Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I continue to speak on the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2021 and related legislation. I would particularly point out that overseas students are our fourth biggest export. Not too long ago, before gas crept up, it was our third biggest. When you look at iron ore, coal and gas they're not value added in the way that educating overseas students is. So rather than the Morrison government helping protect an industry that was worth $40 billion just five minutes ago, the Morrison government has taken delight in attacking higher education providers at a time, during a pandemic, when they most need a helping hand.

Higher education providers have been snubbed, insulted and abandoned during this pandemic. Prime Minister Morrison very deliberately changed the JobKeeper rules three times to make sure universities could not get the support they needed. If that's not systemic bias motivated by short-term cultural wars or misguided political war games then I don't know what is. How short-sighted is that, to attack our fourth-largest export and neglect a $40 billion industry?

At least 17,300 university workers lost their jobs in 2020 because the Morrison government denied them JobKeeper: academics, tutors, cleaners, gardeners and cafeteria staff, many with families to support. It is expected that at least 7,000 researchers will lose their jobs over the course of this pandemic and, as I heard from university vice-chancellors over the last few weeks, we're in danger of losing our greatest research minds for good. Once they're gone, they may never return. In the middle of a crisis, the government cut support to universities that was meant to keep Australia's world-class research alive.

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

They won't come back!

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll take that interjection from the member for Cowan. We know that academics need a bit of certainty. The government provided $1 billion in the 2020 budget, and I commend them for that, partly to cover the impact of falling international student revenue. Then, this year, basically with no return of international students in sight because of the bungled vaccine rollout, they have cut that funding and the pipeline is dry. It means that the students who would flow on for two, three or four years aren't coming—there's nothing coming down the pipeline.

It's hard to understand why the government has attacked universities as viciously as it has. We know that; we've seen a drop from 20 per cent down to 12 per cent. International education was the fourth-largest export industry before the COVID pandemic. It supported about 250,000 jobs across the Australian economy—and remember that's in the bush as well. We know that universities are major employers in regional areas; they support over 14,000 jobs—not that you'll ever hear recognition of this fact from the mouth of a National Party MP. In the city, universities keep communities afloat: it's good economics. But that's especially so in the bush. Every one dollar invested in higher education research and development is linked to a five-dollar return to GDP. Every one dollar invested in university teaching and scholarship from government contributes three dollars of additional taxation revenue. It makes economic sense to support universities during this pandemic crisis. But instead of supporting our fourth-largest export, the Prime Minister goes from one exercise in marketing spin to the next without actually achieving anything or doing what he's paid for—for doing his job.

There are more than 35,000 Australians still stuck overseas and more than 200,000 international students who can't get back to Australia for study. Some are holding on, but that is tenuous. The Prime Minister had two jobs: the vaccine rollout and effective quarantine, and he has failed in both. If he had done his job, set up national quarantine facilities and managed the vaccine rollout, those 35,000 Australians would have returned home by now and international students would be coming back to study rather than being poached by Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. They're poaching our students and poaching our fourth-largest export. Sadly, neither of those things have been achieved in terms of vaccine rollout and effective quarantine.

It's astounding that not only have the Morrison government failed to set up national quarantine facilities but they've failed to manage the vaccine rollout and failed to support universities through this crisis. And they made things even worse for universities with their Job-Ready Graduates Package. This scheme, introduced into parliament last year in the midst of the pandemic, was designed to cut Commonwealth funding to cover the cost of many university courses and, at the same time, to increase student fees overall. Universities—which, remember, have already lost more than $3 billion—will receive less money to teach some courses, like science, engineering and teaching. Those are not unimportant courses; some may say they are the very courses which form the backbone of a skilled workforce, of a smart Australia. Real funding for higher education will fall by 10 per cent over the next three years. Some students who commenced study this year face fee hikes of double the previous fees. Those students are going to be left with a mountain of student debt when they enter the workforce.

All of the actions and inactions of the Morrison government have consequences and one of those consequences is that it will make it harder for Australia to recover from the COVID-19 recession. I mentioned before that I've been speaking to many of the vice-chancellors of universities right across Australia in the past couple of weeks. What struck me as I listened to their despair was that there is still no pathway for international students to return to Australia. It struck me how badly this has been handled by the Morrison government. Several of the VCs mentioned the Prime Minister, early last year, telling students to go home. Remember that? Remember the Prime Minister saying, 'Go home'? It was a comment that perfectly bookends with Prime Minister Morrison's 'Where the bloody hell are you?' campaign when he headed Tourism Australia, before Fran Bailey, the then Minister for Small Business and Tourism, sacked him. Those two comments were horrible comments as a message to the rest of the world. I say that, particularly, as a Queenslander and being from a state that thrives on tourism. Some vice-chancellors were concerned that the Prime Minister's comment would be remembered by those students. They took it home. They took it to their hearts: students who were here at the time and whose view of Australia will be permanently soured when they could have been our best ambassadors, better than DFAT in a way because they're not funded. They actually go out to the rest of the world and sell Australia.

It's hard to be a leader during a crisis. It tests people. Cometh the hour, cometh the man or woman. It's a shame that we don't have a leader in this nation who is up to the task. It's not what our nation needs at the moment.

There's no doubt that the Morrison government has damaged Australia's world-class higher education system, placing thousands of university workers' jobs at risk and jeopardising Australian research. International student numbers are not going to magically return to full capacity when the vaccine rollout is eventually completed. I say that in the hope that it will be eventually completed. As I said, these pipelines are heading elsewhere, to Canada, to the United Kingdom, to the United States. It's going to take time to undo the Morrison government's mismanagement during this pandemic. Recovering from the COVID-19 recession is going to take world-class leadership. We're going to need a skilled workforce, and we will only obtain that by having world-class higher education systems.

Labor supports the bills before the House because they are likely to reduce charges on international education providers, but sadly, this small reduction in charges will only partly offset the hiked up fees facing providers due to the TEQSA legislation that is before the Senate this week. I move:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes:

(1) that the Government has damaged Australia's world-class higher education system, placing thousands of university workers' jobs at risk, and jeopardising Australian research; and

(2) the Government's actions will make it harder for Australia to recover from the COVID-19 recession".

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to hear that those on the other side agree with these bills. We know that, before COVID-19 hit, the Gold Coast international education sector contributed $1.6 billion to the local economy and $40 billion to the national economy. It has taken a hard hit. It was the first sector to be damaged, and unfortunately it will be the last one to recover.

Before I outline the detail in these bills, I would like to highlight the assistance that the federal government has delivered for international education providers since the pandemic hit. JobKeeper, of course, was a huge help to education providers in Moncrieff, across the Gold Coast and, indeed, across the country. Australians should know that it's the Morrison government that has assisted Queenslanders, including international education providers, with $30 billion of financial support already delivered.

