The Australian Parliament passed legislation on 21 March to strengthen the powers of the Australian Skills and Quality Authority (ASQA). The National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Amendment (Strengthening Quality and Integrity in Vocational Education and Training No.1) Bill 2024 gives ASQA additional tools to act against registered training organisations (RTOs) who are engaging in inappropriate ways.
The legislation will:
- Cause an RTO’s registration to automatically lapse where the provider has not delivered training and/or assessment for 12 months.
- Prevent RTOs from expanding their course offering if they have been operating for less than 2 years.
- Provide ASQA with greater discretion in prioritising, considering and deciding RTO applications.
- Empower the Minister, with the agreement of State and Territory Skills Ministers, to require ASQA to pause the acceptance and processing of new RTO applications (or those for one or more classes of RTO).
- Expand offence and civil penalty provisions to cover a broader range of false or misleading representations by RTOs about their operations.
- Increase five-fold maximum penalties for engaging in egregious conduct that breaches relevant offences or civil penalties under the Act.
The Minister for Skills and Training, the Hon Brendan O’Connor MP, said “Removing dodgy providers, who undermine integrity and trust in VET, will benefit students, the sector and our wider community.”
The government has also been at pains to point out that it believes that it is a minority of providers who are doing the wrong thing. “These measures support the majority of providers who do the right thing, and whose reputations are damaged by exploitative bottom-feeders,” said O’Connor.
Although the purpose of the legislation has been broadly supported by peak bodies, including TAFE Directors Australia, Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia (ITECA) and the Australian Industry Group, ITECA has also expressed some concerns that the legislation is an excessive response to a small number of players in the sector.
According to ITECA, the following safeguards were included in the legislative amendment due to successful lobbying by the peak body:
- Place a twelve-month limit on the Australian Government’s ability to ban the establishment of new RTOs; and
- If such a ban is introduced, publish advice that describes the ban and provides an explanatory statement for the determination.
Why is the legislation needed?
Issues of integrity and quality in the Australian VET sector were highlighted in 2023 in Nixon Review (2023 Rapid Review into the Exploitation of Australia’s Visa System) and the report of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Quality and Integrity – the Quest for Sustainable Growth: Interim Report into International Education. This includes that some RTOs are using their operations as a veil of legitimacy for fraudulent activity, or to circumvent regulatory requirements.
