Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Carr for acknowledging the bringing together of different parties for discussions yesterday. I again apologise for the fact that, having called the meeting swiftly, I was stuck here for half an hour of the meeting because of the proceedings of the chamber. But so be it.

I will answer the TAFE question first and I might need to seek a bit of extra advice in relation to the repayment arrangements. You are correct that the amendments that the government has brought forward apply equally to all VET FEE-HELP providers. That does mean that, in terms of the value of loans that a provider can receive payment for in 2016, all providers will be capped at their 2015 level, including TAFEs. I note that the growth in TAFEs has been pretty astronomical in this space as well. My recollection is that New South Wales TAFE went from receiving VET FEE-HELP payments in 2013 of about $90 million to receiving VET FEE-HELP payments in 2014 of about $190 million. So they have by no means been exempt from the phenomenal rates of growth that we have seen and, I am sure, can comfortably live within the proposed caps for 2016, given the huge expansion in growth that they have undergone.

It is not the government's intention or expectation that the provisions in relation to payment in arrears or the provisions in relation to pause in payments would be likely to or need to be applied to those TAFEs. There are no foreseeable circumstances where that would arise, given that we think that the administration and the capability are there and that the oversight applied by the state governments is sound enough. I guess there is always a risk that a provider somewhere may undertake some sort of egregious activity and could prompt such intervention, but there is no intention by the government to use those provisions for that category of provider.

Your questions then shifted to student reimbursement and how that applies. I assume, Senator Carr, you are asking about the substantive bill as distinct from the amendments that we are currently debating. The provisions there are prospective so they apply to students who are enrolled in future, not to students who may have been enrolled in the past. It is another sad failing of the way the legislation was structured that there are limited provisions to be able to wipe clear a student's debt and for the Commonwealth to be able to recover payments from providers. Our intention through these amendments is that we will in future have some provisions to be able to do that. I do note that a number of providers, where individual complaints have come forward, have been reasonable and even generous in taking the step of wiping a student's debt, of repaying the funding to the Commonwealth for the wiping of that student debt in relation to a concern or a complaint about the enrolment practices that have occurred. That has probably been the largest category of reason or cause for providers to repay debts to date. But, rather than that being essentially a voluntary activity on the part of the provider, we are looking for it now to be something where, if the Commonwealth is satisfied that a provider has acted in breach of the VET FEE-HELP guidelines in the recruitment or the treatment of a student, the Commonwealth would have the capacity to recoup those payments from the provider and to refund the student to ensure that they are treated fairly in future.