We continue to support individuals through the South-East Queensland lockdown with COVID-19 disaster payments of up to $750 a week—and I'm very pleased that the lockdown was lifted yesterday at 4 pm. Those who were in lockdown can apply from yesterday through Services Australia, and I encourage those who've lost work hours to do so. We on this side continue to stand behind Australians as we always have. In April this year the Morrison government provided more than $53 million of targeted support for international education providers most affected by COVID-19 border closures. The measures have benefited thousands of domestic and international students and Australian businesses who support local jobs.

Let me outline for Australians what these measures are and then some real life examples from my electorate. There are an extra 5,000 short-course places for domestic students, and around 100 eligible non-university higher education providers—or NUHEPs, as they're known—in 2021-22 are being supported with $21.6 million in funding. Short courses are to be offered in any discipline. This will support NUHEPs affected by the decline in international enrolments to pivot their businesses to domestic delivery. Priority has been given to those on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students, known as CRICOS. Around 30,000 existing and prospective students will benefit from lower fees through the extension of FEE-HELP loan fee exemption until the end of this year.

An innovation fund was announced as part of the $53.6 million package of measures to support international education providers in the 2021-22 federal budget. There is $9.7 million to establish the innovation grant fund to allow eligible private higher education and English language intensive courses for overseas students or ELICOS providers registered on CRICOS to apply for up to $150,000. Applicants were required to demonstrate the effect of border closures on business turnover, outline their efforts to adapt to the current operating environment and demonstrate how they would benefit from the grant funding. I can now report back to the House that three schools in my electorate of Moncrieff—Inforum Education Australia, Shafston International College and BROWNS English Language School—in just the last week have been awarded grants of $149,500 from this fund, which will help provide them the opportunity to adjust their business models, to grow their market base and to improve online delivery.

When I spoke to Richard Brown last week, he was still full of passion for his sector. We agree that this grant will by no means replace the students that they've lost or the revenue and the staff, but it will assist him to engage with stakeholders he needs to reinvent his business model. Richard told me that he very much appreciated this assistance, as it's been difficult to carry the blows of the last 18 months during the pandemic. His plea, in which I join, is for all Australians to get vaccinated as soon as possible so that the international education sector can once again thrive and prosper on the Gold Coast and indeed across the country.

Another important measure taken to help the sector is regulatory fee relief and this is what these four bills are particularly about. Some $17.7 million will see domestic fees and charges collected by CRICOS, TEQSA and ASQA waived until 31 December 2021. These measures have taken effect from 1 July this year. Regulatory fee relief will apply across the tertiary and international education sector and no action is required from providers; fees will automatically be waived. This will support the ongoing operations of more than 3,500 providers registered with ASQA as they deliver quality training to around four million students who access Australia's VET system each year.

The revised cost recovery arrangements for registrations on the CRICOS will commence from 1 January 2022. These bills give effect to the government's decision to implement an updated cost recovery model for the CRICOS, announced in 2021-22 budget, to better align the charging framework with the Australian government charging framework from 1 January 2022. The government had delayed the introduction of an updated cost recovery model for the Department of Education, Skills and Employment, along with TEQSA and ASQA, due to external factors including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Currently the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Act 1997 gives authority to the department to collect annual registration and entry-to-market charges on behalf of all ESOS agencies. The ESOS act sets out the ESOS agencies for different providers. Broadly, they are: ASQA and ESOS agencies for registered VET providers;TEQSA for registered higher education providers and the secretary of the department for school providers. The updated cost recovery model will involve the department, ASQA and TEQSA recovering their own costs related to CRICOS activities. The department will charge for its regulatory responsibility as the ESOS agency for school providers, and charge all CRICOS registered providers for its cross-sectoral CRICOS regulatory effort. This just means that education providers are going to be paying less in fees in the long run. The department has sought stakeholder feedback on the updated cost recovery model. A cost recovery implementation statement will be released later this year.

Now, while international education providers may question the timing of the new arrangements, they represent an overall reduction in the department's collection of CRICOS charges from the sector and will help to maintain the quality and reputation of Australia's international education sector, positioning it for recovery and hopefully regrowth into the future. It is a long road back, but the government are doing everything they can to assist this particular sector. The registration charges bill will provide the legislative authority for the department to stop collecting the EMC and ARC on behalf of all ESOS agencies. It will also enable the department to recover the costs of administering and regulating CRICOS providers' activities through a CRICOS annual registration charge for its cross-sectoral provider registration and international student management system and CRICOS activities, and administering the ESOS framework, along with a school initial registration charge and school renewal registration charge. It sounds quite complex, but we all know that this bundle of bills will help Australian education providers, and that's why those on the other side are agreeing to these bills.

The amount of charges will be prescribed by regulations setting out the amount or method for calculating the amount to be made by the Governor-General through the executive council. The cost recovery bill will amend the ESOS Act to require registered providers to be in good standing with all ESOS agencies in regard to their CRICOS regulatory fees and charges. It will also clarify the monitoring powers of ESOS agencies by making it explicit that they are able to undertake the function of a compliance audit on CRICOS registered providers they are the ESOS agency for. The bill will also amend the ESOS Act to make the CRICOS annual registration charge payable within a 30-day period beginning on the day after a written notice is given to the provider from the secretary of the department, instead of the last business day in February of the year. In practice, the annual charges will be required to be paid at a similar time through this amendment, though this amendment will allow future flexibility in the timing of annual charges if necessary for unforeseen circumstances. The amendments will require registered providers to pay the fees and charges relevant to them as and when they fall due, including any penalties for late payment. Failure by a provider to pay the relevant fees and charges will constitute a breach of its conditions of registration.

The Education Services for Overseas Students (TPS Levies) Amendment Bill 2021, also one of the bills in this bundle, will amend the Education Services for Overseas Students (TPS Levies) Act 2012 to add a definition of 'total enrolments' to the TPS levies act. This definition was previously contained in the registration charges act but is being repealed from that act as a consequence of this package of amendments. The definition will also clarify that an enrolment will be included in the calculation for the TPS levy when a student has an enrolment in a course and has also undertaken study in that relevant period.

Finally, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Charges) Amendment Bill 2021 will amend the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Charges) Act 2021 to remove references to the old charging framework. Thank goodness I'm almost at the end; I won't have to say TEQSA again! That's a summary of what these bills are for. They will help the international higher education sector. I commend the bills to the House.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] I'd like to congratulate the member for Moncrieff for getting through all of those acronyms! I want to thank the member for Moreton for introducing the second reading amendment to this bill. I rise to speak in favour of the second reading amendment moved by the member for Moreton.

