Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Strong words indeed from the member for Charlton. I do commend him for those comments he made towards the end of his speech about the fact that the blame does lie specifically with those unscrupulous merchants who want to take advantage of, as he put it, 'some of our most vulnerable people'. I also commend him for the work that he has done in his own electorate office to help those people who have been victims. That is what good local members do. But he did get a little bit political and so I cannot let him go completely unscathed. I cannot just give him praise entirely without pulling him up—

Ms Butler interjecting—

but I am not going to, member for Griffith—about the fact that Labor did have the opportunity to do something about this and Labor chose not to. We, as a coalition government, are getting on with the job of fixing what Labor did not.

The Higher Education Support Amendment (VET FEE-HELP Reform) Bill 2015 amends Higher Education Support Act 2003, strengthening the protections for students in the vocational educational training sector and pushing unscrupulous training providers out of the market. The member for Charlton understands that those unscrupulous training providers need to be pushed out of the market. He called them scum—he is probably right, it is a little bit strong——but he is probably right. They are taking advantage of vulnerable people. They are ripping off money from government coffers that could otherwise be spent far more wisely—indeed, far better in the entire education sector.

Why is this bill necessary? Well, VET FEE-HELP has undergone higher than expected growth since Labor axed the credit transfer arrangements between VET FEE-HELP, funded qualifications and university qualifications back in 2012. If you look at the figures, in 2012 nominal loans for VET FEE-HELP were $225 million, with 55,115 students and 119 approved providers. If you look at the figures just two years later, in 2014 nominal loans were $1.757 billion, with 202,776 students and approved providers numbering 254. That is massive growth. Much of this expansion is because of the unscrupulous behaviour of—I would like to say a minority—providers and agents who aggressively market the scheme.

They target vulnerable people, as we have heard from the member for Charlton, members on my side and other opposition members as well. What the unscrupulous providers do is leave those on whom they prey with a significant debt, but no benefit from training—absolutely no benefit. The system under the former Labor government failed to put in place the necessary safeguards to protect students and taxpayers from the rorting and from the rip-offs. Do not just take my word from it. The chief commissioner and the chief executive officer of the Australian Skills Quality Authority, Chris Robinson, had this to say in The Australian on 17 July this year; that the expansion:

precipitated unprecedented examples of unethical student recruitment practices and astronomical fees as dodgy operators jumped into a new and easy government-supplied pool of money.

As the member for Lalor quite correctly pointed out, they were gaming the system—absolutely gaming the system.

But Labor had a chance to act in 2013 when the first complaints were made to the national training regulator, the Australian Skills Quality Authority. What did Labor do? Nothing. They did not do anything. They did not act. That is why it has taken the member for Cowper, the minister responsible, the Minister for Vocational Education and Skills, to come into this chamber on 15 October—

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