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

The government cannot support this request for amendment. I think I understand what Senator Rhiannon is trying to do, but we are not able to support it. This amendment effectively puts a cost on providers before they have registered or have any enrolments, and somehow we have to estimate how many enrolments they are going to get and reconcile that. I am not quite sure what Senator Rhiannon would be trying to achieve by this amendment.

We do require new entrants to the market to pay a $7,500 entry fee as part of their registration process, but we do not require them to pay the TPS levy until they are effectively enrolling students. That is the logic of it—they have to get registered by following the normal processes to provide assurance about themselves as a provider, but they are not required to pay the TPS levy until 1 January when they are registered.

I think that what Senator Rhiannon's amendment does is say, 'You've got to pay the levy when you do not have any students.' But it is not clear how you are going to estimate and reconcile that. The system provides that they start paying the levy when they have students, and I think that that is a fairly sensible proposition.