Of course Labor supports these bills, which aim to streamline cost recovery arrangements for the regulation of education providers who provide services to international students. The Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2021 repeals and replaces current charging provisions with a new framework, although most of the details, of course, will be set by regulation, which as you would know, Acting Deputy Speaker Vasta, is generally not the ideal way to arrange these matters. But the pattern from this government of trying to avoid transparency and accountability for its decisions continues.

Nevertheless, we will be supporting the bills. They make minor and consequential amendments arising from the original bill. The three related bills make minor and consequential amendments arising from the registration charges bill, and we will support them all. Labor, in principle, agrees with cost recovery in this area, although we did oppose the introduction of cost recovery in the TEQSA legislation that is in the Senate at the moment because it's a very bad time to be adding additional costs to higher education providers. Higher education providers have had an extraordinarily difficult couple of years, with Australia's international borders closed and a very important source of revenue for their operations consequently being unavailable to them. So while we support cost recovery in principle we don't believe now is a great time to be doing it.

In regard to the legislation being debated today, while we opposed the broad shift to expanded cost recovery in the TEQSA legislation, this particular set of bills is expected to reduce charges on international education providers and prevent providers from being double charged for the same regulatory activity. So we'll be supporting today's legislation. We support any reduction in charges at the moment, but this reduction in charges will only partially offset the hiked fees relating to the TEQSA bill that Labor has opposed.

We've moved a second reading amendment today because of the continued concerns we have about the way this government has undermined the university sector, particularly in the last couple of years. The government has systemically been trashing Australia's higher education system—the message has been sent to students and staff and to the parents who are hopeful that their kids will one day get a university education. If you look at the last 12 to 18 months, we've had a university system that is absolutely desperate and crying out for help from a government that not only continues to turn its back and turn a deaf ear but acts in a hostile way with universities. Thousands of university staff are losing their jobs around Australia. Thousands of students have seen their fees more than double. More students than ever are wanting to go to university and too many are being turned away. No other industry of this size has received overt hostility like we have seen from the government towards the university sector, with the government changing the rules of JobKeeper three times to make sure universities were excluded from receiving JobKeeper. Casinos got JobKeeper but our great public universities did not get JobKeeper.

While all of this was happening, the government introduced legislation that more than doubled the cost of a degree for thousands of students. Think about the year 12 kids who were doing their final exams last year. They had their heart set on a particular degree. In the middle of last year, we had the lockdowns, the disrupted learning, the uncertainty. Rites of passage were interrupted—the school formals that didn't happen, the 18th-birthday parties the kids didn't get to go to. Those kids, thousands of them, were told that the cost of the degree they had their heart set on would more than double. And look at year 12 this year. In New South Wales we've been in lockdown for weeks. Year 12 students have been told they will be doing their final exams, and now they are being told they probably won't be doing their final exams. In Victoria and Queensland there's a great deal of uncertainty as well. These kids have had two years from hell. This year's year 12s were in year 11 last year and experiencing all of those disruptions. They were hoping that they would get to do their final exams this year and experience all the rites of passage that teenagers look forward to. Why doesn't this government make it cheaper and easier for these kids to get an education? Whether it's at TAFE or university, now is the time to make it cheaper and easier for these kids to get an education after school. We know that they won't be having the same gap-year jobs that many of their friends would have had in previous years. They certainly won't be doing any gap-year travel. Let these kids go to uni or TAFE and let them do it in a way that's affordable and accessible to them.

The university system has been crying out for assistance from this government and, on top of the confusion, the uncertainty and cost recovery in this instance, they are also looking at decreased real funding for the university sector. Real funding for higher education will fall by about 10 per cent over the next three years. The budget papers confirm that, because of job-ready graduates, funding for the Commonwealth Grants Scheme, which subsidises student fees, will fall and student debt levels will increase. We know that fees have been going up; as I said, more than doubling in some cases. A Bachelor of Arts will see fees increase by more than 113 per cent. For a four-year degree, students are looking to pay close to $60,000. These are American sized university debts, and our kids shouldn't be lumbered with them at the same time as they're trying to save a deposit in an increasingly unaffordable housing market. At the same time as they're thinking of starting a family, these kids are lumbered with these $60,000 debts. Law and commerce students will have their fees increased by nearly 28 per cent. This isn't just bad for individual students—although, of course, it is terrible for individual students—and it's not just bad for the university sector, which reports losing about 18,000 jobs, although, if you look at the ABS statistics, it looks like more like 30,000 jobs were lost from higher education. This is also bad for our national prosperity.

When we look at countries that are doing well economically in the modern world, they are countries that invest in research and development and higher education. We know that a skilled workforce is the key to our economic prosperity in the future. Before COVID, we had real problems in our economy. Wages were going nowhere, business investment had stalled, growth was low, labour productivity was going backwards for the first time in 25 years and, according to research by Harvard University, we had one of the least complex economies in the world. Why is that a problem? We as a nation have always done so well from our commodity exports, and they will continue to be a huge and important part of our economic prosperity in the future. But we know that, if we are relying on raw commodities for our national wealth, we're very subject to changes in international markets. There are the different demands for our goods; of course, sometimes that might be because economies are changing internationally. Sometimes it is because other countries decide to introduce trade barriers when it comes to our commodity exports. Either way, the more complex and value added in our economy, the more irons we have in the fire and the more likely we as a nation are to continue our prosperity. Our university sector is key to this, both because of the research and development done by our universities—a large part of that obviously subsidised by international student fees—and because we know that an educated workforce, a workforce where you've got people going to high-quality vocational education or high-quality university education after they've finished their secondary school, is much more likely to underpin continued prosperity for Australia in the future.

The absence of international students will have cost the Australian economy $18 billion. That's a loss to universities, and it's a loss to the landlords, the restaurant owners, the cafe owners and the businesses that support those international students who are spending money in our local economy. It's a loss to the businesses that rely on the work that international students do in the Australian labour market. But it's also a loss to us as a nation, because we know that the return on investment that governments get from investment in higher education is a return of 200 to 300 per cent, according to the OECD. As we cut funding to universities, as we allow this sector to flounder, we have endangered our prosperity in the future—the prosperity of individual Australians and the prosperity of our nation.

