Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I think it is fairly clear that the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Carr, who is representing the Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, is not across this portfolio. If he were, he would understand that these amendments do not allow for an uncapped, unruly amendment that is going to do anything with the budget that he was talking about. He clearly does not understand how the insurance fund works at the moment. He does not understand that these amendments are about expanding and enforcing and giving the minister more leeway to ensure that we are able to insure students the way they need to be in order to give them protection. He does not seem to understand that it is the levy that is paid for by the providers—perhaps even those dodgy providers, as he puts it, that, as we know, are out there.

At the end of the day it is fairly clear right around the country—you do not have to be an educational expert to see it—that the international education sector in Australia is at the crossroads. We need to do something to put confidence back into the sector. It is the third largest export Australia has—almost half a million students in Australia and thousands upon thousands of Australian workers in these colleges and institutions. They deserve the full attention of the government and the discretion of the minister to enable their protection.

The issue deserves a bit more attention than the desk-thumping, bravo behaviour of Senator Carr. I would like to know what the cost to the Labor Party and of all of the work that Minister Gillard has done will be of Senator Carr’s behaviour. It is really important that the government get out there the important things that they have done—the positive things they have done—for the sector. It only works if the Senate gets behind it. The comments made by Senator Carr, which have been misrepresentative of the amendments, of what Senator Xenophon and I are trying to do and of what the opposition have now supported, are very disingenuous in trying to score some political points in the chamber.

I do not even know whom you are talking to. It is not even broadcast day. It is not fair to Minister Gillard to be behaving like this. We have been able to work quite constructively and we need to keep working constructively across all sides of the chamber if we are to protect this international sector, which is very important to not just the Australian export industry but also the reputation of even our domestic students who want to be able to travel overseas and have people understand that our education sector is world class. How do we do that? We have to build confidence within our international student market, within the international student sector and within the community. It is not good enough to simply say: ‘Colleges have rolled over. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off—go.’ They deserve better than that. Senator Carr needs to think about his comments very, very carefully. We have probably wasted enough time in the chamber. We know that these amendments are going to pass. Let us get on with it.