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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In August last year I attended the IDeserveSafety campaign launch to discuss institutional failings in responding to sexual violence on campus. After listening to the student survivors and their advocates, I happened to be in a meeting with the Minister for Education. I asked him to meet these young women, to hear their stories of issues on university campuses and to prioritise the issue of student safety. To his credit, the minister agreed to a meeting that afternoon, and we now see a national student ombudsman being appointed. This is a great outcome.

Student survivors have been publicly bearing their wounds for 60 years. Damning evidence from the 2021 National Student Safety Survey revealed systemic institutional neglect and consistent failures in addressing complaints of gender based violence at Australian universities. Issues of safety on campus are regularly flagged by constituents in my electorate—particularly from within the Gen Zoe youth group, who share heartbreaking stories of systemic failures and institutional betrayal. Their grievances are not new or uncommon.

The 2021 survey found that one in three university students in Australia have experienced sexual assault. Fifty per cent did not know how to report sexual violence and 74.5 per cent of victims-survivors did not seek help from their universities. These statistics are indicative of the severe institutional failures in addressing sexual violence at Australian universities. The gross lack of transparency, accountability and effective reporting mechanisms puts the onus on students who have been subjected to abuse and harm to attempt to pursue justice.

However, this issue cannot be articulated and understood with just numbers. This is about young people's lives. In support of Fair Agenda, End Rape on Campus and the STOP Campaign, I, with others, have been pushing for an independent body to identify and respond to systemic issues and gender based violence on campus. This request aligns with calls from students with lived experience for a national student ombudsman to increase accountability and transparency.

The current complaints process is horrific and unacceptable. Right now, there is no functional complaints mechanism for students at a higher education provider regarding any aspect of their higher education. Right now, there is no compulsion for self-regulating universities to implement good practices and to safeguard students from gender based violence. There is no nationally consistent process at all. Self-regulating universities cherrypick policy recommendations and have markedly different processes, depending on the campus. They handle complaints filed by student survivors of sexual violence in lengthy, secretive and unsatisfactory processes that retraumatise students. In the heartbreaking words of one student, 'Features that were designed to protect us instead facilitated more harm.'

The institutional betrayal and resulting mistrust leaves students feeling disheartened, abandoned and retraumatised. This is best personified by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, TEQSA, the current national higher education regulator. TEQSA processes are in many ways convoluted and unintelligible. They reduce victims-survivors' traumatic experiences to mere concerns. They can take years to respond, and if they don't find any institutional failures they don't publicly report them. One student described the process as a 'kind of purgatory that destroys a person'. TEQSA, 871 days after the complaint, communicated an impersonal and deeply unsatisfying outcome in a joint conclusion with another case. The student said: 'The person I've become seems unrecognisable. I resent every single change that has happened to me. Any growth is tainted by the damage it exists with, and there is so much damage.'

According to the STOP Campaign, the experiences of LGBTQIA+ students and students with disability are appallingly overlooked and minimised. For example, post-assault services geared towards cisgender women meant a trans masculine-presenting person was denied access after being assaulted on campus. When they reported the assault, the university refused to cater to them and allow them to participate in the complaints process. They faced discrimination throughout the process and their report was dismissed, forcing the survivor to live with the perpetrator for a month following the assault.

According to End Rape on Campus, TEQSA has never made an adverse finding against any university despite uncovering many shortcomings. Consequently, this actively discourages students from taking action. This distressing level of neglect is shocking. These institutions are meant to protect people. Universities are meant to foster learning and growth, yet these stories paint a sinister picture of the reality of campus life and the untold trauma that too many students have suffered for decades. This bill, the Universities Accord (National Student Ombudsman) Bill 2024, is an attempt to change that.

It's hoped that establishing a national student ombudsman will be transformative for survivors and will finally hold universities responsible for the wellbeing and the safety of their students. It will address student complaints throughout our higher education system, spanning campuses nationwide, ensuring robust reporting provisions, transparency and genuine accountability. The ombudsman promises a vastly improved complaints mechanism, addressing not only gender based violence but all aspects of student welfare including discrimination, racism, varying academic needs and disability support. Universities will finally be penalised for ignoring their responsibilities. As End Rape on Campus says, 'Students will now have an independent body on their side. However, we cannot be complacent.

