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

Absolutely, Senator Wang. I will be very happy to look at that submission. I will be very happy if the opportunity arises to visit Sheridan College with you. I will make sure that it is brought to the attention of Minister Pyne and that he indeed gives consideration to what their particular proposals are.

But I think at the broader level it is critically important that we do address the issue of providing certainty to universities and to all higher education providers in Australia—certainty that they will be able to compete in an increasingly cluttered global landscape where more universities and more higher education providers are able to offer opportunities to Australian students. They are competing with us for international students and that is why they need the freedom, the freedom to be able to specialise in areas that suit them, the freedoms that differentiate themselves, which includes the freedom to differentiate through pricing rather than just having to operate under the constrained mechanisms that exist to date. Some important reforms have been made, but these important reforms we have need to be finalised. (Time expired)