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

Under VET FEE-HELP, students were left with debts for courses that they could not complete, often did not need or even want to do and that had little employment outcome. In fact, the commissioner of the Australian Skills Quality Authority, who, coincidentally, happens to be former Labor Attorney-General Michael Lavarch, said of the scheme:

I have been in and around public life for a long time. I think I can fairly say that this was the worst piece of public policy I have ever seen

We are pleased that we have cleaned it up and fixed it up. In contrast, under the coalition specific protections are in place for students; a dedicated compliance strategy is there. We have changed the laws to make it easier for debts to be remitted for students. We put in place legislation that I am delighted passed the parliament this week to establish a new VET student loans ombudsman. There are strengthened protections at every step of this new program to ensure that the rorts and the waste of the past are never repeated again. (Time expired)