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

Through the chair, it is quite remarkable, Senator Collins, after all the bellowing from Senator Carr about all of the problems that he does not have any solution to fix, that the one thing he thinks is the priority issue to bring before the chamber, the one matter he thinks is the most important reform to bring before the chamber, relates to New Zealand people. It relates to the access for New Zealanders to our higher education system. The government supports this policy. We are happy indeed to have this passed. It has been part of legislation that Labor has voted against not once but twice. We are very happy with the policy proposal of Senator Carr, but why on earth it would be his priority to bring it forward as a sort of political stunt rather than as a package of reforms, as the government has proposed, is beyond me.

Senator Carr thinks this is the priority issue, yet he complains about other areas where he thinks vulnerable Australians are being targeted, which they are with bad loans, and where he thinks the taxpayer is being ripped off, which they are with those bad loans, and where he thinks the government is not acting. Yet we are, with many actions. Senator Carr has not one single idea of his own on what to do. His only idea applies to New Zealand citizens. His only idea is about making it easier for more people to access student loans. That, of course, is exactly what the previous government did before, when they set up the demand driven funding system for bachelor places and undergraduate places at universities, when they set up the VET FEE-HELP scheme. All of those policies of the previous government were about making it easier for people to access student loans. Then he comes here and complains about the blow-out in those student loans and complains about the failings of those student loans. Yet the only legislation he offers to this chamber, the only reform he offers to this chamber, is to expand access to student loans to New Zealanders as well. The hypocrisy is really quite astounding.

This government supports the concept of extending the Higher Education Loan Program to New Zealanders—to those who have been in Australia for a long time, meeting specified conditions. The previous government, of course, proposed this measure. But, not unlike many ideas that the previous government proposed, they never actually did anything about it. Now they come in here and say they want to do something about it. We affirmed our support for this in a joint statement with Prime Minister Key in 2014. And not once but twice we have actually tried to legislate for the measures that are before the chamber—not once but twice. And not once but twice the Labor Party voted against those measures. The Labor Party that comes in here and tries to sincerely say, 'We think this is important,' voted against those measures.

The passage of this bill would not itself actually give effect to the shared desire to extend HELP loans to this special category of New Zealanders, because to do so requires the money to cover it to be appropriated. Of course, this bill does not appropriate money. But not having the money, of course, has never been a concern for the Australian Labor Party. The Labor Party is always very happy to do things without knowing where the money would come from or having the money. The Department of Education and Training has said that, assuming a start date of 1 January 2016, the estimated cost of this would be around $12 million over the period 1 January 2016 to the end of the 2019-20 financial year.

To reject this bill will not necessarily prevent this category of New Zealand students from getting access to HELP loans, precisely because this bill will not have the effect of giving them access. Once again, it is a half-baked policy proposal from the Labor Party, the likes of which are reflected in everything they did in the education space when they were in government—in their failure to set up the demand driven scheme for universities in an effective way that would drive the right incentives for behaviour in universities and in their failure to set up the VET FEE-HELP scheme in an effective way that would ensure that training providers and organisations were incentivised to attract quality students, deliver quality training and give those students quality qualifications. Instead, everything the Labor Party proposes is half-baked in its approach and in its measures.

This legislation is no exception to that rule. And of course the hollow rhetoric we heard from Senator Carr earlier on the subject of VET FEE-HELP is certainly no exception to that. Despite being responsible for the problem, despite having done nothing about the problem when becoming aware of it in government, he still offers not a single solution but only empty criticism.