I want to conclude with a few words about jobs in tertiary education. Tertiary education is our largest services export and our fourth largest export overall. If any other export industry was shedding jobs at the rate that the university sector is shedding jobs, there would be a national rescue package from this government. It is a mark of their hostility towards higher education that there has been no assistance for universities. Universities have identified 18,000 jobs that have been lost, but that doesn't cover the contracts that have expired, the research that hasn't been renewed. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates that job losses so far are closer to 30,000 from the university sector. This is serious. Of course it's professors and academics, but it's also cafeteria workers, librarians, admin assistants, gardeners and construction workers, because added investment in universities has ground to an absolute halt. This is serious. These people have families. They've lost their jobs, they have families and they have a government that just doesn't care. The government doesn't care about the jobs that are being lost in universities today, and the government doesn't care that they are making it harder and more expensive for year 12 kids this year and the kids who graduated last year to get an education. If we look at the United States, they're actually trying to make a college education more affordable for their young people in this really difficult time. We're doing the exact opposite in Australia. We're taking a university sector that is democratic, that has tried to give more people a go at getting their dream job, that has invited people who are the first in their family ever to go to university—we've invited them into our universities; we've gone out and tried to get them to have a shot at university—and this government is shutting that down. Shame! What a shameful thing to do in a year like this.

Celia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak in support of this package of bills, the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2021 and related bills. I want to make a couple of points to start with. I do note that universities, like many sectors of the Australian economy, have been hit hard by COVID. In February 2021, the Universities Australia issued a press release saying that revenue across the sector had decreased by 4.9 per cent from 2019-20. Of course this varies across universities ], with some hit harder than others, and I particularly note in that respect that at least three universities in the country reported operating revenue increases, which is quite surprising. I also acknowledge that there have been significant job losses across the sector, and all of this is regrettable. However, I also note the loss of 4.9 per cent in operating revenue is significantly less than a lot of sectors, such as in tourism and in hospitality.

With respect to these bills, they relate to international students and they don't just relate to universities. According to the department's monthly update of international student enrolments, in May 2021 there were 525,892 international students studying in higher education, VET, schools, ELICOS and non-award sectors in Australia. Higher ed made up 54 per cent of those; VET, 37 per cent; schools, two per cent; ELICOS, five per cent; and non-award, two per cent. The majority of students come from China, at 29 per cent, followed by India on 18 per cent, Nepal on eight per cent, Vietnam on four per cent and Malaysia on three per cent. Given the impact of COVID, it's not surprising that these numbers are 17 per cent down on the same time last year. The most significantly hit sector is the ELICOS sector, which is down 64 per cent on its enrolments in 2020. Non-award is down 65 per cent, schools are down 31 per cent, universities are down 12 per cent and the VET sector is only down by 0.5 per cent.

The decrease in enrolments of international students in 2021 and 2020 has caused significant discussion and some alarmist predictions about the future of Australian international education. There is no doubt that education providers are feeling the bite of this at the moment, and there will be pipeline impacts over at least the next three years. However, an examination of the historical data on international enrolments in Australia shows that while the overall enrolments have been steadily increasing over the past three decades, there have been periods in which it has been hit by a variety of factors. There have been dips and troughs. I note particularly the period between 2011 and 2014, where there was a 10 per cent decrease between 2010 and 2011 and a further nine per cent decrease between 2011 and 2012.

It's also worth noting that the mix of our international education sectors has not been static over that time period. By way of comparison with the current statistics, I note that in the year 2000 there were 188,277 international students enrolled with Australian education providers—almost one-third of the numbers today. At that time, higher education had roughly the same proportion—57 per cent. VET was significantly lower, on 16 per cent, schools had six per cent and ELICOS had 19 per cent.

The mix of countries from which international students came was also significantly different from what it is today. The two largest cohorts came from Singapore and Hong Kong, both at 11 per cent. Malaysia was at 10 per cent and Indonesia at nine per cent. And it's worth noting that India, which is currently sitting at 18 per cent, was only 5.6 per cent of student enrolments in the year 2000. I make these points to illustrate that, while it's taking a hit at the moment because of the COVID-19 pandemic, our education sector will rebound. It has rebounded before. It may look different, but changes have occurred before. And there are very good reasons as to why some changes need to and will take place now.

The federal minister has recently announced a process to develop a 10-year strategy for international education in Australia—and it is timely. I would say that the starting point for this should be: what are our universities for? I note, with regret—and I know that others who have worked in the university sector also feel regret about this—comments that are made, when talking about international education, only focus on the economics of it. I don't want to downplay the economics of international students. It is vitally important to our country; it is vitally important to our universities. But that is not the sole, the only or even the most important reason as to why we engage in international education. It's also not the reason why we have universities. So, with respect to the federal minister, I would say, in developing that international strategy, let's go back to basics. Let's use that to shape our international strategy for the way forward. Should we be looking at a better diversification of countries from which we draw our international student population? That has a lot of social and cultural benefits for our country, and for their countries when those students go back. And if you talk about economics, it also means we're less dependent on one particular marketplace or one particular country for our international students.

We should also look at increasing the diversification of courses that students enrol in—don't have all of our international students enrolling in specific courses, such as management or commerce, where they all currently tend to enrol. Let's diversify that. Let's have a national plan for diversifying where our students come from and the types of courses that they enrol in. By all means spread it across the country. Our regional universities and our city universities all could benefit from a really well-thought-out international strategy. Within that, we should also look at the diversification of the levels of study that they undertake, right from ELICOS up to higher degrees. As we develop that strategy, I'm still forever confident that our international student enrolments will rebound. The reason why I say this is that Australia's education system is excellent and it has an international reputation for excellence. The most recent survey of international students in Australia, which was the 2020 International Student Experience Survey, shows that 91 per cent of international students expressed that they had a positive experience living in Australia. This was in 2020, during COVID, and 91 per cent were still saying they had a positive experience.

Part of the reason—not the only reason at all—why we have such reputational excellence is the regulatory framework that underpins the sector. The Education Services for Overseas Students Act, the ESOS Act, establishes requirements and standards for the quality assurance of institutions offering education and training courses to international students in Australia on a student visa. The ESOS Act also provides tuition fee protection for international students. Australian education providers, both public and private, must be approved for registration on the CRICOS, the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students, before they can promote or deliver courses to overseas students. CRICOS lists all Australian education providers approved to teach overseas students and the courses that they offer. CRICOS-registered providers must have met and continue to meet the requirements for the ESOS Act and the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students. Any providers wishing to deliver English-language intensive courses for overseas students or foundation program courses must also meet the ELICOS or foundation program standards as relevant.

