Natasha Stott Despoja (SA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for his answer. He has made very clear to me that, yes, we are talking about ministerial discretion applying to that cluster. I think, as Senator Carr would understand, that just reinforces what we have been concerned about all along, which has been confirmed in the Senate estimates of the parliament just over two weeks ago—that is, that this relates not to courses but to clusters.

I have no qualms about a government introducing safeguards—I just want to make sure Senator Brandis is clear about that—but I expect stronger, more enforceable safeguards that are less subject to ministerial discretion, so that promises such as ‘There will never be a $100,000 degree,’ which get broken with alacrity, will not recur.

I was aware of Minister Bishop’s statement. I saw that on the AAP wire, for goodness sake! It has been repeated across the universe, through NUS and everyone else. I was talking in specifics; I was not referring to statements like, ‘We’re going to make sure that they can’t be manipulated—blah, blah, blah,’ and ‘We’ll look at this—blah, blah, blah.’ I actually thought there might be something to table or some list of consultations that have taken place with Australian universities. I thought there might be some detail—some meat on the bones—but I am being naive to suggest that.

Maybe I could at least get a specific response to an earlier question, which was: how do you define a substantial or a significant shift? What is meant by that?