I acknowledge that the second piece of this legislation, the national code, is well underway. Its implementation will help ensure there are clear and nationally consistent standards for responding to gender based violence, empowering victims-survivors to call out institutional breaches of safety. The code will aim to determine the effectiveness of the ombudsman by specifying procedures for providers and offering clear guidelines for students to measure their satisfaction. However, any meaningful change will require urgency and a commitment to its swift implementation. I'll continue to pressure the parliament to ensure this remains a high priority. We must get this done.

We must also interrogate the staffing of the ombudsman's office and continue asking the right questions. For example, will the staff possess the necessary knowledge of higher education processes as well as adequate understanding of trauma informed care? How often will staff be expected to consult human rights, antidiscrimination and equal opportunity bodies, and experts in the gender based violence field? Will they accurately understand the sheer volume of complaints expected? Will student advocates be included in the complaints processes? The answers to these questions are integral to ensuring the intentions of this bill are realised.

There is absolutely no excuse for students to feel unsafe on campus. It is time for the government and universities to be held responsible for the wellbeing and safety of Australian students. This is long overdue. I will continue to advocate for increased integrity, accountability and transparency from higher education providers. We must continue with this momentum and pursue the implementation of the national code by the end of the year with urgency. I commend Sharna, Camille, Allison and Renee and the courageous student survivors for their tireless efforts to pressure this parliament to act. This is not just a higher education issue. This is an intergenerational problem of national concern, and we must recognise that. Gender based violence on campus reflects the pervasiveness of negative attitudes, which are plaguing our country at large, towards women and gender-diverse people. One in three women has experienced physical violence. One in five has experienced sexual violence. We need to get this right. We need to change future attitudes and behaviour if we hope to protect the next generation of prospective minds from violence on campus. This is preventable. This is just a first step. I commend this bill to the House.

Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For too long, our universities and our governments have failed to adequately address sexual harassment and sexual violence on our university campuses. The 2021 National Student Safety Survey found that one in 20 Australian students was sexually assaulted after starting university, one in six had been sexually harassed and one in two had felt that they weren't being heard when they made a complaint. Fourteen thousand three hundred students are sexually assaulted in university settings in this country every year. That's 275 every week. This is overwhelmingly a problem experienced by women and inflicted by men.

Addressing sexual assault and sexual harassment in universities was a first-order recommendation of both the Australian Universities Accord interim report and the Australian Universities Accord final report. Those reports found that the nominal regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, or TEQSA, had failed to protect students. Further, the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee inquiry into current and proposed sexual consent laws in Australia found in 2023 that TEQSA 'has continually failed to exercise the full breadth of its powers to hold universities accountable for their woeful responses' to sexual harassment and violence on campus. That Senate committee also found that universities commonly actively exacerbate the trauma of those subjected to sexual harassment under their remit by failing to provide them with readily accessible, timely and appropriate support.

This legislation now before the House, the Treasury Laws Amendment (2024 Tax and Other Measures No. 1) Bill 2024, will create an independent National Student Ombudsman to investigate student complaints and resolve disputes with universities as a new statutory function of the Commonwealth Ombudsman. The ombudsman will have strong investigative and dispute resolution powers to ensure that both domestic and international students can access an alternative, effective, trauma informed complaints mechanism when they are not satisfied with their higher education provider's response. The ombudsman's remit will also include students undertaking enabling, micro-credentialing and professional development courses, but not VET students. It's hoped that the National Student Ombudsman could start to receive complaints from as soon as 1 February 2025.

This ombudsman will allow higher education students to escalate complaints about the actions of their provider. This will include not only complaints about sexual assault and sexual harassment but also concerns regarding providers' handling of other matters such as homophobia, antisemitism or Islamophobia and other forms of racism and discrimination on campus. The ombudsman may consider a complaint about any action, other than excluded actions, taken by higher education providers. Those excluded actions, which will not be the subject of the ombudsman review, include areas relating to staff employment and appointments and their exercise of academic judgements.

The ombudsman's remit is therefore quite wide. It includes issues relating to students' safety and welfare; course administration; teaching quality; facilities; disciplinary processes; and reasonable adjustments for disability and student accommodation where they are owned or operated by the higher education provider. The ombudsman can require other students and third parties, as well as higher education provider officers, to provide information and records. People can be required to appear in front of the ombudsman to answer questions, but, if the ombudsman decides to investigate a complaint, the investigation does have to be conducted in private. Students will be kept informed at all times about handling of their complaints.

