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

Once again, more lies and more misleading information. Senator Cameron tries to dress up alleged cuts as being the types of reform we've made to fix the rorts and rip-offs of Labor's VET FEE-HELP scheme. When we fixed the billions of dollars going out the door every year into the pockets of providers who weren't providing any training and weren't getting any completions but were just ripping off the taxpayer, he was apparently quite happy to claim that it was a cut. No, Senator Cameron, what we put in place through the new VET Student Loans program was the better targeting of taxpayers' dollars so that they only went to reputable providers so that we were only funding courses with high employment outcomes. Ultimately, those providers will be judged not on how much they can rake in from the taxpayer but on whether their students are completing a qualification and getting a job out of it. Our focus is always on ensuring taxpayers' money is used well and that in education and training it leads to skills that lead to jobs.