Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Labor support the Education Services for Overseas Students (TPS Levies) Amendment Bill 2017 and the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment Bill 2017. It was Labor that introduced the tuition protection service in response to some of the poor behaviour by providers in the international education market in 2009. Labor acted swiftly to introduce more effective national regulation of Australia's tertiary education sector. The tuition protection service has been well managed and has responded appropriately where required. We are pleased that the levies have remained low, despite a significant increase in international students coming to Australia to study. That could have put pressure on the scheme.

International education is one of the great success stories in Australia. It's good for the economy, our society, and soft diplomacy across the world. In fact, last year international education contributed more than $21 billion to the Australian economy. The Education Services for Overseas Students Act was groundbreaking when it was introduced as it was one of the first pieces of legislation anywhere in the world designed to address the needs of foreign students.

Labor are proud that we have a strong and supportive regulatory system for the nearly 600,000 international students in this country. We believe the measures in this bill are sensible and should be supported. We caution the government on ensuring it does more to protect the rights and financial situation of Australian students. We know that far too many students took on bad VET FEE-HELP debt, and the government took too long to respond. Labor reminds this government to get on with the job of addressing some of the terribly bad debts of these students. A high-quality, well-regulated tertiary education system is an important tool for our future economic success.