Importantly, the ombudsman does have the option to elect not to deal with a complaint where the complaint is being dealt with by other authorities; if the complainant has not first raised the complaint with the provider; if the complaint is deemed to be frivolous or vexatious; or if the ombudsman decides that the complaint is not in good faith.

The ombudsman can also elect to try to settle complaints using alternative dispute resolution or restorative engagement processes, and this might well be appropriate in cases involving serious historical complaints or complaints about gender based violence. The ombudsman can investigate the action of a single or multiple higher education providers on its own initiative where it chooses to do so and that might occur, for example, in response to concerns raised in the media or where several complainants have raised a similar issue.

At the conclusion of investigations, the ombudsman must report to the higher education provider if they form an opinion that the action taken by the provider seems to have been contrary to the law, if it was unreasonable, unjust, oppressive or improperly discriminatory or was otherwise just wrong. In that case, the ombudsman might consider a particular action could be or should be undertaken to rectify, mitigate or alter the effects of that action taken by the higher education provider. The ombudsman can give a copy of their report and any feedback on it from the high education provider to any or all of the higher education minister, the secretary for the higher education department or the chief executive officer of TEQSA. The ombudsman will report to parliament annually on the extent and breadth of their activities, any trends or broader issues arising or any improvements that could be made to handling complaints. Where providers' responses are considered inadequate by the ombudsman, it is open to them to give the report to the higher education minister and request them to table copies of that report and the accompanying comments in both houses of parliament.

A higher education code to prevent and respond to gender based violence will also be established down the track as separate legislation. This code will require all providers registered with TEQSA and student accommodation providers to embed a whole-of-organisation approach to prevent and respond to gender based violence. That approach has to include regular and transparent data collection and reporting. According to experts in the area, Dr Allison Henry, only 15 of Australia's universities are currently publishing any consolidated information about the reports or disclosures of sexual violence they receive and, of those 15, only six are transparently reporting on how they respond.

This bill has been broadly welcomed by students, universities, peak bodies and other interested groups. I note that there are concerns from the university sector about the scope for subjectivity in the ombudsman's operations, the potential for wider coverage of university employers and the potential for ombudsman to interfere with academic judgement. I hope those concerns are appropriately covered by the stipulation in the legislation's explanatory memorandum that the bill does exclude decisions about the academic merit of grades awarded, about the content of curricula and about teaching and assessment methods. It is possible that students could try to use the ombudsman to pressure academics for special consideration or to avoid discipline for misconduct. Systemic cheating is, unfortunately, an expensive and difficult challenge for our universities. It is important that the ombudsman not get caught up in this issue.

Much of the basis for this legislation is the findings of the 2021 national student safety survey. The numbers in that survey, which I already quoted, were horrifying, particularly considering the survey was undertaken during COVID and it likely actively significantly underestimated the problem. That study was undertaken by Universities Australia, the peak body that represents Australia's tertiary institutions. Three yearly national student safety surveys were a central recommendation of the landmark Change the Course report into sexual violence on campus which was published in 2017. But, despite the Australian Human Rights Commission recommending that it do so, Universities Australia has not yet committed to a follow-up study. As recently as February 2024, researchers from the University of New South Wales Australian Human Rights Institute found that a third of Australian universities do not have task forces or committees set up to address sexual violence and many are not meeting the mark when it comes to transparency. On at least 14 instances since 2011, reports, reviews, charters and good practice guides have been published by regulators, advocates, researchers and the sector's own peak body with detailed recommendations for change and reform—to no end, until this time. So I am very pleased to see this legislation before the parliament now.

Women's safety on campus was first raised with me and with other crossbenchers in the first 18 months of this parliamentary term. We spoke then with a brave and fierce group of women from End Rape on Campus. I also want to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the team from the STOP Campaign, Dr Allison Henry and all those who have fought for this important issue to be recognised and appropriately addressed by the Australian government.

Universities aren't just a place where people work and study. They're also a place where people live. Sexual assault on university campuses is not a new issue. Sadly, universities have abdicated their responsibility in this space for too long. It's time for women to be able to assert their right to be safe on campuses. It's time for universities and other education providers to respect and acknowledge that right. The government has had to take action on this occasion because the universities have not. So I thank the minister for introducing this legislation, and I'm pleased to give it the very full support of the universities, students and graduates of Kooyong.

Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The bill before us today is a really important piece of legislation. As a representative of an electorate with two universities and as someone who has been both a university student and an academic, I am very passionate about this reform. This has been a very long time coming. There have been generations of people, particularly women, who have not felt safe on campus and who have discontinued their studies as a result of dangerous experiences on campuses, which is an absolute shame. I want to acknowledge at the outset the advocates for change in this area on campus who have been doing a lot of hard work for generations, both attempting to change the way universities themselves respond to complaints and also seeking further government intervention to ensure that all university campuses in Australia are safe places.

The Universities Accord (National Student Ombudsman) Bill 2024 amends the Ombudsman Act to establish a national student ombudsman as a new statutory function of the Commonwealth Ombudsman. It gives effect to recommendation 18b of the final report of the Universities Accord, which was a landmark piece of work from our Albanese Labor government. The Universities Accord was the biggest and broadest review of the higher education sector in 15 years, setting out a blueprint for higher education reform for the next decade and beyond. The establishment of a national student ombudsman is also the first action of the Action Plan Addressing Gender-based Violence in Higher Education, which was agreed to by all education ministers earlier this year. Of course we need to ensure that, to meet our ambitions on the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children within a generation, we take action right across our communities, including in universities.

A little while ago, in my electorate, there was a roundtable hosted by Monash University which brought together representatives from almost every university in Victoria, members of the federal Department of Education and student and academic representatives to talk about what meaningful action to ensure that there is safety on campuses could look like. I was very privileged and honoured to be invited to that roundtable and to spend a day listening to experts in the field and students and staff reflecting on their own lived experiences. I reflect on the lived experiences of myself and my peers throughout my own academic life, both as a student and as a staff member in a university, and I recognise how important what we're doing today is: talking about introducing a new student ombudsman.

The National Student Ombudsman will really give rise to the action plan's recognition that higher education providers must play a role in driving broader social change needed to address gender based violence and that they have distinct responsibilities in relation to creating safe study, work, social and living environments. Unfortunately, a number of testimonies from people about their own poor experiences on campus relate to living in residential colleges. It is a shameful thing that people are not safe in their own homes, and colleges are people's own homes on campus, so, of course, universities have a role to play in ensuring everybody is safe.

The National Student Ombudsman will provide a national complaints-handling mechanism for all higher education students. It will be independent and impartial and will have a complaint-making process that is effective and accessible for students. Really significantly, it will adopt a trauma informed approach to complaint handling and bring parties together to resolve complaints through an alternative dispute resolution process as needed.

In the last budget, our government provided $19.4 million over two years to establish the National Student Ombudsman as an ongoing function of the Commonwealth Ombudsman. This is a really important investment. The bill amends the Ombudsman Act to establish the National Student Ombudsman to have powers to handle complaints from all higher education students enrolled within a Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, TEQSA, registered provider about a broad range of issues related to their higher education provider. It will have the power to investigate a student's complaint or investigate an issue on its own motion, and to refer a complaint to another body if that body is better placed to deal with the complaint, and provide associated information and documents as part of the referral. It will offer a restorative engagement process between a student and a provider where appropriate. It will offer alternative dispute resolution, such as mediation and conciliation, to settle complaints where appropriate.

It will make recommendations to a provider about administrative steps that should be taken to resolve a complaint; require a provider to give particulars about any action they propose to take in response to their recommendations; disclose information and provide investigation reports to the Department of Education and TEQSA where relevant; and provide the Minister for Education with a copy of an investigation report for tabling in parliament if the National Student Ombudsman considers the higher education provider has not taken appropriate action in response to its findings or recommendations. It can publicly disclose reports or make a statement if, in the National Student Ombudsman's opinion, it is in the public interest to do so; and it will report annually on complaint volumes, complaint outcomes and compliance with recommendations. This is a really robust and thorough approach to ensuring that our government and universities are taking appropriate action and taking the role we need to in order to address and eliminate gender based violence on campuses and right throughout our communities.

Before a report that includes criticism of a provider is finalised, the provider must also be given an opportunity to comment to allow for some fairness there. Other complaint bodies, such as state and territory ombudsmen, will be authorised to share information with and refer a complaint to the National Student Ombudsman to facilitate the referral of sensitive matters. There will be protection from reprisals here too. It will be an offence for a person to threaten another person or subject them to detriment because that other person has made, may have made, proposes to make or could make a complaint to the National Student Ombudsman.

