2018-04-23
The Australian Greens are calling on the Government to waive the debts unknowingly incurred by young Australians hoodwinked by private VET providers.
“The rampant rorting of the VET system is one of the most extraordinary and damning examples of failed privatisation that Australia has ever seen,” Greens education spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“Young people and students should not be punished with existing debts for education and training they never received from dodgy institutions.
“These providers were lean, mean, rorting machines. They knew exactly what they were doing when they signed young people up to their dodgy courses and students should not be in the crosshairs.
“The Labor and Liberal governments were fooled, but these students are the victims of the biggest con job in the education sector in living memory.
“The Government must waive the debts of these students. No one should undertake a study pathway in good faith, have the rug ripped out from underneath them, and bear the consequences. Rather than pursuing debts for these students, the Government should instead be focusing on helping them get back on track, and properly funding TAFE as the national provider of vocational education and training.
“Public money should not be given to private, for-profit education providers and should instead be invested in the struggling TAFE system.”