At present, the Australian government recovers the cost of administering the ESOS Act and regulating education providers. The registration, regulatory compliance and enforcement functions under the ESOS Act are actually shared across three ESOS agencies—the department, as the ESOS agency for schools; ASQA, as the ESOS agency for the vocational education and training sector and standalone ELICOS; and TEQSA, as the ESOS agency for the higher education sector and foundation programs. These bills give effect to the government's decision, as part of the 2021-22 budget, to implement an updated cost-recovery model for registration under CRICOS. Pursuant to these bills, the responsibility for implementing cost-recovery arrangements will move to the individual ESOS agencies. In effect, this means that ASQA and TEQSA will recover the cost of their activities, and the department will charge for its regulatory responsibility as the ESOS agency for all school providers and charge all CRICOS-registered providers for its cross-sectoral regulatory effort.

By way of finishing, I acknowledge, as I said at the outset, that Australian international education providers across the board—we're not just talking universities here; in fact the sector which has been most hit is our ELICOS providers—have been impacted by COVID. It is also very likely that our sector will change over the coming years. But I look at this with optimism. Such change is not unprecedented and nor is it something which should be feared. Provided our educational sector, from schools through to higher education, continues to offer excellent educational offerings, it will continue to be an extremely vital and critically important sector within Australia and contribute to the success of our nation in social, cultural, diplomatic and, yes, economic ways. An efficient, effective and sustainable regulatory environment and regulatory bodies is a key component of this. I'm therefore very happy to support the bills.

Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] I am pleased to join with my colleagues, particularly with the member for Sydney, in speaking on this bill. And I thank the member for Moreton, who moved the amendment in support of Australia's university workers, students and institutions. Labor supports these bills, which aim to streamline cost recovery arrangements for education providers who provide services to international students. The Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2021 repeals and replaces current charging provisions with a new framework. We're disappointed to see that much of this framework will be set through regulation, but that just continues this government's track record of avoiding any sense of transparency and accountability. The three related bills make minor and consequential amendments arising from the registration charges bill, and so we support the legislation.

While we've opposed parts of the broader shift to expanded cost recovery for higher education providers, this legislation is expected to reduce charges on international education providers and to prevent providers from being double charged for the same regulatory activities. It's worth noting, though, that this reduction in charges will only partly offset the hiked-up fees that providers are facing because of government actions this week in the Senate. It's funny how many times I find myself saying these kinds of things when it comes to this government. Sure, they're giving a little on this side but they're taking again on the other. They're saying one thing but they mean another. They're telling the Australian people one thing but they're doing something else entirely. And that's absolutely the case when it comes to higher education.

Higher education has a proud history in this country. The licence plates on my car have a little by-line on the bottom, 'Victoria—the Education State'. We're proud of our education system in Australia, and that's due to the efforts of Labor governments over the past century investing so significantly and to the passion of academics over so many years. We've grown over decades to be the higher ed powerhouse of the world. For a long time in my electorate, right here in Cooper, we've been proud to have so many international students call our community home—students who are studying at La Trobe University, RMIT, Melbourne uni, you name it. They've come here to study at our world-class universities. It's something we're proud of, both right here in my community and as a country.

Our universities are massive employers. La Trobe University is the largest employer in my electorate. Thousands of my constituents are contributing to the education of our next generation. They're proud to work in universities. They're teaching our kids and they're helping them plan their futures. They're making sure that learning resources are accessible. Workers at the university are keeping these kids fed on campus and keeping the surrounds clean. They're contributing to the functioning of these enormous institutions that are so vital to our social, cultural and economic wellbeing as a community. They're proud of their jobs and we're proud of them. It's with them in mind that I speak here today in support of assistance for our universities, for the workers in them and for the students.

It is undeniable that the government has abandoned them. This Morrison government has abandoned our universities, the workers and the students. This is a trend that started before the pandemic, but it has now snowballed into something else entirely. There is no mincing words on this. Our universities are in a dire position, and the blame can only flow in one direction: the Morrison government. They have refused to support our universities every step of the way. The universities have been crying out for assistance for a year and a half now, to no avail. When the pandemic started, the flow of international students stopped entirely, as we know, and universities moved to online delivery models. They were posed with so many challenges but, my goodness, they worked hard to overcome them!

How do you carry out medical research when you're at home? How can you train a nurse or a vet—even an engineer or a teacher—from home without the practical experience they need? They were faced with challenges beyond the pale. University staff, whether they were tutors, lecturers or support and admin staff, stepped up to the task and they made it happen. But, as COVID drew on, the situation became dire. The numbers were crunched—by university qualified accountants, might I add!—and support was surely needed in the absence of such a significant portion of their students.

I distinctly remember the relief that was felt when JobKeeper was announced. We immediately reached out to the universities, who employ so many of our constituents, asking if they were eligible—and for all intents and purposes they were. The relief was something I can't put into words; you could hear it over the phone as we spoke to them, and I certainly felt it myself.

With the following week came an announcement from the Treasurer: universities were no longer deemed eligible for JobKeeper. The thousands of employees at the universities in and around my electorate were not going to be supported by the government through the toughest time most of us had seen. Don't be fooled; this wasn't an oversight. The government deliberately changed the rules to exclude university workers as if their work weren't as important as that of the rest of the workforce that was experiencing the tough times. In fact, they changed the JobKeeper rules three separate times to make sure the workers weren't supported. It was a complete and utter disgrace. As a result, universities have announced over 18,000 job losses and redundancies since the pandemic began.

Here in my electorate of Cooper, hundreds of university workers have lost their jobs. But this figure tells only part of the story. Many casual workers have lost their hours and their jobs, and many staff haven't had their short-term contracts renewed. Recent data from the ABS shows there are 30,000 fewer Australians working in higher ed than there were at the start of last year. This is a sector that is now being systematically hollowed out by a government that just doesn't care.

The impact on the workers is one part of the equation, but the massive impact on the students is another. As a result of these job cuts, university students are seeing their once sought after university degrees reduced to something that barely resembles a prior qualification. Teaching hours are massively reduced. The quality of resources cannot be anywhere near the standards teaching staff want and need them to be. Options for study have declined dramatically. At La Trobe University, the all-important history department is at really severe risk.

Not only that, the actual cost of degrees is skyrocketing. This year's budget papers confirm that, because of the government's so-called job-ready graduates scheme, funding will fall and student debt levels will rise. I know that this semester tens of thousands of Australian students have started university facing fee hikes, with many having had their fees doubled. Those studying a Bachelor of Arts have had their fees increased by more than 113 per cent. For a four-year degree, students will be paying around $60,000. Law and commerce students have had their fees increased by nearly 28 per cent. You're paying inflated fees for a degree that, in most cases, may not be near the quality of the degree you signed up for in the first place. Boy, oh, boy! Young people have a lot to thank this government for!

