Senate debates

Tuesday, 27 March 2018

Notices

Presentation

3:47 pm

Photo of James McGrathJames McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I give notice that, on the next day of sitting, I shall move:

That the provisions of paragraphs (5) to (8) of standing order 111 not apply to the Higher Education Support Legislation Amendment (Student Loan Sustainability) Bill 2018, allowing it to be considered during this period of sittings.

I also table a statement of reasons justifying the need for this bill to be considered during these sittings and seek leave to have the statement incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The statement read as follows—

STATEMENT OF REASONS FOR INTRODUCTION AND PASSAGE

IN THE 2018 AUTUMN SITTINGS

Higher Education Support Legislation Amendment (Student Loan Sustainability) Bill

Purpose of the Bill

The bill introduces measures that will improve the sustainability of the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) by setting a new minimum repayment threshold and adjusting subsequent repayment thresholds, changing indexation arrangements for repayment thresholds, and setting a limit on the amount of tertiary education assistance a student may borrow.

The bill will also amend repayment thresholds for the Student Financial Supplement Scheme (SFSS) from 1 July 2019 to align them with HELP repayment thresholds. To ensure that the HELP changes do not adversely impact SFSS debtors, existing repayment arrangements will be retained for 2018–19 and SFSS debts would no longer be recovered concurrently with HELP debts.

Reasons for Urgency

Passage of the bill in the 2018 Autumn sittings is essential so that new HELP repayment thresholds can commence on 1 July 2018. This will avoid confusing HELP debtors by having a second change to repayment thresholds in the space of a year and provide adequate notice to debtors and affected agencies.

The Budget Savings (Omnibus) Act 2016 lowered the minimum repayment threshold for HELP debts to $51,957 in 2018-19, with a two per cent repayment rate. This bill introduces a lower repayment threshold of $45,000, with a one per cent repayment rate. The threshold set by the Omnibus Act becomes the second threshold. Each further threshold is six per cent higher than the previous one, with repayment rates rising in half per cent increments. In future years, thresholds will be indexed not by reference to Average Weekly Earnings as is currently the case, but by the Consumer Price Index.

The bill also introduces, from 1 January 2019, a new limit on the total amount of tuition assistance that can be borrowed through FEE-HELP loans (including FEE HELP, VET FEE-HELP, and VET student loans). The limits will be set at $150,000 for students undertaking medicine, dentistry and veterinary science courses (leading to professional registration) and $104,440 for other students.

From 1 January 2020, there will be a combined HELP loan limit on the total amount of tuition assistance that can be borrowed through HECS-HELP, FEE HELP, VET FEE-HELP, and VET student loans. That is, HECS-HELP loans will reduce a person's HELP balance from 2020 onwards.

In addition, from 1 January 2020, the total loan balance will become renewable, such that any HELP debt repayments that a person makes during a financial year (starting 1 July 2019) will be subsequently re credited to their loan balance. This will enable them to take out further HECS-HELP, FEE HELP, VET FEE HELP, and VET student loans to the same amount. That is, a person's HELP loan balance will be renewed by HELP debt repayments, but it cannot exceed the relevant loan limit.

Changes to HELP repayment thresholds and rates, and the amount of debt that a student can accrue, will affect all those who take out HELP loans (including VET Student Loans, Trade Support Loans, Student Start−up Loans and loans under the discontinued Student Financial Supplement Scheme). In turn, this affects several agencies including the Department of Education and Training, the Australian Taxation Office, the Department of Human Services and the Department of Social Services, as well as higher education providers. These agencies and loan providers require lead time to implement systems changes and communicate with students and debtors about how the changes affect them.

Put simply, measures that can improve the sustainability of student loans are vital. This bill contributes by ensuring more HELP debtors commence repayment, even at low rates, reducing overall debt not expected to be repaid. It will also ensure that high income earners with HELP debts repay their debts faster.

Passage of this bill will make a significant contribution to achieving fair and reasonable reform of the Higher Education Loan Program so that it has a more sustainable future.

