Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I assure both Senator Rhiannon and Senator Xenophon that the opposition is not opposing either of their amendments this evening reflexively—not at all. We are not doing it on behalf of education providers or anyone else. It comes down to balancing the regulatory and financial burden that providers would suffer versus the consequential projections for students and, indeed, the uncertainty of how much it would cost, and what the cost impost would be on providers.

It is really a matter of us not having the information. It is certainly fair to say that the proposal by Senator Rhiannon on behalf of the Greens is an extension of an insurance scheme for fees that is not provided in other, similar contexts. For that reason, the opposition will not be supporting this amendment.