I know that, across the board, young people in my electorate are furious with this government. This is a government that has allowed the scourge of insecure work to take hold, affecting the vast majority of young people. Now, because of insecure work, they're excluded by the government from wage subsidies. For many of them, this means they're now out of a job. Many will turn to education and training as a pathway to getting a new job, but this government, as well as attacking universities, has underresourced and underfunded TAFE. So where will our young people turn? Will they turn to the jobs program this government can't seem to get right, or to emerging industries? I know that, here in Cooper, the government certainly isn't investing in those. They're not acting on climate change. They're not acting on housing affordability. They're abandoning young people in this country. They just don't care.

So young people and academics, in their wisdom, are trying to appeal to the Morrison government's own interests. We know that this government doesn't care about young people, workers or education, but you'd think that, at the very least, it could see the economic benefits of a successful university sector. International education was a $40 billion export industry. It's estimated that, by the end of the year, that number will be down to $22 billion. In my electorate we see the flow-on economic effects that universities bring, with all of those students shopping and renting here, and the incomes of all of the workers being spent in the local economy. It's huge, and it's vital to the survival of so many businesses.

We on this side of the House know that, while this is a crucial part of the picture, the value of universities isn't purely economic. Because our universities are hollowed out, we and our society lose vital knowledge. We lose the experts, the researchers and the historians, and, with them, our students and our young people lose the opportunity to learn from them and to take this knowledge and apply it to the jobs of the future. This loss is monumental. It's hard to put figures into words. I know La Trobe University's history department is under threat. This is how catastrophic a loss this is—losing historians and the teaching of our history, because this uncaring, irresponsible Morrison government can't find it within itself to support the university sector. It's just a disgrace.

I say to the workers and students at La Trobe and at universities across the country: we are on your side. We are standing with you. We will fight tooth and nail against the government's cuts to the university sector, and we will continue to fight for proper support for you. University workers deserve to be recognised as the vital workers they are. Students deserve the quality education that Australia has become so renowned for, and Australians deserve an education system that is up to scratch and a government that is up to the task of delivering it. The Morrison government doesn't even come close.

Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Western Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government says we need this legislation, the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2021 and associated bills, to fix issues with fees for higher education, when we all know that the actual problem in higher education right now is cuts. When it comes to the fees question, we've seen that this government's only solution to higher education is to increase fees for thousands of students across Australia.

I think about the young people in university, seeing their entire university world changing over the course of their degree—course cuts, fee increases. Who is left to explain this government policy to them? We know the Prime Minister refuses to meet with chancellors. We know the Prime Minister refuses to meet even with a delegation led by a former Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. So, instead, these changes are left to academics to explain. Academics are fabulous at transferring knowledge from one generation to the next. I'm joined by two fabulous academics: Dr Anne Aly, who had a fabulous career in academia at Edith Cowan University before joining us in this place; and Dr Andrew Leigh, a former professor of economics at the Australian National University. But, wherever you are working as an academic, it shouldn't be your job to explain why the government is making higher education more expensive and less accessible for people. But that's what this government has left the academics who work today to do. They are explaining to their students why they're paying more than they have, why they're getting less face-to-face teaching than they've ever received. Indeed, some of these academics, these sessional tutors, weren't able to get JobKeeper and have lost hours and time in research. This government has treated academics with absolute disdain over the last 18 months. Clearly they are the people it thought about least when it thought about who it could support through this pandemic.

We know the opportunity to attend university is both a privilege and a right for generations of Australians. When I went to university it didn't matter how much money my parents had, and it didn't matter if I had saved up tens of thousands of dollars; all that mattered was that I had the academic requirements and the passion to go and study. It really upsets me that a generation of young Australians won't feel the same and will have to make an economic choice. The government, when it pushed through changes last year under the cover of a global pandemic, said it wanted to put more market forces and more economic choice into the decisions students make.

Young Australians know that 'if you have a go, you get a go' is a hollow slogan when it comes to higher education. It's fair to say that young Australians today probably think they have been dealt a very harsh hand. For a year and a half they have faced challenge after challenge. Right now they need support from the federal government like never before, but instead this government has hit them with a knowledge tax; that's the only thing it has done to support students over the course of the pandemic.

The government thought it was appropriate last year to increase the costs of some degrees by 113 per cent. If students choose to do a humanities degree they will face as much as $14,500 in fees in their first year, and it will go up every single year after that. By the completion of their degree, they could be facing a debt of some $60,000. A debt of $60,000 will take those students some 15 to 20 years to repay.

We see a lot of debate about what should happen with superannuation and what should happen with housing policy. But the government never acknowledges that the gift it is giving hundreds of thousands of young Australians is a $60,000 debt that they will walk into the workforce with on day one. For some students that's bumping up to US-style debts of some $100,000 or more. And, while students are paying even more than they ever have for their education, the government's saying, 'The students are now paying for it, so we're going to pull money out.'

We've seen in this year's budget the government locked in a real funding cut of some 10 per cent for higher education. While students are having these 40 per cent increases in their fees, the government's pulling out 10 per cent of their funding. This is a government that defends its trillion dollars of debt as 'careful fiscal management'—that's a quote of those opposite—but doesn't seem to be able to find any money to invest in the next generation. Young people and students across Australia must be thinking: 'Who is going to stand on our side? Who is on our side when it comes to higher education?'

If you look at the history of what Labor has done when we have been in office, there is no doubt that we have invested in education and invested in opportunity for young Australians. We saw university funding increase from some $8 billion in 2007 to some $14 billion in 2013. When you compare that to the $3 billion cut out of the TAFE sector under this government, you know that there is a difference in the way that people see our role in this place in providing opportunity for our future workforce. They're the numbers, but, if you think about the actual lives changed, an extra 220,000 students got an opportunity to go to university because of those changes by the Labor government. Under then education minister and then Prime Minister Julia Gillard we saw an increase in opportunity for young Australians. That's what we should be focusing on when we're doing our work in this place.

If you look at the sorts of students that started to go to university, we saw financially disadvantaged student enrolments increase by 66 per cent and we saw Indigenous undergraduate enrolments increase by 105 per cent—a doubling of the Indigenous undergraduate cohort over the course of that six years. That changes people's lives. Even more encouraging, students with a disability increased by 123 per cent over that period of time. That's how you give people opportunity. That's how you expand access to higher education for all—not with the sort of legislation that we've seen put before us today and in recent years from this government.

Think about what we've learnt out of this pandemic and what we've learnt out of our need for a highly skilled and trained workforce: we might be forced, with closed international borders, to rely on the capacity of our own people. This government saw all that happening and decided it would instead whack nursing students with an eight per cent fee increase, whack agriculture students with a 10 per cent fee increase and whack clinical psychology students with a 15 per cent fee increase. Engineering students are seeing their fees increase by 16 per cent, maths students are seeing their fees increase by 17 per cent, law students are seeing their fees increase by 28 per cent, and medical students are seeing their fees increase by 32 per cent. That's this government's response to the need to skill our own people.

