Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The coalition will be supporting the Education Legislation Amendment (2022 Measures No. 1) Bill 2022. The purpose of the bill is to give effect to five measures introduced by the former coalition government, and then a further new measure by the new government to cease the 10 per cent discount for the upfront payment of student contributions. Five of the measures, which I'll go through, were introduced by our government. These are measures which I put in place when I was education minister. We introduce those into the parliament in February, but they lapsed by the time the election came around. I'm pleased that the government is picking up those five particular measures, which I'll go through in a moment, and adding a further measure, which I'd like to discuss as well in terms of our particular position on it.

To go through each of those five measures to start with, they were a group of miscellaneous, disconnected measures. The first was to extend the FEE-HELP loan fee exemption to apply until 31 December 2022, with retrospective effect from 1 January 2022. For those who don't know, the FEE-HELP loan fee is the fee which the private higher education providers ordinarily pay and have been paying for quite some time. It's about 20 per cent, which is added to the FEE HELP debt, which a student has to pay. During the pandemic, we waived that additional 20 per cent loan fee, which was applied, and we made the decision at the end of last year to extend that exemption again, in effect waiving that 20 per cent for a further 12 months—until the end of this year. So those higher education providers took that measure on good faith and didn't apply that fee. I'm pleased that the government is now reintroducing this particular measure to make it lawful through this bill. This will help approximately 30,000 students in the process.

The second measure is to support the development of microcredential courses by extending FEE-HELP eligibility for students accessing these. This is a substantial measure in this bill, because, as you know, Mr Speaker, the government provides effectively interest-free loans to students to study at a higher education institution, be that a public university or a private higher education institution, typically for full degrees, for a diploma or for a course of six months or more. It hasn't tended to follow that the government would subsidise smaller units of study through an interest-free loan. This measure will introduce an interest-free loan for students who undertake smaller units of study known as microcredentials. It still needs to be a credential which a higher education institution can qualify them for, but it could be a credential for a course of as little as one week. It might be for a month-long course. But it means that a student doesn't have to find the upfront money to pay for that study. Instead, they can get an interest-free loan from the government to undertake that unit of study in order to be able to complete that course. I think that is particularly important right now, when we have labour skills shortages, because we want people to upskill in particular areas to be able to take the jobs which are available. They may only be courses that are of a month or two months duration, or even shorter. So this is a really important measure, which I was pleased to introduce, and I'm pleased that the government is following through on this and putting it in place in this bill.

The bill provides $32.5 million in order to achieve that—to deliver those courses to both domestic and indeed international students. I should say that scaling up these industry focused microcredentials was actually one of the key recommendations of the University-Industry Collaboration in Teaching and Learning Review, which I set in place when I was education minister. So I'm very pleased to see that this has been put in place—the most substantial measure, I think, in this bill. I'd certainly say that microcredentials are going to be the way of the future in higher education, and this is a step in the right direction.

Complementary to this change is a third measure. The bill clarifies the status of enabling courses in the context of the lifetime student learning entitlement. The student learning entitlement is a lifetime limit on the amount of Commonwealth support a student can receive through a Commonwealth supported place. That's currently seven years. This clarifies that, if you're doing an enabling course, which might be a course such as essay writing or even English language courses and the like, that won't count towards your seven years of Commonwealth-supported-place entitlement. So there are important technical amendments to clarify that measure.

The next measure also makes further technical changes, requiring students to provide their unique student identifier to their higher education provider, on or at the time of a place offer, to be eligible for Commonwealth assistance. Again, these are highly technical and non-controversial amendments, but they certainly make it easier from an administration perspective. We proposed this, and again I'm pleased that the government is following through on it.

Finally, in terms of the measures that the Morrison government introduced and that are being re-introduced here, a further change is to clarify requirements for New Zealand citizens who want to access HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP. The measure basically says that if you are a New Zealand citizen who wants to access HECS-HELP or FEE-HELP, then you have to be a resident in Australia for the duration of the unit of study. That brings consistency across the ditch between New Zealand and Australia: you have to be a resident here, just as an Australian citizen, if they want the equivalent assistance while studying in New Zealand, has to be a resident in New Zealand. Again, I don't think this is particularly controversial. It has support from both sides of the chamber and has a start date of 1 January 2023.

A further measure that was in the bill that we introduced earlier this year, which lapsed, isn't in this bill. That was legislative changes for the initiatives that help rural doctor and nurse practitioners by providing a debt reduction for rural doctor and nurse practitioners who reside and practise in regional, rural or remote Australia. I have been assured, though, that that particular measure, which is an important one, will be dealt with in a separate bill later this year. I look forward to seeing that particular measure in a separate bill, and we will support that measure if, indeed, it replicates what we supported at the beginning of the year.

Last but not least—this is the new measure—the bill gives effect to the government's election commitments to end the 10 per cent higher education loan program HECS help discount from 1 January 2023. In plain English, what that means is for some time there has been a mechanism whereby if pay your HECS fees upfront you get a 10 per cent discount on those HECS fees. Over the years, that's been put on; it's been taken off; it's been put on; its been taken off. As it stands presently, you only have to pay $500 of your HECS contribution upfront to get a 10 per cent discount on your total HECS amount for that year. We introduced that particular measure through the Job-ready Graduates Package back in 2019. The government has decided to remove this measure through this bill, so students will no longer have that choice. They will no longer have the choice to pay $500 upfront and in the process have a full 10 per cent discount on their HECS contribution for that year. Ideally, that measure would stay in place, but we are not going to stand in the way of this going ahead. It does have a very significant savings attached to it—close to $144 million—and, given the context of the budget, where the government is increasing the deficits year-on-year over the next four years, in an extraordinary manner, this is a savings measure which we will support in this particular context.

They are the six measures outlined in the bill. As I said, five of them are identical to the measures we introduced. That bill lapsed, so we are pleased those measures are being reintroduced. There is a measure in relation to rural doctors and nurses that is going to be introduced in a separate bill in a few weeks, which we will support, should it replicate what we introduced at the start of year. And then there is this new additional measure getting rid of the 10 per cent HECS discount, which was an election commitment, and we are not going to stand in the way of that proceeding, given the significant savings which that provides to the budget.

We won't stand in the way of this bill. In fact, we will be supporting this bill, given the arguments I have just outlined.

Debate adjourned.