This is a really significant step forward in the government's approach to eliminating gendered violence within a generation, which is, of course, the national ambition for all governments across the country. The fact that this will be an independent and trauma informed complaints mechanism should provide a level of comfort to people who take the often very difficult step of raising a complaint. We know it's not easy for people to voice their complaints. Indeed, in the past, if people have not felt that they would be listened to or that their complaints would be taken seriously, they have simply disengaged from study, and that is a terrible outcome. I hope that, through the establishment of a national student ombudsman, people will feel confident in coming forward to their education providers and that this step really sets a standard around the expectations our communities have about safety on campuses.

This student ombudsman proposal was a really important part of the conversations I've had with students right across my electorate and with parents across my electorate. I undertook a survey around the issue of higher education in my electorate, and I had hundreds of responses. Student safety was consistently raised as a very important issue, and it makes me feel really pleased to be part of a government that is taking action on an issue that matters so much to my local community. This is of course the key action of the Action Plan Addressing Gender-based Violence in Higher Education. All education ministers signed up to this. It will commence from 1 February next year. I hope that this finally shifts the dial on safety on campus. When I speak to students in my electorate in coming years around how they are experiencing their university lives, I hope that student safety and gender based violence ceases to be such a significant issue.

Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just over a year ago a group of brave young women came to see me. Among them were Renee Carr from Fair Agenda, Sharna Bremner from End Rape on Campus Australia and Camille Schloeffel from the STOP Campaign. They shared their stories, and those of other brave young women, about the appalling levels of sexual harassment and assault at Australian universities. They told me about the devastating impact of this violence and about the trauma that they faced as well as the institutional failures that compounded that trauma. Their failures affect student wellbeing, disrupt educational outcomes and damage survivors' career prospects.

The group shared a particularly sobering statistic with me: there are approximately 14,000 sexual assaults on campus per year, or 275 sexual assaults each week every week. Equally alarming was that only six per cent of students who experienced sexual assault reported it to their university. Of those who did report, less than one in three were satisfied with how their university handled the process. These statistics reflect a deep and systemic failure in our higher educational institutions to support the survivors of sexual assault.

The young women didn't come for sympathy. They came for action. Immediately after meeting them, I, along with others, raised this issue with the Minister for Education, Jason Clare, and I appreciate that he took immediate action in meeting with these young women and, since then, has taken action, culminating in this bill today. I want to acknowledge other members of the crossbench, including Senator Pocock, because I've been proud to stand with them to demand real, meaningful change and the change that will be achieved by the passing of the Universities Accord (National Student Ombudsman) Bill 2024. Today, after months of tireless advocacy and the bravery of the students who came forward to tell their stories, I'm proud to see that their efforts are being reflected in the bill before the House.

This bill gives effect to recommendation 18(b) of the Australian universities accord final report and implements the first action of the Action Plan Addressing Gender-based Violence in Higher Education, agreed upon by all education ministers in February 2024. The bill establishes a national student ombudsman, NSO—an independent body to provide a national impartial complaints-handling mechanism for all higher education students. This makes a significant step forward in addressing long-standing criticism of how universities have responded to complaints of sexual assault, harassment and campus safety.

The NSO will have broad powers to handle complaints from higher education students across a wide range of issues; offer restorative engagement processes and alternative dispute resolution, such as mediation and conciliation; make recommendations to universities or providers about steps to resolve complaints and monitor their implementation; refer complaints to other bodies when they are better placed to respond; and report annually on complaint volumes, outcomes and compliance with recommendations. The NSO will adopt a trauma informed approach to complaint handling, ensuring survivors are supported throughout the process. There are also provisions to protect complainants from reprisals. These are all important provisions. I also urge the government to ensure the new ombudsman is properly resourced for the significant work it will need to undertake, to ensure the ombudsman has access to appropriate expertise and training to handle complaints across a broad range of issues and to make sure that the ombudsman has sufficient powers such that recommendations are implemented by the universities in full.

In addition to the provisions in this bill, I urge the government to rapidly implement the other areas of the Action Plan Addressing Gender-based Violence in Higher Education. These include requiring universities to embed a whole-of-organisation approach to preventing and responding to gender based violence; introducing a national higher education code to establish consistent standards across the sector; and enhancing oversight and accountability for student accommodation providers.