(Circulated by authority of the Minister for Education and Training)

Senator Griff to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) the Garvan Institute of Medical Research (the Garvan Institute) has completed the first cancer research project using the DreamLab app, in half the time it would have otherwise taken,

  (ii) the DreamLab app, developed in partnership with Vodafone Foundation, uses the processing power of idle smartphones to give the Garvan Institute free access to a supercomputer resource, to allow it to conduct ground-breaking cancer research,

  (iii) its first project, Project Decode, mapped the genome of breast, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancer patients to help researchers better understand these cancers based on a patient's DNA profile,

  (iv) the mapping highlighted genome clusters and has allowed the researchers to see patterns they can now explore further,

  (v) Project Decode was completed with 121,000 app users, whose idle smartphones crunched 75 million calculations, since being launched in November 2015,

  (vi) the Garvan Institute intends to make the research data publicly available for other researchers to use, and plans to publish the findings of this project in a research journal in June, and

  (vii) the Garvan Institute's other DreamLab project, Project Genetic Profile, is decoding brain, lung, melanoma and sarcoma cancers, and is one-fifth of the way towards completion;

(b) further notes that:

  (i) this work is part of the Garvan Institute's ongoing effort to tackle rare and less common cancers,

  (ii) the Garvan Institute's Genomic Cancer Medicine Program, in Sydney, has taken close to 1000 Australians with rare and less common cancers since October 2016,

  (iii) the Garvan Institute aims to make this program available nationally, by linking with cancer centres in all states and territories, so patients do not need to travel to Sydney, and

  (iv) the Garvan Institute's research, plus its national approach to treating cancer patients with high unmet needs, contributes to the evidence base state and federal governments need to make informed decisions about genomic and precision medicine; and

(c) calls on senators who want to play their part in this research to download and use the DreamLab app if they have not already done so, to help accelerate this research, and for those who have already used the app to continue their contribution to this ground-breaking cancer research. (general business notice of motion no. 783)

Senator Di Natale to move on the next day of sitting:

That the time for the presentation of the report of the Select Committee into the Political Influence of Donations be extended to 10 May 2018. (general business notice of motion no. 784)

Senator Brown to move on the next day of sitting:

That there be laid on the table by the Minister for Finance, by no later than 5 pm on 28 March 2018:

(a) all correspondence between the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources relating to the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) Digital Strategy; and

(b) a copy of the APVMA Digital Strategy. (general business notice of motion no. 785)

Senator Steele-John to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) in March 2017, the United States of America (US) Full House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform heard that approximately half of adult Americans' photographs are in a Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) database – FRT has accuracy deficiencies leading to misidentifying female and African American individuals at a higher rate; human verification is often insufficient as a backup and can allow for racial bias; the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) accepts an error rate of 15% in its system, and that the FBI used FRT for years without first publishing a privacy impact assessment and went to great lengths to exempt itself from certain provisions of the Privacy Act,

  (ii) in June 2016, the US Government Accountability Office analysed the FBI's use of FRT and found it to be lacking in accountability, accuracy and oversight, with key concerns that the FBI system does not test for false positives or for racial bias,

  (iii) FRT is subject to biases based on the data sets provided and the conditions in which algorithms are created, and

  (iv) the National Facial Biometric Matching Capability, based on the FBI's Next Generation Identification program, is subject to the same risks of bias and error rates; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to ensure that:

  (i) all steps are taken to minimise bias and error rates in government facial recognition systems, including testing for false positives and racial bias, and

  (ii) government agencies using facial recognition systems comply with the Privacy Act, and maintain transparency, accountability, accuracy and oversight. (general business notice of motion no. 786)

Senator Steele-John to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) in 2013, the United Nations General Assembly affirmed that the rights held by people offline must also be protected online, and it called upon all States to respect and protect the right to privacy in digital communication,

  (ii) social media and online platforms that base their businesses on customer surveillance and advertising are not respecting or protecting individuals' right to privacy,

  (iii) on 25 May 2018, the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into effect, for all companies that hold data within or as a result of doing business with citizens of the European Union (EU),

  (iv) under the GDPR, consent must be explicit for data collected and for the purposes for which data is used, and individuals will have the right of access to their personal data and information about how this personal data is being processed, a right to request erasure of personal data related to them, and a right to be able to transfer personal data from one electronic processing system to and into another,

  (v) the GDPR will include a strict data protection compliance regime with severe penalties of up to 4% of worldwide turnover or 20 million Euro, whichever is higher, and

