campusreview. com. au
VET & TAFE sub-heading“ Are the reforms working?”, the authors draw on only two sources of evidence to answer that question, ignoring all other relevant information. The first source is the data from a survey of training providers in 2015, who offered a number of unsurprising revelations:“ 63 per cent of surveyed providers stated they believed that they had improved the students’ understanding of VET FEE- HELP and students’ rights and obligations. Mechanisms described by RTOs included one-on-one interviews, providing information in student handbooks and emails.” What about the other 37 per cent of providers?!
They admitted they had not improved the students’ understanding of VET FEE-HELP and students’ rights and obligations. Clearly, the skimpy 2015 reforms are not working well enough.
The second source of evidence about the effectiveness of reforms is the list of complaints received about VET FEE-HELP, which the authors interpret mistakenly. The authors claim that“ as can be seen in table 9, the complaints in relation to marketing of VET FEE-HELP have dropped markedly; a possible sign that the 2015 reforms are making a difference”. This is simply untrue. In fact, table 9 shows the number of complaints in the last six months of 2015 was 445 and the number in the first three, not six, months of 2016 was one less, at 444. That represents a doubling of the rate at which people are lodging complaints. The 2015 reforms are not reducing complaints about VET FEE-HELP.
Meanwhile, there is no mention in the discussion paper of the vast number of documented examples in the mass media in recent years about the continuing abuse of many students who take out VET FEE-HELP loans. Many of these examples of abuse have been acknowledged in this column, including examples from 7.30, Four Corners, ABC Radio, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian’ s“ Higher Education” section.
BLAME IT ON LABOR Two of the most recent revelations about VET FEE-HELP were provided by the ABC’ s Background Briefing program in February and April 2016. The February program revealed the shambolic lack of data sharing between the federal government and the Australian Skills Quality Authority. Journalist Paddy Manning highlighted the inept lack of controls by the Coalition from 2014 – 16:“ In the last three years, private training colleges have run away with the vast bulk of a $ 5 billion pool of taxpayers’ money. Once again, the federal government has presided over a radical new program and left the regulatory controls for later.”
April’ s Background Briefing program included a sensational interview with Ivan Brown, the chief executive of ASX-listed company Australian Careers Network, which has since gone into administration. Brown described to Manning how, in a moment of need, he reached out to the Liberal Party and was able to secure a meeting with a senior Coalition senator, who made inquiries on his behalf about the future of VET FEE-HELP.
Brown told the ABC the senator later advised him that the problems plaguing the scheme were the fault of Labor policy alone and that as part of efforts to rectify the situation, the Coalition would be publicly blaming the ALP. Brown’ s account has since been refuted by the Coalition.
Regardless, in the same interview, Brown, who said he had extensive and close dealings with the government through 2014 – 15, ridiculed the Coalition for seeking to blame Labor:
“ We’ re probably going to have a couple hundred thousand students being left without colleges and they’ re [ the government’ s ] going to be saying from the rooftops that it’ s all Labor’ s fault. Now, sure enough, Labor wrote the policy, Labor presided over some of the growth, but it really grew under the Liberals.”
While the discussion paper focused on the number of complaints received about VET FEE-HELP, Manning focused on some more significant indicators of whether the Coalition’ s reforms had worked:
“ Background Briefing’ s analysis shows that $ 2 billion of that [ VET FEE-HELP ] money went to just eight training colleges. Of those eight, seven are facing either prosecution by the consumer watchdog or action from the industry regulator. One of the seven [ Australian Careers Network ] recently went broke … Another is facing a class action by former students and is struggling to stay afloat.”
PASSIONATE ABOUT PROFIT, NOT HUMAN TRAGEDY The fifth and final section of the discussion paper is titled“ Options for change” and is unimpressive in that it uses the derogatory concept of“ the expansion” of the scheme in 2012 to remind readers that the problems in 2016 are due to the government deposed in 2013. This final section also demonstrates more sympathy for the ongoing business success of training providers than it does for giving assistance to the tens of thousands of students who have been exploited to date or will be exploited this year by unscrupulous providers.
Nowhere in the short discussion on protecting students is there any passion displayed about the fact that students’ hopes and confidence have been crushed. However, to obtain insights into the human cost of the VET FEE-HELP disasters in 2014 – 16, one need only tune in to the mass media. One of the most memorable stories in 2016 was this piece about one student, Lukas, who appeared on the Background Briefing program in February:
ABC: In 2014, it was revealed the college [ Aspire ] had signed up a young man with an intellectual disability into an expensive university-level course, as his mother [ Jacqui Whitehead ] explained to the ABC.
ABC: Aspire College stopped Lukas on his way into Centrelink one day and enrolled him in a business management course with the promise of a free computer.
Lukas: I wanted the laptop to make games and stuff, like, you’ ve got Oracle here.
ABC: [ Lukas ] couldn’ t do the course work. But instead of helping him out of it, Aspire sold him another diploma. Jacqui Whitehead: I’ m heartbroken that he’ s got a debt. I’ m heartbroken that he owes $ 18,000. The government needs to realise that they’ re handing money to these colleges and the kids aren’ t getting anything out of it.
In seeking to blame Labor’ s 2012 actions for today’ s VET FEE-HELP failures, and in avoiding mentioning such human tragedies occurring in 2016, the government is abdicating its responsibility to protect the most vulnerable members of our society. In being more sympathetic to the business success of training providers than to the human costs of exploitation, the government is likely to expose to abuse many more people like Lukas. Meanwhile, the waste of taxpayers’ funds from VET FEE-HELP this year remains at alarming levels. ■
Dr John Mitchell is a VET researcher and analyst.
� jma. com. au
19