Jim Molan (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Amendment (Prohibiting Academic Cheating Services) Bill 2019. We shouldn't have to do this but, of course, we do because human nature is what it is. Cheating services are a blight on our education system. There are criminals who are exploiting vulnerable students and undermining the integrity of our high quality degrees. Cheats should never prosper and, under our governance, if you sell a cheating service to an Australian student, you will face two years imprisonment or fines of up to $100,000. This bill is aimed at commercial cheating services—not, Senator Faruqi, at students who use them. Students who cheat will still be subject to their own institution's academic integrity policies and sanctions, including any consequences that flow from those. After consulting with the sector, we have clarified the legislation to ensure that parents and friends who might edit their child's essays or provide suggestions on how to improve an assignment, will not be impacted.

The national regulator will be given new powers to investigate and recommend prosecution of cheating service providers. The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency will also be empowered to seek court injunctions to force internet service providers and search engines to block cheating websites. This bill amends the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011, known as the TEQSA Act, to make it an offence to provide or advertise a range of academic cheating services to students studying with Australian higher education providers, whether the service is provided from within Australia or overseas. Criminal and civil penalties of up to two years jail and fines of up to 500 penalty units, around $100,000, will apply where the cheating service or advertising is for a commercial purpose. Civil penalties of up to 500 penalty units will apply where the cheating service is provided without remuneration. Strict liability will apply to the criminal offence of providing an academic cheating service, in order to undermine services' tactics of disingenuous disclaimers regarding the purpose and use of their product. The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency will be appointed to enforce the new law, with its powers to include monitoring, intelligence gathering, investigation and prosecution of identified offenders. TEQSA will have additional powers to collect and disseminate information about cheating websites and their users to help institutions combat cheating activities on campus but with safeguards to protect the unwarranted sharing of personal information about those who purchase cheating materials. TEQSA will also have the ability to seek court injunctions to force internet service providers and search engines to block cheating websites.

I, like Senator Pratt, would like to draw to the chamber's notice the state of the tertiary education sector.