Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Part of the implementation that will be undertaken if the bill is passed is this stocktake process that we've referred to that will enable us to review those arrangements and determine some of those issues that you are asking about. That is something which has been discussed at length between the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the universities. It was raised in my meetings with Minister Tehan, Universities Australia and with the Go8 as well.

As I said before, the bill is absolutely not intended or expected to impede the beneficial business of universities with foreign counterparts. We absolutely understand the value of that contribution in academic pursuit, in research and particularly in the Australian context. We absolutely expect that much of the routine business of universities will proceed as normal. The concerns that you raise are most certainly issues that have been discussed between DFAT and universities in their consultations.

Things like scholarships, research grants and university exchange programs are not expected to be affected by the scheme, unless and until they're assessed on a case-by-case basis as being inconsistent with Australia's foreign policy or as adversely affecting Australia's foreign relations. Our expectation is—and in the consultations we have had we provided this information—the vast majority of these arrangements will be unaffected. It is also open to the minister to make further rules excluding certain types of arrangements from the requirements of the scheme. As you and I spoke about earlier in this exchange in the chamber, those exempted arrangements that deal solely with minor administrative or logistical matters are an example of that.