Division
Catryna Bilyk I spoke earlier about this bill and I was interrupted. I was explaining to those on the government benches who were previously opposed to a price cap on VET fees. Minister Ryan, Birmingham and Morrison all came out strongly against the idea. Despite all the criticism from those opposite of Labor's price cap policy, these bills we are debating today propose three different price caps on VET FEE-HELP lines: $5000, $10,000 and $15,000. This is a backflip of such proportions that, seriously, it would make an Olympic gymnast proud. Another welcome backflip by the government has been the provision of an ombudsman for the VET sector, something that Labor has been calling for over a long time. The Minister for Education and Training, Senator Birmingham, gave an undertaking a year ago that he would establish an ombudsman, but there was no provision for one in these bills when they were presented to the House. Many stakeholders supported the idea of an ombudsman through their responses to the VET FEE-HELP discussion paper, and it is pleasing to see that the government will finally move to amend their legislation in this place to provide for one. An ombudsman is a sensible, practical step to help students get redress for exploitation and unfair debts. Labor is also pleased to see the government moving to implement a version of the transparency and reporting requirements that Labor moved in the House. This will allow information about the operation of the scheme to be released twice a year so that the public can scrutinise the effectiveness of what providers are doing and what is happening to taxpayers' money. Labor has serious concerns about the government's draft eligible course list which were raised by stakeholders through the Senate inquiry. Submissions to the inquiry noted the simplistic methodology used to create the list. The government has based the list on state skills lists, which were never ever designed for this purpose. The requirement that the cours
Senate, 2016-11-30. negative: ayes 8, noes 47.
Question
Catryna Bilyk I spoke earlier about this bill and I was interrupted. I was explaining to those on the government benches who were previously opposed to a price cap on VET fees. Minister Ryan, Birmingham and Morrison all came out strongly against the idea. Despite all the criticism from those opposite of Labor's price cap policy, these bills we are debating today propose three different price caps on VET FEE-HELP lines: $5000, $10,000 and $15,000. This is a backflip of such proportions that, seriously, it would make an Olympic gymnast proud. Another welcome backflip by the government has been the provision of an ombudsman for the VET sector, something that Labor has been calling for over a long time. The Minister for Education and Training, Senator Birmingham, gave an undertaking a year ago that he would establish an ombudsman, but there was no provision for one in these bills when they were presented to the House. Many stakeholders supported the idea of an ombudsman through their responses to the VET FEE-HELP discussion paper, and it is pleasing to see that the government will finally move to amend their legislation in this place to provide for one. An ombudsman is a sensible, practical step to help students get redress for exploitation and unfair debts. Labor is also pleased to see the government moving to implement a version of the transparency and reporting requirements that Labor moved in the House. This will allow information about the operation of the scheme to be released twice a year so that the public can scrutinise the effectiveness of what providers are doing and what is happening to taxpayers' money. Labor has serious concerns about the government's draft eligible course list which were raised by stakeholders through the Senate inquiry. Submissions to the inquiry noted the simplistic methodology used to create the list. The government has based the list on state skills lists, which were never ever designed for this purpose. The requirement that the cours
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