Cory Bernardi (SA, Australian Conservatives) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business, Senator Cash. A constituent in my state runs a training organisation employing 16 South Australians. This constituent was recently audited by the Australian Skills Quality Authority for registration. While the audit found high satisfaction from students, and re-registration was granted, my constituent was concerned about how ASQA communicated with him as a small-business owner. The minor issues that the audit identified as needing attention resulted in him receiving a letter threatening to shut him down. When he questioned the commissioner as to why ASQA responds in such a heavy-handed manner, he was told, 'Legislation requires it to be so.' Could the minister advise as to what part of the legislation makes it necessary for ASQA to intimidate and threaten the livelihoods of training providers rather than work with them to identify and rectify any breaches of their onerous and overly bureaucratic compliance systems?

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Bernardi for his question and for providing me with some notice of it. I also acknowledge his keen interest in small business, particularly in relation to skills training.

Senator Bernardi, you would be aware that the Morrison government is committed to a strong vocational education and training sector that delivers quality training to students. It is critical that the VET sector is properly regulated so that training providers are delivering training that is appropriate. I want every VET student to have confidence that, when they make a choice to do vocational training, their training provider will deliver the quality training they need to complete their apprenticeship or traineeship and to be job ready. Quality vocational training, as you understand, is critical to our economy, and a VET qualification, again as you would be aware, is just as relevant and just as valuable as a university degree.

As the VET regulator, ASQA is responsible for maintaining this quality and, where warranted under the legislation, taking regulatory action. It is critical that our regulator follows standard regulatory procedures so that training providers are afforded the principles of natural justice and that decisions are supported by sound evidence. Both of the major VET reviews commissioned by the government—the Joyce review and the Braithwaite review—also made it clear that, to improve the quality of training, ASQA requires reform. This includes ASQA having a much stronger guidance and educative role and greater levels of transparency, as you have referred to, around ASQA decision-making. I'm working with the states and territories and stakeholders to implement these recommendations to reform ASQA as a top priority.

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Bernardi, your first supplementary?

Cory Bernardi (SA, Australian Conservatives) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We all know that unscrupulous operators rorted the VET system until changes were made by the government, but the onerous red tape and compliance that is now required is an impediment to small business owners who run training organisations being able to deliver the best and most effective results. What will the government do specifically to support small business operators, like my constituent, to more efficiently deal with their compliance organisations?

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Bernardi. I have to say: red tape reduction and simplification is a passion of this side of politics. The educative role, though, of ASQA is incredibly important. That's certainly based on the feedback that you have received from your constituents and certainly the feedback that I have received, but also the feedback that state and territory skills ministers have received. We discussed this at our recent skills ministers meeting. The educative role that ASQA is adopting will ensure, and it's deliberately designed to ensure, that small business owners are better supported to understand their compliance obligations, because often it is just a misunderstanding of what they need to do that causes their breach of the legislation. At a recent meeting, as I said, of Commonwealth and state skills ministers—and this included both Labor and coalition ministers—it was unanimously agreed that it was important for ASQA to adopt an educative role. This will be a significant step— (Time expired)

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Bernardi, a second supplementary?

Cory Bernardi (SA, Australian Conservatives) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Governments should be an ally and not an enemy of small business. Will the government commit to ensuring the productive relationship between training providers and the regulator that is essential to the confidence and effectiveness of our skills and training sector rather than the adversarial one experienced by my constituent and other training providers?

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Again, Senator Bernardi, this goes directly to what was agreed by the skills ministers at their most recent meeting. It was unanimously agreed that it is so important for ASQA to adopt an educative role and actually work with many of the small RTOs. This is a significant step. It is a significant step which the government believes will benefit every stakeholder in the VET sector, including students, registered training organisations and employers. The government obviously will assist ASQA in improving its regulatory approach. We will support ASQA to ensure that audit decisions are transparent and training providers have the right support to deliver quality training.