Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Education and Other Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1). In doing so I note that Labor has long pointed out the need for a VET ombudsman. We have argued long and hard for that in the parliament. It is a position we took to the last election and it is a position that we have moved in amendments in this House. It is, of course, the reason we will be supporting this bill which seeks to establish an ombudsman for the VET sector. In doing so we also point out that (1) what an unnecessarily long road it has been to get us to this point and that (2) there are some deeply troubling reasons that this ombudsman is required. This parliament must keep in mind that that were circumstances which are never ever allowed to happen again.

We took a policy of establishing a VET ombudsman to the last election for the simple reason that we know students need someone in their corner to stand up for their rights and to fight back against the bad practices and dodgy providers we have seen so many horror stories about in recent years. The Labor Party has always stuck up for students and we are pleased that the government is now adopting another one of our policies to this end. An unfair situation was allowed to develop because those opposite were simply not paying attention to the VET system and were too busy changing ministers—five times. We are very pleased that finally the government is putting in place a system and resources to help students who have been victims of dodgy VET providers.

Fifteen months ago Labor moved to establish a VET ombudsman in the Senate and at that time the minister said he would look into it. At that time the minister promised that he would progress the idea. Late last year when the government introduced their VET Student Loans Bill, the assistant minister said in her second reading speech that the government would establish an ombudsman. Finally some action, but a closer look at the bills revealed nothing about an ombudsman at all.

In fact a year after looking into it and issuing a discussion paper seeking feedback from the sector on the idea of an ombudsman, still nothing. This is despite the reason for these very bills declared that the idea of an ombudsman was the most popular idea of all of those that were put forward by the government in their discussion paper. This is despite students, providers and consumer advocates all calling on the government to establish a VET ombudsman. So once again it fell to Labor to move an amendment to the government's VET Student Loans Bill last year to establish an ombudsman, at which time the government then gave an undertaking to come back to the parliament with stand-alone legislation. The government was once again dragged kicking and screaming to do the right thing, but we are very pleased that we now stand here today to see this legislation before the parliament.

We will keep leading the broader debate on skills and training. The Leader of the Opposition hosted a national summit just last week to bring together businesses, governments, TAFEs, unions and providers to work on long-term policy solutions for opportunities for jobs for the economy, and we know that that relies upon a strong VET sector. Those opposite supported the expansion of the VET FEE-HELP scheme, but, when they came to government, they did not take responsibility for its administration.

The Senate inquiry into the VET Student Loans Bill revealed that the government were told about emerging problems in the implementation of the VET FEE-HELP scheme in 2014, but they did nothing about it. In fact, when we had the Senate inquiry into the VET Student Loans Bill, we heard some of the following quotes. The Consumer Action Law Centre said:

… particularly during 2014 … we started to receive a spike in complaints related to the marketing of VET products …

An Australian Competition and Consumer Commission official stated:

We started to see complaints in mid-2014. … They started to come out as a bit of a trend in that mid to late 2014 period.

Both of these are placing on the record that, under this government's watch, not only was this program allowed to blow-out but also too many Australian students were allowed to become the victims of dodgy providers. The Department of Education and Training themselves said:

… both of those agencies—

ASQA and the ACCC—

started to get concerned through the volume and nature of specific complaints towards the end of 2014, and they talked to us at that time. Then they reiterated or continued expressing those concerns into 2015.

Senator McKenzie asked:

Did you advise the then government …

ASQA responded:

In the second half of 2014, yes, we did.

I place this on the record here tonight because this goes to the reasons why it is so important that we have a VET ombudsman. It is because, despite the four different pieces of evidence I have just read into the Hansard on what was presented to the government in 2014, they sat on their hands.

Now we have the position where we have thousands of students who have been treated appallingly badly, billions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted and misused and, of course, the entire VET sector have had their reputation tarnished as a result of the government's inaction. These are the reasons why it is so important that this bill establishes an ombudsman for the sector, and it is one of the reasons why it is so important that we look into ensuring that the ombudsman has all of the powers into the future that they need to do this job and do this job well.