This bill is a welcome step forward in addressing unacceptable levels of violence and harassment in our universities. It recognises the pain and suffering of survivors and commits to providing an independent trauma based mechanism. It also shows the government is listening to survivors, advocates and the broader community. I commend the minister for taking these important steps to address the failures of the past and to protect our students in the future.

While this bill addresses gender based violence, it is also important to recognise there are other challenges facing students on campus—most notably, from the reports I've had in my community, the recent and alarming rise of antisemitism, which has been concentrated particularly on university campuses. Last year, even before the tragic events of October 7, the Australian Jewish University Experience Survey revealed that nearly two-thirds of Jewish students had experienced antisemitic incidents. More than 50 per cent felt they had to hide their Jewish identity, and since October 7 these incidences have only escalated. This is a tragedy. This is a tragedy for Jewish students and this is a tragedy for this country because we are a country built on the basis that you are welcome in all our institutions and in this parliament. Regardless of your faith, your ethnic origin or your sexuality, you are welcome. That our Jewish students do not feel welcome and, in cases, are unsafe is absolutely unacceptable in any institution, particularly our educational institutions.

In November last year I conducted a survey with Jewish students to understand what had changed since October 7, and they shared with me really distressing accounts of rising antisemitism. They spoke of antisemitic social media posts, Nazi symbols being put into their backpacks, a disregard for Jewish grieving after October 7 and having food thrown at them for wearing a kippah on campus. Just yesterday, in a commemoration for October 7, I spoke again to students from this local area, who talked about having symbols of Hitler and the Nazis put on the door literally next to their own door at university and seeing stickers saying 'Zionism is terrorism' throughout the campus. This is what our students are having to deal with. The students I spoke to yesterday are standing up and trying hard. They are trying to create opportunities to be positive. One of them told me about how he is trying to fight the negativity by doing really positive, big Jewish events celebrating Judaism on campus and trying to get people drawn in to understand this. They had a stall where they said 'Judaism and Zionism: come ask us any questions'. They are seeking to engage constructively on one of the issues that is most difficult across our country at the moment, and they are still facing this overwhelming level of antisemitism on campus. It is unacceptable.

The recent Senate inquiry highlighted Jewish students are pulling back from attending university because they do not feel safe or welcome. I've talked to so many parents in my area who are now questioning whether their kids should go to university in Australia, whether they are welcome anymore. This is again a tragedy for all of us. We must change this. Universities must be a place where all students are welcome. Whilst I continue to support a judicial inquiry into antisemitism on campus, the new ombudsman is also an important tool for ensuring that students have a clear, independent avenue for raising complaints, including in relation to antisemitism. Again, I have heard so often from students about (1) their disappointment with how the complaints have been handled, and (2) their fear of making complaints about antisemitism because it might affect their academic prospects. Again, this is absolutely unacceptable.

I encourage the NSO to undertake a number of actions as it takes on its new role, particularly in relation to antisemitism: firstly, adopt a definition of antisemitism that the Jewish community supports—and I would encourage them to adopt the IHRA working definition of antisemitism to help them guide their responses to antisemitism; secondly, use this definition when understanding and assessing complaints; thirdly, establish a working group with Jewish students and with community leaders to help understand the student experience; and, finally, work with others, including the Australasian Union of Jewish Students, in developing a best practice guide for preventing antisemitism on campus and how to deal with it. I've been working with AUJS in relation to developing such a guide, and I hope that we will have that completed in a couple of months. I urge the NSO, when it is established, to engage with this and to expect more from our universities and set the standards much higher.

In closing, this bill represents a much-needed step towards creating a safer, more accountable university environment, but it must be accompanied by broader reforms, including those outlined in the action plan addressing gender based violence, and efforts to combat rising antisemitism and, frankly, any prejudice that people face in our universities, because that is unacceptable. I look forward to seeing the National Student Ombudsman play a pivotal role in restoring trust and ensuring the safety and dignity of all students in our higher education system. Again, I thank the minister for his engagement on this and for the action that he has taken in this regard.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the outset, I acknowledge the minister in the chamber. I also pay tribute to the member for Wentworth for her comments about antisemitism in our tertiary institutions. I thank her for turning up too. I know it's important to her. I know it's very much part and parcel of her electorate. To the solidarity with Israel function on Monday, on the anniversary of the October 7 atrocities in the Middle East: I thank her for her continued advocacy for and on behalf of people of the Jewish faith who have been absolutely maligned in this country, particularly in the last 12 months since those attacks. She, like me and like all members, is absolutely horrified by what has taken place and by the lack of social cohesion in our country.