Where that's actually happening is in the courses that are lucky enough to continue, because the other thing that we've seen is this huge cut in the number of courses, as universities struggle with cuts in their funding and cuts in international student numbers and are not receiving a single cent of JobKeeper. Some 17,000 university staff have lost their jobs over the last year and a half—that's 13 per cent of the university workforce gone, kicked out. Some 14,000 jobs in regional Australia are supported by our university sector, and they are under threat as well. I note that to the members of the National Party who are in the House right now. Last month we saw some 200 workers lose their jobs at La Trobe University. In Western Australia, we are seeing universities having to make incredibly difficult decisions because of the choices of this government.

The University of Western Australia is planning to gut its social science courses: research positions gone; entire disciplines removed; sociology, anthropology and others gone; and those are just the start of the cuts. Some $40 million will be cut from the UWA budget because the university is not getting enough support to continue to run the programs it has run in the past. It's Western Australia's oldest university, and some of these disciplines have been taught for nearly a century. We know that up to 300 jobs will be cut from UWA. Indeed, the vice-chancellor acknowledged that these cuts will impact everybody at the university. It's not the only university that's been forced to cut staff. Murdoch University has opened voluntary redundancies across the campus to facilitate a $25 million cut in funding. Yet we hear nothing from the Prime Minister about this. I want to thank the students currently at UWA who are campaigning against these cuts and campaigning to save their courses. They're campaigning not for themselves, because they will probably be able to continue their courses until they graduate, but because they know that these disciplines are so important. I want to say to these students, 'Thank you for the work you're doing and for standing up against these mean cuts.' I particularly thank Katherine Ong, with whom I've been fortunate to speak. She's leading some of these student campaigns. I thank Linc Murray, to whom I spoke on Friday. They just can't understand why these courses are being cut. I also thank Nicole McEwen and some of the other student activists who have been making sure that students really know what's happening in their courses.

Sarah Ison, a reporter from the Western Australian newspaper, spoke to Dr Tauel Harper, a lecturer in media and communications at UWA. The article said:

Media and communications lecturer Tauel Harper said his research informed his teaching and the proposal to move him to "teaching only" was devastating. "My research is my life's work," he said.

He's done work that's been relied on by the WA parliament, the Victorian police and the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet about how we counter violent extremism and how we prevent it from having a home here in Australia. These are the sorts of things that will no longer be researched because of these cuts. The government had a choice last year. They chose three times not to give JobKeeper to our universities—not once, not twice, but three times they actively came in here and said, 'No, universities will make do with what they've got,' despite the fact that they were so hard hit by international students being unable to return to study. It's estimated that universities have lost $3 billion from border closures alone. When JobKeeper passed through the parliament, the Treasurer described it as, 'One of the most important days in the parliament's history.' For universities it was one of the most devastating, a clear sign that this government did not see supporting universities as part of its job. The government proudly declared that JobKeeper was worth $130 billion as part of a $251 billion package of unprecedented economic support. But not a cent of JobKeeper went to Australian universities. The Treasurer said of the global pandemic that Australia stood 'on the edge of the economic abyss'. But this government left those universities standing there alone.

We know that higher education is important. It's been important to my life. My parents were fortunate enough to attend Claremont Teachers College as a result of former Prime Minister Whitlam opening up higher education to people with backgrounds that were less fortunate than those who'd studied there in previous decades. I was fortunate to attend Curtin University, a university I have incredibly fond memories of. It gave me a world-class education, and I want to say thank you to every one of my lecturers and the academics at Curtin University. When you can attend university in person, you have the joy of making friends, and some of them become lifelong friends. At Curtin University I met Zaneta Mascarenhas. Curtin University is located in the federal electorate of Swan. Curtin University is WA's largest university, and since we met some 20 years ago Zaneta and I have stayed in touch. My son Leo and her son Lincoln now have play dates and they are very good friends. Every day that I have known Zaneta Mascarenhas she has been passionate about access education, ensuring that every Australian can fulfil their potential whatever their background, whatever the income of their parents. She is exactly the sort of person we need in this chamber. I'm very excited that she has chosen to put herself forward for federal parliament as a candidate for the seat of Swan. She was born in Kalgoorlie and grew up in regional WA. She is currently the manager at a local WA energy consultancy. She has had a long career working as an engineer—none of this cosplay stuff that we see from those opposite. She has actually worked as an engineer in mining and engineering, making sure we keep the Australian economy going, and she serves on the South Metropolitan TAFE council—a true commitment to tertiary education, both TAFE and university.

I think putting an engineer in the parliament is the right sort of thing to do right now. It's getting those skills that you get from a fabulous university, like Curtin University, and applying that very rational thinking to the policy challenges we face. It's having someone who is grounded in the practical application of realities and of science—someone who understands that science is fact as opposed to an optional extra in your policy formulation. And Swan desperately needs someone who will stand up for them, for the working families in Vic Park, for the pensioners in South Perth and for the students in Bentley. (Time expired)

Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the amendment be disagreed to. I call the member for Solomon.

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and it's great to see you in the chair! I want to thank the member for Sydney, the member for Moreton and the member for Perth. I agree wholeheartedly with everything that has been said to date. I want to talk about a couple of issues to do with overseas students and international education generally, as well as speak in particular about this bill, Education Services For Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment Bill 2021, and the related bills. As we've heard from previous speakers, Labor does not oppose these cognate bills. The legislation is of course far from perfect; however, on this side of the House we're supporting it. As we have done through the pandemic and in general, the opposition is not in the business of opposing legislation for the sake of relentless opposition—as we've seen in past oppositions. But even when we extend support for legislation from the government it does not mean we abandon our scrutiny or refrain from criticising the government, where that's warranted.

It's always an interesting experience to rise and speak on legislation brought forward by the government that impacts universities and higher education. This government has a troubled track record when it comes to unis, and the sting from this track record is made much worse when we consider the size and contribution of this sector to our economy. I can inform the House that in my electorate of Solomon—that's Greater Darwin, Darwin and Palmerston in particular—Charles Darwin University has made an immense contribution to our life in the north: to our cultural life; obviously to our academic life; and to our economy. Nationally, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, international education was the fourth-largest export industry in Australia. Students came to Darwin from all over the globe, looking for a world-class education, and to universities around the country. They were looking for those qualifications which would guarantee some employment and for the experience of studying and living in our remarkable nation.

