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

This is about protecting the interests of students just as it is about protecting the interests of parents and children in child care. We want to ensure that childcare providers actually have a say in terms of who the quality training organisations are because many childcare providers have told me already that they informally black-ban certain training organisations, which of course acts to the great disadvantage of students who might go to those training organisations.

We will support the childcare sector to develop a robust, independent preferred provider model. This model will ensure that students can actually see those training organisations who are well regarded by employers in the childcare sector and can make an informed choice to take their training through one of those organisations. These measures, of course, complement the tough new standards the government has introduced in relation to RTOs, new training package development models, our reforms to VET FEE-HELP and our increased funding to ASQA, all of which are helping to strengthen the quality in the sector. (Time expired)