reasons related to expanding their educational mission, broadening the cultural mix of their campuses and not necessarily for a commercial imperative. It can often be counterproductive to increase such costs for smaller providers. Because of the nature of higher education there is often a diversity of courses offered by particular colleges. It is not necessarily the case that increasing fees produces the best outcome. Some colleges, for example, register fewer than 20 foreign students and they will face a sixfold increase in registration fees. That is not a desirable outcome.

This sector, we are told, is our third largest export industry, earning up to $17 billion—that is, before the recent turbulence in the industry. It is an issue we have to take very seriously, because there is an expanding middle class in Asia and wealth being generated in many countries. The international student market is very competitive and it is a market that Australia certainly wants to access. It is the role of government to recognise and promote the inherent worth of international and transnational education. This parliament has a great role to play by recognising it and encouraging it for our nation. Our economic and strategic interests in the region mean that we should be seeking to do everything we can to promote an international education focus in Australia to make us a regional hub for international and transnational education.

We do not oppose this legislation and we see some worth in increasing the registration fees and charges. Of course, there is a subset of issues that I have spoken about in this place before in relation to the private service providers, and colleges in particular. I think the member for Herbert elegantly explained that the colleges in his area, small colleges closer to Papua New Guinea than Brisbane—a very important point—are often the unintended consequences of these blanket pieces of legislation that we pass here in Canberra—

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

( ): Order! The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The member for Mitchell will have time to continue his remarks at a later hour.