These students enriched the quality of campus life at universities across Australia and of course they worked in a variety of roles in our economy, in small to large businesses. The revenue generated from this total holistic process was significant. International education contributed $37.5 billion in export earnings to the economy per annum, universities employed about 130,000 full-time-equivalent workers in academic and professional roles, and the sector supported over 250,000 jobs throughout our economy. So it was significant indeed and very much deserving of more attention and support that the sector has received from those opposite.

When the pandemic hit Australia, the sector was badly impacted by both the closure of borders and the inability of students to travel here. The sector needed support to cushion this impact and to make the bounce back to normal easier and quicker. What did this government do to support this large and important industry? Not only did they not do anything, their actions betrayed a cavalier disregard for the continuing viability of universities and higher education in this country. Anyone would think that they were blind to their own life story and to the role of universities to their current circumstances. The fact that they're sitting in the seats that they are is in no small part because of the university degrees that they received. But then, as is often the case with those opposite, once they achieve that position of power or influence, it must have been their own brilliance alone that got them to where they were, not the contribution of so many people in academic institutions that assisted their learning.

Let's not forget that this government changed the rules and requirements for JobKeeper three separate times to deliberately exclude universities. The fourth biggest sector in Australia, as I mentioned earlier, was treated like that when, we're well aware, there were big companies whose revenue and profits were going up and who received JobKeeper support but not our universities.

That once booming export sector will lose $3.8 billion in revenue across 2021. At least 17,300 workers employed by universities lost their jobs last year, and the job losses have continued this year. Those losses are in critical areas of research and expertise, which, apparently, we hear from those opposite, are important to them, and research and expertise apparently is pretty important in the future of work, the pandemic that we face, and our want to leap ahead when it comes to high-value, high-tech items to export and to manufacture. We need those critical areas of research and expertise, and these losses which have taken place across disciplines and faculties constitute a serious hit to the intellectual capacity of our nation. So it is hitting intellectual capacity, hitting the economy and hitting the R&D that we hear those opposite understand are important to our future.

This lack of support has led to 7,000 research positions effectively disappearing. The people who occupied those positions will either go overseas or, unfortunately, leave research altogether. The tragedy of this is that, once removed, that capacity is very difficult to replace. This loss of research and teaching capacity can even be found in the discipline of Asian studies. Who would have thought that Asian studies would be important in the Asian century? Universities across Australia have cut back on Asian studies, including the teaching of Asian languages. That is just dumb. It is dumb, but universities have to make hard decisions when they're faced with such a lack of support from a dumb government that doesn't seem to connect the dots between our future in this region and the need for our universities to be training people of all ages, not only in Asian languages but in Asian studies in general.

Let's have a think what that defunding means for languages here in Australia. We are living through some of the biggest changes ever experienced in our region. It is an era of complexity, and we hear that often. The challenges that we face in Indo-Pacific are significant. What we need is obviously the ability to defend ourselves from any threats and we need to be able to protect Australia and her interests. What we also need is for really smart people who will become the diplomats of the future to be able to speak languages, to be able to understand intimately our region so that they can effectively apply that trade craft in order to secure Australia and our interests. We want to equip the next generation with the language and knowledge needed for that understanding. It's absolutely critical. So the government needs a plan to deal with this looming knowledge crisis, and I call upon those opposite to act immediately to properly fund our universities, including those Asian studies programs.

International education in Australia may have taken a mighty battering from the pandemic and the indifference of those opposite, but the industry survives, and we must look to the future to restore and resuscitate this important sector to our economy and to our future. I don't know if this legislation will achieve this; I doubt it. The backbone of this sector was always international students themselves, and we need to bring them back. And I should stress that I am not calling for international students to be brought back at the expense of Australians stranded overseas. That's another major failure of this government. Had they acted quickly last year, all stranded Australians could have been evacuated home by now. Had those opposite built a national network of effective quarantine facilities, as they were advised to do in advice that they themselves sought, these evacuated Australians would have had somewhere to safety quarantine upon returning home. But I digress.

The future viability of higher education in this country rests on being able to bring international students back to Australia, and we can do this, but we need somewhere for these students to quarantine when they arrive here. But that's not hotels—to the geniuses opposite—because hotel quarantine leaks. We've counted about 28 leaks so far; maybe there have been more. But hotel quarantine leaks. We need dedicated quarantine facilities, because those hotel quarantine leaks are costing our economy billions—that's with a 'b', billions.

One such place suitable for a dedicated national quarantine centre is the Top End. Those opposite would know that Howard Springs has been providing a wonderful service to our nation in getting stranded Australians home. The Olympians are there at the moment, and Australians who need to travel to the Northern Territory will continue to quarantine there. We've also got another facility, called Bladin Point. It can take 1,500 people per fortnight. I've written to the Home Affairs minister about the centre. I understand that she has visited it recently. I hope she very much enjoyed her visit to the Top End and I hope she saw how effective Bladin Village could be in quarantining international students so we can get those international students back into our universities—because we are being done like a dinner internationally. Other countries' governments that are being smarter than our current Australian government are making sure that international students know they're loved, know they're welcome back, and have got avenues through which they can quarantine and resume that relationship with their universities.

Last year in October, when the Prime Minister received advice on standing up more dedicated quarantine facilities, if we had stood up Bladin Village, as one example—but there are others, as we know, in Queensland and in Victoria, or near any capital city—we could have got tens of thousands of stranded Australians home and we could have started to get many more international students home.

Currently, we've got half the Australian population in lockdown, some due to leaks from hotel quarantine. So I stress again, for those opposite, that bringing international students back into Australia has got to be done safely. That means dedicated quarantine facilities. We've got that facility up in Darwin, and I encourage them to use it.

The COVID pandemic has in many ways changed the world and the way we live. Some of these changes will be with us forever, but others will be transitory. I'm glad the government has put this package of legislation to the House. However, it does not go far enough towards rebuilding the international education sector, so I call on the government to put politics aside and act to save our universities and our international education sector.

No great nation treats its tertiary education sector this way. Compared to our competitors, we are losing big time. Other nations are making headway, and we are totally squandering our competitive advantages in attracting overseas students. I encourage those opposite, the current Australian government, to do better. Listen to the advice you were given a long time ago, pull your finger out and secure pathways to Australia for international students. As I mentioned, in Darwin we have a dedicated quarantine facility that has been largely unused. Get the international students in and give them the jabs that they need, if they haven't already got them. They will have a great education in the Northern Territory, where we are COVID free—touch wood! We have a great record when it comes to dealing with COVID. Let's get the international students home.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! It being 1.30, the debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour.