Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the Assistant Minister for Education and Training, Senator Birmingham, advise the Senate how the problem of dodgy training providers and marketing has come about?

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

I thank Senator Ruston for the very important question she asks, because it has concerned me since taking on this portfolio late in December to see the extent to which there is a problem operating around Australia of people taking advantage of the training system. I have looked back over what has occurred in recent years as to what opened up these problems with the training system of dodgy providers who are targeting vulnerable Australians and, frankly, ripping off the Australian taxpayer in the process. It would seem that that problem has emerged and developed because of reforms implemented by the previous government. These reforms were perhaps with the best of intentions but, like so many other programs of the previous government, they were poorly delivered.

What we had was the opening up of access to the VET FEE-HELP scheme, HECS for the vocational education and training sector. The previous government removed the link to the credit transfer arrangement with universities, thereby meaning that all areas of diplomas and advanced diplomas that were accredited would be available for VET FEE-HELP. The problem was that they put inadequate safeguards and poor regulation around that. It is reminiscent, frankly, of the way the home insulation or schools halls schemes were run when you look at the waste of millions and millions of dollars and the targeting of thousands of vulnerable Australians in this process. It is a mess that we have had to act now to clean up to restore integrity to Australia's training system, to put in place reforms that protect vulnerable Australians and to ensure that taxpayers will not be saddled with significant debt into the future that is likely never to be repaid. It is a salutary lesson that those opposite, even when they have the best of intentions, are completely incapable of administering them and putting the right framework around them. (Time expired)

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Without going into the specifics of the legislation, will the minister advise the Senate of options available to the government to improve the VET FEE-HELP scheme to protect students, taxpayers and the reputation of Australian vocational education and training?

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

Last week I announced reforms to the way VET FEE-HELP works which will ensure that over the next decade an estimated $16 billion in unnecessary student loans will not be taken out. That is the scale of the problem that we are confronting and taking action on. Those reforms will ban the offering of up-front inducements or incentives to students. They will make it impossible for providers to levy all of the fees associated with a diploma or advanced diploma up front in one hit at the start of a course. They will stop this notion of miraculously short diplomas occurring. They will eliminate the insidious practices we have seen like nursing home enrolments of people under the VET FEE-HELP scheme. All of these issues, of course, should have and could have been foreseen by those who opened the scheme up in 2012—those sitting opposite—but were not. We are now taking action to clamp down on it and in the process saving taxpayers billions of dollars of unnecessary loans in the future.

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Can the minister further inform the Senate on the government's tough approach to dodgy training providers and marketing?

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

Those operating in the training sector should take the reform package announced last week as a clear signal that the government is serious about protecting vulnerable Australians, about protecting the Australian taxpayer and about protecting the reputation and integrity of Australia's world-class training system. If further reforms are necessary, we will certainly take them. In addition to the measures that I just outlined to the Senate we will be looking for a clearer penalty regime for training providers who do the wrong thing, to make sure that where a vulnerable Australian has been targeted in future they are able to have their debt waived and, importantly, the Commonwealth is able to get the money back from the training provider and there is a clear penalty applied in those circumstances. We want to make sure the rules provide for all those who genuinely want training to access training, and when somebody signs onto training in Australia all they should expect to get is high-quality training outcomes, not a free iPad, a free laptop, a meal voucher or a cash incentive. (Time expired)