  (vi) the GDPR represents current best practice regarding standards for the protection of data and, as many Australian businesses will need to comply with the GDPR, implementing a similar regime in Australia would be the most cost-effective way to improve data protection standards; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to:

  (i) support Australian businesses in complying with the GDPR, and

  (ii) look to the GDPR as a model of international best practice for privacy protections for Australians against companies that employ surveillance capitalism. (general business notice of motion no. 787)

Senator Patrick to move on the next day of sitting:

That the following matter be referred to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee for inquiry and report by 18 September 2018:

The proposed Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, with particular reference to:

(a) Australia's economy and trade;

(b) Australia's domestic labour market testing obligations and laws regarding wages, conditions and entitlements of Australian workers and temporary work visa holders;

(c) Australian investment;

(d) the effect of Investor-State Dispute Settlement provisions;

(e) Australia's health, environmental, social and cultural policies, including regulation of essential services;

(f) rights for consumers; and

(g) any other related matters.

Senator Rice to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) 31 March 2018 is Transgender Day of Visibility, and

  (ii) Transgender Day of Visibility is an opportunity to publicly affirm and celebrate trans and gender-diverse people's lives, their stories and their contributions to our communities; and

(b) calls on all parliamentarians to:

  (i) recognise and celebrate the many and varied contributions of trans and gender-diverse people,

  (ii) commit to elevating the voices and stories of trans and gender-diverse people in this Parliament, and

  (iii) support the provision of essential health, social, cultural, and community services for trans and gender-diverse people and their families, delivered with the meaningful input and involvement of these communities. (general business notice of motion no. 788)

Senators O'Sullivan and Williams to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate—

(a) acknowledges that:

  (i) some financial services entities, including authorised deposit-taking institutions, registrable superannuation entities, insurers, statutory authorities, corporate Commonwealth entities, and those holding a financial services licence are yet to publically clarify their position on waiving confidentiality and non-disclosure arrangements for those individuals or organisations looking to lodge a submission to the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry (the Royal Commission), and

  (ii) the opening address by Commissioner Kenneth Hayne, QC, at the Royal Commission on 12 February 2018 stated: 'A confidentiality or non-disparagement clause in an agreement will not act as a reasonable excuse against production in answer to a notice to produce or a summons' and 'It seems to me to follow that answering a notice or summons would not amount to a breach of any confidentiality or non-disparagement clause'; and

(b) adopts a unified position that:

  (i) no individual or organisation should be prevented or deterred from lodging a submission to the Royal Commission due to pre-existing confidentiality obligations in non-disclosure or other agreements (NDAs),

  (ii) where an NDA would prevent or deter the lodgement of a submission by a person, the relevant financial service entity should waive the NDA in circumstances where the person seeking to lodge the submission so desires, and

  (iii) where an NDA would prevent or deter the lodgement of a submission by a person, the relevant Commonwealth statutory authority, corporate Commonwealth entity or government business enterprise should waive the NDA in circumstances where the person seeking to lodge the submission so desires. (general business notice of motion no. 789)

Senators Siewert and McKim to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate—

(a) notes with deep concern reports that Indigenous rangers could be caught up in the Government's proposed foreign interference laws, in particular, the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Bill 2017;

(b) expresses confusion that Indigenous rangers could find themselves cast as foreign agents by advocating in favour of their program, simply because they are funded by an American charitable trust;

(c) affirms that the Indigenous rangers program plays a critical role in protecting country, and providing meaningful employment opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples;

(d) further affirms the importance of advocacy and civil society in a healthy democracy; and

(e) calls on the Federal Government to:

  (i) abandon its package of legislation relating to foreign influence, including the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Bill 2017, the National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Bill 2017, and the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Funding and Disclosure Reform) Bill 2017, and

  (ii) go back to the drawing board and adequately consult with those affected by the legislation. (general business notice of motion no. 790)

Senator Urquhart to move on the next day of sitting:

That the Senate requires the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee to meet on 10 April 2018, from 2 pm to 4 pm, in Canberra, to further consider the 2017-18 additional estimates in the Communications and Arts portfolio, and the NBNCo, and that the Minister for Communications and the Minister for the Arts (Senator Fifield) be in attendance, as well as Mr Morrow, Mr Rue, Mr McInerney, Mr Ryan and Ms Lovell from NBNCo. (general business notice of motion no. 791)