Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move opposition amendments (1) to (4) on sheet 7962 together:

(1) Clause 8, page 9 (line 10), before "The amount", insert "(1)".

(2) Clause 8, page 9 (after line 17), at the end of clause 8, add:

(2) However, if the loan amount is for an approved course provided by a body mentioned in subsection 16(1A) before 1 January 2019, the amount of the loan must not be greater than any of the following:

  (a) the amount that would reduce the student's FEE-HELP balance to zero;

  (b) the tuition fees for the course.

(3) Clause 13, page 12 (lines 2 to 4), omit the clause, substitute:

13 Approved courses

(1) To be an approved course, the course must meet the requirements of this Division or be a course covered by subsection (2).

(2) A course is covered by this subsection if:

(a) the course was provided on 1 January 2017 by one of the following bodies (taken to be approved course providers under the VET Student Loans (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Act 2016):

  (i) a body established to provide vocational education or training under one of the following:

(A) the Technical and Further Education Commission Act 1990 (NSW);

(B) the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic.);

(C) the TAFE Queensland Act 2013 (Qld);

(D) the Vocational Education and Training Act 1996 (WA);

(E) the TAFE SA Act 2012 (SA);

(F) the Training and Workforce Development Act 2013 (Tas.);

(G) the Canberra Institute of Technology Act 1987 (ACT);

  (ii) a training organisation owned by the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory;

  (iii) a Table A provider within the meaning of the Higher Education Support Act 2003; and

(c) the course is provided before 1 January 2019.

(4) Clause 16, page 13 (after line 9), after subclause 16(1), insert:

(1A) However, the Minister may only determine a maximum loan amount, or method for working out maximum loan amounts in relation to courses provided by the following bodies on or after 1 January 2019:

(a) a body established to provide vocational education or training under one of the following:

  (i) the Technical and Further Education Commission Act 1990 (NSW);

  (ii) the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic.);

  (iii) the TAFE Queensland Act 2013 (Qld);

  (iv) the Vocational Education and Training Act 1996 (WA);

  (v) the TAFE SA Act 2012 (SA);

  (vi) the Training and Workforce Development Act 2013 (Tas.);

  (vii) the Canberra Institute of Technology Act 1987 (ACT);

(b) a training organisation owned by the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory;

(c) a Table A provider within the meaning of the Higher Education Support Act 2003.

Leave granted.

The TEMPORARY CHAIR: Before I go there, it is the wish of the committee that the statements of reasons accompanying the request be incorporated into Hansard immediately after the request to which they relate. There being no objection it is so ordered.

The statement read as follows—

Statement pursuant to the order of the Senate of 26 June 2000

These amendments provide that the Minister cannot specify a maximum loan amount for a course provided by a TAFE until on or after 1 January 2019 and that courses provided by a TAFE on 1 January 2017 are taken to be approved courses until 31 December 2018.

On the basis that this will result in increased expenditure under the standing appropriation in clause 115 of the bill, these amendments should be moved as requests.

Statement by the Clerk of the Senate pursuant to the order of the Senate of 26 June 2000

The Senate has long followed the practice that it should treat as requests amendments which would clearly, necessarily and directly result in increased expenditure under a standing appropriation.

If, as stated, the amendments would result in increased expenditure under the standing appropriation in clause 115 of the bill, it is in accordance with the precedents of the Senate that those amendments be moved as requests.

This amendment will exempt TAFE from course restriction and loan caps for one year until the end of 2017. This amendment is designed to ensure that high-quality public providers, TAFEs and dual-sector organisations like Charles Darwin University that provide technical training for the community are not disadvantaged because of the behaviour of some dodgy private providers. When it comes to TAFE, Labor makes no apologies for backing our quality public VET providers. TAFE is the backbone of the system and, along with innocent students, TAFEs and TAFE teachers have suffered the most in recent years from Liberal cuts and mismanagement at state and federal levels.

The National Partnership Agreement on Skills Reform, which funds TAFE, is set to end in the middle of next year but the government still has not committed to replacing it at all. This uncertainty is crippling for TAFE and for TAFE students. That is why we are moving an amendment to exempt TAFE from the eligible course list and loan caps for one year until the end of 2017. This would allow time for the government to strike new funding deals with the states, if indeed they are going to do that at all. TAFE has not been part of the VET FEE-HELP problem. Over 95 per cent of the quality complaints to the Australian Skills Quality Authority about quality relate to private providers. Public providers, including TAFEs, make up less than five per cent of the complaints. TAFEs have significantly higher unit completion rates than private providers—that is, 77 per cent compared to 59 per cent.

The RIS for this bill also points out clearly that TAFE has not been price gouging. The tuition fees for the most popular diplomas in 2015 are just $5,654 at TAFE compared to $18,580 with private providers—a clear indication that TAFE is not responsible for price gouging and the problems in the scheme. TAFE students are not the ones being saddled with unfair and unreasonable debts. While private providers claimed VET FEE-HELP loans of $2.5 billion in 2015, TAFE only claimed $400 million.

The TAFE Directors association has called for this transition arrangement. Labor backs it because we back public TAFEs and our TAFEs students. We note that some not-for-profit providers will also be hit hard and have deep concerns over this. We also note that the government has stated it will not be supporting this amendment. This is unfortunate because TAFEs are the innocent bystanders in this problem. TAFEs should not be the victims of this issue. They are the quality backbone of the system. We believe this amendment should be supported by the government, by the Greens and by the crossbench. These requests are reasonable and they should be supported.