Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you—I should have asked Senator Rhiannon. It is a significant industry in my home state. If it means that we pay out another $10 million or $15 million a year, it is a very small insurance premium to pay to give certainty and confidence to overseas students, so students the world over will know that the responsible minister has the power, at his or her absolute discretion, to allow for additional compensation payments. Why is the government afraid of giving the minister a discretion that the minister can choose to use or not use? I do not understand why the government is so frightened of this amendment. Senator Feeney is not a man who knows the word fear—