Whatever we can do, particularly in our tertiary institutions—it is not right that students feel pressured simply because of their faith. It is not right that students should require security to go to their place of learning. This must be stamped out, and it must be spoken up against. If we can't do it in this place, then where can we do it?

I appreciate that the Universities Accord (National Student Ombudsman) Bill 2024 is an important initiative for the government, but I recommend and encourage the very important amendment put forward by the member for Bradfield—somebody who comes to this space and place with a long love of education and who wants to improve the lot of our students at our universities. Having spoken to Renee Leon PSM, the Vice-Chancellor of Charles Sturt University, which has a campus in my hometown of Wagga Wagga, I know how important it is for regional students to feel safe and for regional students to get the very best education at that facility, which was established in 1989. I know how important all these things are, particularly because of having gone around the country with Senator Deb O'Neill and others in relation to a joint select committee inquiry, looking into what we should and can be doing as members of parliament for international students, following on from the worst of the COVID pandemic when international students found it so difficult to either go back home or continue to study in Australia because the international borders were closed.

I have just tabled a report which contains many good recommendations that the government would be well advised to adopt to improve international education. This particular bill, which seeks to establish a student ombudsman, in addition to other measures, will be far better if the amendment put forward by the Manager of Opposition Business in the House is adopted.

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

The Universities Accord (National Student Ombudsman) Bill 2024 is long overdue. This bill amends the Ombudsman Act 1976 to establish a national student ombudsman. This is a first: a dedicated national body to handle student complaints within our higher education system.

The National Student Ombudsman will have powers to investigate complaints about a broad range of issues, to bring parties together to resolve those issues, including offering restorative engagement processes and alternative dispute resolution where appropriate, to make findings and recommendations on what actions universities should take, and to monitor the implementation of those recommendations. It will also have strong investigative powers, similar to those of a royal commission. They include to require a person or university to provide information, documents or other records relevant to an investigation; to enter premises of a university as part of that investigation; and to require a person to attend and answer questions before the ombudsman.

The ombudsman is another recommendation of the Universities Accord which the government is turning into reality. As I said when I introduced this bill:

The ombudsman will be independent, impartial and will provide a vastly improved complaints mechanism.

And it will go further than addressing gender based violence in universities.

It will be able to consider and address a broad range of complaints made by students about the actions of their university.

For example, complaints about a university's handling of a student safety and welfare matter, where a student is subjected to homophobia, antisemitism, Islamophobia or other forms of racism or discrimination on campus …

I thank all members who've contributed to this debate including the Minister for Social Services, the member for Goldstein, the member for Bradfield, the member for Kooyong, the member for Wentworth, the member for Chisholm and the member for Riverina. I also thank the opposition in advance for their support for this bill.

The opposition has foreshadowed a second reading amendment. The government is not in a position to support that and perhaps I can add to the record some explanation as to why. The rules for the National Student Ombudsman are currently being drafted by the Attorney-General's Department and will be completed prior to the commencement of the National Student Ombudsman. These rules will be able to prescribe certain matters related to the National Student Ombudsman's exercise of its powers and functions. Among other things, the bill specifically allows for the rules to prescribe the Commonwealth, state and territory bodies that can transfer complaints to the National Student Ombudsman and to prescribe matters that are, or are not, excluded actions.

In conclusion, I'd also like to thank the organisations and advocates who have worked with me and my department to help make this change a reality. They include Sharna Bremner from End Rape on Campus, Camille Schloeffel from the STOP Campaign, Renee Carr from Fair Agenda and Dr Allison Henry. We are only here, to be honest, because of their tireless work. Australia is the best country in the world, but the truth is we can be a lot better and a lot fairer. That's what these reforms are all about. It's what this bill is all about. I commend it to the House.

Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The original question was that this bill be now read a second time. To this, the honourable member for Bradfield has moved as an amendment that all words after 'That' be omitted with a view to substituting other words. The immediate question is that the amendment be agreed to.

Question unresolved.

As it is necessary to resolve this question to enable further questions to be considered in relation to this bill, in accordance with standing order 195 the bill will be returned to the House for further consideration.