Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, I've been listening very carefully to your speech so far today where you talk of having a collaborative approach, that this is not intended to impede the work of universities, and that it will only affect things that are within scope. What I want to ask is: when are the universities going to know whether or not things are within scope? The way that this legislation is currently drafted, it essentially talks about arrangements. The definition of 'arrangements' in the bill is 'any written arrangement, agreement, contract, understanding or undertaking'. At this stage, the universities don't know which of their arrangements are going to be, in your words, 'in scope'. What they can see is that there's going to be a massive regulatory burden in having to report on every arrangement and agreement they have with any foreign university or any foreign agency of a government, without knowing whether it is, to use your words, 'in scope'.

You talked also of things being exempted. Can you also tell me what your intention is at the moment? What is the definition of 'things'? What do you intend to exempt? I understand that the universities, according to the legislation, have got to report on all of their arrangements within six months. Is that six months going to start when they know what is exempt and what is within scope? When are they going to know?