Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Youth and Employment Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present the explanatory memorandum to this bill and move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The VET Student Payment Arrangements (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2020 will assist the Commonwealth resolve outstanding matters under the former VET FEE-HELP scheme and will further facilitate the closure of the scheme. The bill also amends the VET Student Loans Act 2016 to improve the administration of the VET student loans program.

The bill formally revokes the approval of remaining vocational education and training providers that operated under the VET FEE-HELP scheme but provides for the continuing application of the law for the purposes of dealing with any matters that arose while a body was approved under the VET FEE-HELP scheme.

The Commonwealth's obligation to pay amounts of VET FEE-HELP assistance to VET providers in respect of older student data will cease. No student has an entitlement to VET FEE-HELP assistance in relation to units with a census date after 31 December 2018. However, a small number of providers continue to lodge old claims dating back a number of years. Therefore, the Commonwealth will continue to make payments to VET providers only if the providers report certain information by specified deadlines. The deadline for reporting information for units with census dates before 1 January 2018 is 1 July 2021, while the deadline for all other units is 1 January 2022.

This will prevent unsuspecting students from incurring VET FEE-HELP debts indefinitely in relation to study they undertook many years ago, potentially dating back as far as 2009. Those students will also be protected by a measure which will discharge their liability to pay to VET providers any amounts relating to tuition fees not reported before the specified deadlines.

Many VET providers are also higher education providers receiving amounts of FEE-HELP assistance under the Higher Education Support Act 2003, or approved course providers receiving VET student loans payments under the VET Student Loans Act 2016. To facilitate the collection of debts owed by VET providers to the Commonwealth under the VET FEE-HELP scheme, the bill enables the Commonwealth to offset those debts against VET student loans and FEE-HELP amounts payable by the Commonwealth to those providers. This means the Commonwealth will be able to pay a net amount to a provider, rather than make a VET student loans or FEE-HELP payment and separately invoice a debt under the VET FEE-HELP scheme. This will be both simpler and cheaper, saving the processing of invoices and payments, for providers and the Commonwealth.

The bill also provides for further circumstances in which the secretary is not required to pay a VET student loan amount to an approved course provider under the VET Student Loans Act 2016. These circumstances reflect existing provisions in that act under which a student's HELP balance can be re-credited. This measure makes clear that the secretary is not required to pay an approved course provider a loan amount in circumstances where the student would then become eligible for a re-credit, and the provider would be required to re-pay the amount paid to the Commonwealth.

Finally, the bill also contains a measure providing for the automatic revocation of a course provider's approval under the VET Student Loans Act 2016 if it ceases to be a registered training organisation. This measure is appropriate having regard to the requirement that an approved course provider for VET student loans must be an RTO.

The measures in this bill will make for a fairer, more efficient student loans regime, helping to deliver a skilled and educated workforce to support Australia's economic recovery from the COVID-19 recession.

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

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

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

Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Youth and Employment Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Deputy Leader of the Opposition for his contribution—maybe except for that last bit! I think we're putting more money into TAFE and helping with more apprentices. The VET Student Payment Arrangements (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2020 takes a number of important steps to further facilitate closure of the former VET FEE-HELP scheme. The VET FEE-HELP scheme was replaced by the VET Student Loans program from 1 January 2017. The measures in this bill will make for a fairer, more efficient student loans regime, helping to deliver a skilled and educated workforce to support Australia's economic recovery from the COVID-19 recession. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.