Lin Thorp (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the amendments to the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000. Whilst I note that this is non-controversial legislation, I am very pleased to be able to comment that the issue is supported by all sides of this house, because it is such an important area in terms of our economy and also in terms of our overseas reputation.

The Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment Bill 2013 that is before us today, as I said, amends the 2000 act. It is one of a series of amendment bills that have been through this place in response to, in May, the work of the Hon. Bruce Baird, who was asked by the then Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. Julia Gillard—who was the minister for education at the same time—to review the regulatory framework in particular for the act and report back to the government with changes designed to ensure that Australia continues to offer world-class, quality education. He presented his findings in a report called Stronger, simpler, smarter ESOS: supporting international students. The review itself was recommended by the Bradley Review of Australian Higher Education, and it was recommended that that review take place before 2012. It was brought forward in the context of significant growth in the number of overseas students, the changing nature and composition of the international student body, and emerging issues in the sector, including attacks against international students, which received a lot of coverage in the media here in Australia and, significantly, in the country of origin of those particular students.

There was extraordinary growth in the sector from 228,119 students in 2002 to just under half a million students in 2009, resulting at that time in an industry worth $17.2 billion. It enhanced Australia's cultural richness, strengthened diplomatic ties and delivered great economic benefit to Australia, but it also put a number of pressures on the sector in terms of educational quality, regulatory capacity and infrastructure. So in undertaking the review Mr Baird considered the need for enhancements in the ESOS legislative framework in four key areas, which are set out in the terms of reference. They were: supporting the interests of students; delivering quality as the cornerstone of Australian education; effective regulation and sustainability of the international education sector; and issues related to the spate of provider closures that were occurring at that time.

Following the release of his issues paper in 2009, Mr Baird spoke to nearly 200 students and education providers from the tertiary, school and English-language sectors and other stakeholders at consultation forums. He also met with provider and student peak bodies, regulators, state and territory government officials, embassies, education industry bodies and members of parliament. Also around that time there was a lot of work done by different legislative bodies around the country. There was a review in Tasmania, of which I was a part at the time, because Tasmania per capita on paper did not seem to be receiving its percentage of the full number of international students in Australia.

The conclusion that we came to in Tasmania was that, rather than creating a boom in that sector, we were determined to make the provision of education in Tasmania of the highest quality. So while we may not have had the numbers that other jurisdictions were getting, we knew that the courses that were being provided were of the best quality and we also knew that the full educational experience of the students involved was good.

In our deliberations, we went around to different jurisdictions. I will not name them because I do not want to insult them. We found that there were some—I think my colleague said 'dodgy' in the course of her contribution—