The human face of the VET FEE-HELP rorts is well known in this place. There have been extensive reports, including those outlining dodgy private providers standing outside Centrelink signing up pensioners and the unemployed with an offer of an iPad and a promise that they would not have to pay. We have heard about predatory brokers travelling to remote Indigenous communities with the sole purpose of rorting students and, indeed, rorting taxpayers. We have heard about bottom feeders going door to door, selling false hope and signing up the disadvantaged and the desperate to totally inappropriate courses. And we have heard about the fraudsters accessing people's tax file numbers without their permission and enrolling phantom students, only for people to discover later on that they have a debt that they never signed up for, never wanted and will never benefit from. It is a massive problem. The Auditor-General's report from December estimates that $1.2 billion in inappropriately issued loans will never be recovered. This is why this ombudsman is so important, because it provides a pathway to justice for those Australians who have fallen victim through no fault of their own.

We also stand here tonight to say that the government are on notice that they need to make sure that this ombudsman works. Through Senate inquiries and in public debate, stakeholders have strongly supported the idea of an ombudsman—from consumer law advocates to providers and, of course, most importantly, students. Many have argued strongly for an ombudsman with a broader remit beyond the loan scheme or indeed with the powers of arbitration. These ideas have merit and should remain under consideration as part of the longer term reforms of the VET system that are so desperately needed to make sure that it is better meeting the needs of students and businesses.

Labor believe that the government has brought this legislation forward in good faith, and that both the government and the department will use the powers available to make sure that the ombudsman operates effectively. We expect to see the recommendations of the ombudsman respected and heavy punishment for any providers that do not cooperate, because students absolutely must come first. The government is on notice. There are many thousands of students who have been treated wrongly and who have been treated appallingly in recent years, and Labor expect to see results from this ombudsman. Labor have always said that effective implementation will be what makes or breaks the government's VET reforms. The government owes it to students and to all the providers who are working hard and doing the right thing to make the changes it has made work.

We cannot afford a repeat of the past when the system fell into crisis under the Liberals' watch. We know that, in 2014, the graduation rate for the 10 largest private providers was under five per cent. That is $900 million in federal money and over $215,000 for every graduate. We know that students were tricked into racking up massive debts for courses with little hope of them leading to a job. We know that 10,000 qualifications were cancelled in Victoria because they were not worth the paper that they were written on. We know that there has been an explosion in short courses and online courses and a decline in quality. It is estimated that up to 40 per cent of VET FEE-HELP loans will never be repaid, and much of this is because of the government's inaction.

VET FEE-HELP loans blew out from around $700 million in 2013 to a staggering $2.9 billion in 2015. That was about $700 million in 2013, $1.8 billion in 2014 and $2.9 billion in 2015. We know that our VET system needs so much more than a simple avoidance of crisis. It needs to be built for the future, and TAFE must be the centre of that future strategy. We also know that the first step absolutely has to be cracking down on the rorts, mismanagement and waste of taxpayer dollars in the system. The first step has to be repairing the reputation of the sector. Of course, part of that needs to be providing justice for the students who have paid the largest price as a result of the government's inaction.

We know that the government still lacks a clear plan to rebuild TAFE. In fact, in this term, the Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills, the member for McPherson, questioned whether the national partnership for skills was even needed in the future. She said she was meeting with the states 'to determine whether there are reforms to VET that warrant a new agreement'. Labor knows that vocational education is absolutely critical to our education sector. It is absolutely critical to our economy. We cannot expect Australians to have the skills that they need for the jobs of the future unless we have a strong and well-functioning vocational education sector. It is deeply concerning that the current national partnership, put in place by Labor, expires in the middle of next year. Over $500 million a year in Commonwealth support for TAFE and skills is on the line right now, at this critically important time for the sector, and the assistant minister does not even seem to know whether a new agreement is needed to keep supporting TAFE.

