Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

I support the measures in this legislation. The proliferation of private colleges offering courses of suspect outcomes and suspect practices is long overdue for regulation. Those colleges are utilising millions of dollars in education funding when those funds are desperately required by institutions such as TAFE, which is underfunded but offering worthwhile educational courses. We need to keep these TAFE colleges in rural and regional areas. They are very necessary not only for our youth but also for other Australians in these areas. As I travel throughout Queensland I see that a lot of these TAFE colleges are closing down. It is not good for these areas, and we must ensure that TAFE colleges are kept open.

In the vocational education and training sector students are being offered iPads as inducement when they do not any hope of completion and no educational background to successfully complete simply to have student loans approved. We need to look at not only vocational education and training but also further education at university. Where are the degrees and the decent educational level required for people to go on to these courses? We are pushing people into further education when they do not have the academia or the ability to go on further. We should be encouraging people to go into apprenticeship schemes. Going to university and getting a degree is not the answer. For a lot of students who are finishing these courses there are no jobs.

We have to have a program that says, 'If you are going to have so many going through to do a course, whether it be in hairdressing or in some other profession, students have to know at the end of the day we have too many applying for these professions and there are no jobs to go to.' It is not being managed correctly or properly. Our kids are not being told and are not being put into the right courses. We have to get rid of this mentality that you must go on to higher education. At the end of the day, there have to be the jobs available.

The system was set up so that everyone wants to sign up all these kids to these loans. They give them iPads. They know they have no ability to actually go on and do these studies. The agents are scouring the unemployed on behalf of unscrupulous colleges to sign up students, knowing they have no hope of completion and, even further, no hope of even paying back those loans. This is another cost to the taxpayer. It is estimated that by 2025-26 we are going to be in debt by $185.2 billion. That is going to be 46.3 per cent of the nation's debt. This cannot happen. It cannot go on. It has to be reined in.

This legislation would stop the use of agents. A duty should be placed on colleges to assess further whether a potential student has the educational standard to commence the proposed course, the aptitude for the area of employment to follow the course and the likelihood of completing the course. It is like, 'Come on down! We've got something else for you.' That is what I am hearing. Examples are courses for IT, media, personal trainers, hairdressers, make-up artists et cetera where there are no positions on completion.

In total the VET debt is just over $6.064 billion in fees since 2009 to 2015. So it has grown from approximately $25 million to over $6 billion in a matter of six years. Between 2009 and 2015, students chose to pay approximately $21 million up-front. That represents a mere 0.35 per cent of the total student fees. They pay from day one. How much does a hairdresser make? The government must rein in that debt and ensure each student commits at least a small payment from the beginning of the course towards its repayment. Otherwise, people will continue to take worthless courses unless they know they will be liable to begin repaying their loan immediately. At the present repayments do not start until $54,000 and that is intended to be reduced to $52,000. How many hairdressers and make-up artists make that sort of money?

People have to start being responsible for their own actions, not the taxpayers covering this. I propose—and I will be moving an amendment on this—that from day one people start paying back their loans on a percentage. People should take some responsibility because too many do these courses when they have nothing else better to do with their time. If they do not have the qualifications they should not be doing it. They should be looking for other worthwhile jobs. Then they just walk away and it is not their responsibility. If you take this on, you do have a responsibility to pay back the taxpayer. That threshold must be reduced. People should be paying it back from day one from any income that they make. If they are not earning an income then it should come even from their welfare payments. It comes down to a responsibility. As I said before, by the year 2025-26 we will be in debt of $185.2 billion. We cannot afford it. If we do not start reining this in then, for those students who would be able to do these courses, we will not be able to assist them or fund them at all.

I will now go on to TAFE colleges. A TAFE course may cost $7,000, but I am advised that, for a comparable course, private educational colleges are charging anything between $15,000 and $18,000. Why the difference? Why are they charging so much in these private educational courses? That is another thing that needs to be investigated. People can make rational economic decisions if they know the cost of those decisions. People have to ensure that potential students understand the financial consequences of taking a student loan. It is up to the government to make sure of that; they have a responsibility to the taxpayer.

We are in so much debt in this country and at the moment we are paying $40 million a day in interest alone. If we expect to have decent health care, hospitals and schools in this nation then people who want to access taxpayer funded services must pay back the country and the taxpayer and be responsible for their own actions. As I said at the beginning in this debate, I do support the government and the measures in this legislation. But, as I said, I will be moving an amendment that the students start paying back their debts from day one.