Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move Greens amendments (1), (2) and (3) on sheet 8866 together:

(1) Schedule 1, item 10, page 5 (lines 23 and 24), at the end of the heading to subsection 114A(1), add "—criminal offence ".

[civil penalty for academic cheating services—consequential]

(2) Schedule 1, item 10, page 6 (lines 10 to 17), omit subsection 114A(3), substitute:

Providing etc. an academic cheating service for a commercial purpose—civil penalty

(3) A person contravenes this subsection if the person provides, offers to provide or arranges for a third person to provide an academic cheating service:

(a) to a student undertaking, with a higher education provider:

(i) an Australian course of study; or

(ii) an overseas course of study provided at Australian premises; and

(b) for a commercial purpose.

Civil penalty: 500 penalty units.

[civil penalty for academic cheating services]

(3) Schedule 1, item 10, page 7 (lines 12 to 17), omit subsection 114B(2), substitute:

(2) A person contravenes this subsection if:

(a) the person advertises, or publishes or broadcasts an advertisement for, an academic cheating service to students undertaking, with a higher education provider:

(i) an Australian course of study; or

(ii) an overseas course of study provided at Australian premises; and

(b) either:

(i) the person does so for a commercial purpose; or

(ii) the academic cheating service has a commercial purpose.

Civil penalty: 500 penalty units.

[civil penalty for academic cheating services]

These amendments are about restricting the application of civil penalties in this legislation to commercial providers of cheating services and removing them from individuals who are non-commercial providers. I just want to be clear that this amendment does not remove civil or criminal penalties for commercial cheating services. As I spoke about in debate on the bill, this exposes individuals to civil penalties. Although the minister in the other place has said that students and families and friends are protected, I think we can make it completely watertight today and make sure that there are no civil penalties, which could be up to more than $100,000 in the case of this particular legislation, to which individuals could be exposed.

Really, for instances like these, it is up to the universities to have the resources and the funding to be able to support their students and to be able to deal with this. These penalties are not even remotely commensurate with the low-grade academic misconduct that might happen. Universities must be resourced to deal with this, so I commend the amendments.