VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Employment, Training and Further Education, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for Road Safety, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (14:07): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: I am pleased to report to the house that I have received the McCann report on the 'Regulation of vocational education and training services for overseas students in South Australia'. In May of this year, I asked Mr Warren McCann, Commissioner for Public Sector Employment, to examine the regulatory system governing the provision of vocational education and training (VET) services to overseas students studying in South Australia. I initiated this review because I wanted South Australia to have the best practice standards in this sector and, in a large part, owing to my concern about the welfare of international students arising from the cancellation of the registration of the Adelaide Pacific International College.

A swift response was needed to maintain the quality of the VET sector, ensure the integrity of the regulatory environment, and inspire the full confidence of all interested parties. The sector impacts greatly on our productivity and is an important export industry. I remind the house that the industry generates around $990 million per annum in income and supports around 7,000 jobs, as well as supporting critical skills and workforce needs in the state's economy.

I must emphasise that, though international students were the focus of the immediate concerns that gave rise to the review, the report and its recommendations cover the entire private VET sector and reflect on broader matters about domestic students. I asked Mr McCann to advise on whether our current regulatory system was sufficiently robust to maintain the integrity of quality education and training and to explore early intervention options that would prevent providers from becoming critically noncompliant with national standards. The report makes 31 recommendations, including:

developing a stronger compliance regime supported by appropriate civil and criminal sanctions;

harsher penalties for breaches of the act by increasing the current maximum fine 20-fold, from $5,000 to $100,000 for registered organisations and $20,000 for individual operators;

improving risk management through better market intelligence and analysis capability;

lifting barriers to entry to prevent substandard providers ever being registered; and

improving the audit process and capability to enforce compliance.

The McCann report also recommends extra powers to the regulator through changes to the Training and Skills Development Act 2008, including:

strong powers given to the regulator to act in urgent circumstances in 24 hours, rather than the current 28 days;

powers to suspend registration of a provider if the regulator is no longer satisfied that the provider is fit and proper;

authority to the regulator and training advocate to make public statements about training providers;

power to require registered providers maintain better records; and

powers to cancel qualification or statement of attainment if the regulator believes qualifications were issued fraudulently or if the training has not been delivered in accordance with the standards required under the Australian Quality Training Framework.

The McCann report also recommends an improvement of existing offences and new offences are also proposed including:

a new offence for a person providing false or misleading information to students or prospective students about, or in connection with, a training course; and

a proposed offence if registered providers do not report certain matters to the regulator.

Importantly, there will be no increased regulatory impact on businesses complying with the legislation and standards; that is, red tape will not increase on most operations because of these changes. The proposals will, however, increase sanctions and regulatory impact on business operations that are defined as high risk.

The commonwealth, in consultation with states and territories, is currently drafting legislation and supporting regulatory instruments to establish a National VET Regulator. Many of the recommendations of the McCann report are of direct relevance to the development of the National VET Regulator, and I will refer all relevant recommendations from the McCann report to the interim commissioner of the National VET Regulator. This will make sure that South Australia will continue to have a strong regulatory framework into the future.

I intend to introduce a bill to amend the Training and Skills Development Act 2008 later this year. In coming weeks, I will release the proposed legislation for consultation with industry and interested parties.

We have an obligation to ensure that both international and domestic students are ensured a quality education, and I am confident that this approach will protect the state's excellent reputation as a provider of high quality education services.

I am pleased to tell the house that the government has accepted all of Mr McCann's report recommendations, and I commend him and his staff for the excellent and thorough work which has been produced. The report builds on the good work in recent years already achieved in this industry by both government and the private sector. South Australia's reputation as a provider of high quality education and training services will be enhanced by adopting the McCann recommendations, and are aimed at reducing risk to the reputation of South Australia as an international education destination and build more protection for all students, both international and domestic, studying VET in South Australia. I now table the report.