On this side we know that we must continue to support TAFE for a strong Australian future. Between 2013 and 2015 the Liberals oversaw a 21 per cent decline in TAFE enrolments and an almost 75 per cent decline in TAFE and VET capital investment. Apprentice numbers are in free fall under the Liberals—down 30 per cent they came to government, or 135,000 fewer apprentices. The rate of apprenticeships in trade occupations is the lowest it has been in a decade, and commencements continue to decline. Labor has been absolutely clear: we back public TAFE. That is why we took a TAFE funding guarantee to the last election. It is why the Leader of the Opposition, in a speech at the Press Club earlier this year, committed to put quality TAFE back at the heart of our VET system. It is where people get the technical and semiprofessional skills they need for growing industry—the skills that are being demanded by industry and that Australia needs to be competitive with other countries. TAFE is absolutely the backbone of our system. Generations of Australians know how important TAFE is for our economy. They know the first class skills and opportunities that going to TAFE can provide.

But this Liberal government still does not seem to get it. At a state and federal level the Liberals have an ideological problem with TAFE. Last week I was part of the summit that the Leader of the Opposition held around jobs, skills and training, attended by leaders of our business community. Across the board, even from the private VET providers who were present, there was an absolute consensus that a strong TAFE system must be at the centre of our vocational education and training system and that, as a nation, we must make building and rebuilding TAFE for the future an absolute national priority. But still I stand on the only side of the parliament which is committed to this end. This is a priority for us, and it is something that we will take to the next election.

There is another part of this bill which I want to outline briefly. Labor supports updating the funding profile for major Australian Research Council grant programs. We know that societies and economies that invest more in research generally show faster rates of growth in output and development. We know that our researchers deserve the best infrastructure we can afford. Research funded by the Australian Research Council allows Australia's great minds to produce outcomes that will help our country become better equipped to understand the challenges and opportunities of the future.

Unfortunately, the Turnbull government has an appalling track record in this area, and the Australian research community is rightly suspicious of it. In the past, the kind of basic administrative change put forward in this bill was delayed by the government's efforts to introduce legislation that would have imposed $100,000 degrees, saddling Australian students with life-long debts. The Abbott-Turnbull government also tried to cut nearly $900 million from science and research in its first horror budget. This included $75 million from the Australian Research Council.

For over a decade the coalition has pandered to the antiscience community. From the member for Warringah, the former Prime Minister, labelling climate change as 'crap', to the current Prime Minister's dramatic about-face on supporting action against climate change, the Government has made it clear that it does not value evidence, science or research. We are right to be suspicious of any statements to the contrary. We know that the Abbott government endeavoured to cut over $3 billion from science, research and innovation. In their first budget, they sought to cut almost $900 million. This included significant cuts to major research agencies and research training: $115 million from the CSIRO; $75 million from the Australian Research Council; $27.5 million from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation; $7.8 million from the Australian Institute of Marine Science; $16.1 million from Geoscience Australia; $10 million from the Bureau of Meteorology. Sadly, the list continues: $120 million from the Defence Science and Technology Organisation; and $174 million cut from the Research Training Scheme—a cut of 10 per cent.

In conclusion, Labor will support this legislation, because it is Labor who has led this debate. It has been Labor who has stood up for students. It has been Labor who has called on the government to stamp down on the rorts. It is Labor who took to the last election that we would establish a VET ombudsman. It is Labor who moved amendments in this House to do just that. It is Labor who has dragged the government, kicking and screaming, to move this piece of legislation in this parliament to create a VET ombudsman.

But I should say that we will go further than just supporting this legislation. We will maintain the need to ensure that this ombudsman works and that it fights for the students who have been victims of this government's mismanagement. We will stand up and ensure that there is a strong vocational education sector into the future and that never again do we see the waste and mismanagement of taxpayer dollars that has been allowed to occur under this government.

This legislation will be supported by the opposition, but we also place the government on notice that we will hold them to account. We will stand up and fight for TAFE. We will ensure that there is strong support for building TAFE as the backbone of our vocational education sector and that this piece of legislation is just the beginning of what Labor will drag this government to, kicking and screaming, before we go to the next election and pledge to fix Australia's vocational education sector once and for all.

Debate interrupted.