Senate debates
Thursday, 24 July 2025
Questions without Notice
International Students
2:56 pm
Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source
Thanks, Senator Roberts. There are a number of assumptions in your question. One of them is that those students who obtained fraudulent qualifications were working in the occupation that that qualification was for. As I said, I am checking my records as to that situation, but I don't think you should necessarily make that assumption. It is one thing for someone to obtain a fraudulent qualification, and that is wrong. As I said, we have taken action on that against the students by cancelling their qualifications. Also, we have taken action against some of those shonky providers. But it's quite possible that those students may have obtained a qualification in a certain area but have been working in a completely different occupation. My recollection is that that is what the case was for those students, but I'm checking that matter. As I said, if I have heard anything further to add to that then I will advise the chamber.
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