Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The answer is no. It is not designed to pick up accommodation, air fares, medical expenses or any of the range of other expenses a student might incur in coming to Australia. It is designed as a tuition payments protection scheme. It does not pick those other matters up.

It is the case, though, that we have the capacity to make some decisions about a particular provider based on risk. That potential is there. One could conceivably make a decision that a particular provider or set of providers should not be accepting payment for accommodation because they are seen as being of risk, but I am not sure how successful or appropriate that would be. I am not suggesting it as a policy response, just that there is some capacity there. But no, the bill is not designed to pick up this question of accommodation.

As I said, it has not been raised with me in recent times and it has not been raised as part of the committee process, so it has come as a bit of a surprise to me that there is so much focus on it. I am happy to go out there and see how big the problem is. I have no idea, for instance, how many providers actually provide accommodation packages as part of that provision. I have no idea how many people have been affected in the past. It raises the question of what happens if someone then transfers to another provider. There is a whole lot about this proposition that you and the Greens are advancing that, quite frankly, I do not think we know enough about. I am unwilling to accept amendments when no-one has raised it with me and no-one has provided any evidence in recent times about this issue. I just do not think we have the factual understanding to move to implementing legislation regarding the issues being raised. As I have given an undertaking to do the review, if Senator Xenophon, Senator Rhiannon or anyone else has issues, examples or experiences they want to bring to our attention I would be happy to receive them, because that would give us some context.