Thousands of student debts completely wiped as educator ordered to pay $30m over ‘unconscionable conduct'
The Federal Court has ordered an educator and its parent company to pay penalties of more than $30 million for misleading students.
Captain Cook College, a vocational college offering online diploma courses, was slammed for unfairly leaving 5500 vulnerable students with VET FEE-HELP debts totalling more than $60 million.
'The vast majority of them failed to complete any part of their course, and around 86 per cent never even logged in to their online course,' the Australian Competition and Consumer Commision (ACCC) said on Tuesday.
This was because the college removed consumer safeguards from its course enrolment and withdrawal processes, which affected vulnerable and disadvantaged consumers that were unsuitable for the enrolment.
That misconduct went down in 2015, a year after the college was acquired by parent company Site Group. A year later, the college stopped enrolling students and ended its core operations.
Competition and consumer regulator ACCC took action against the college in 2018.
The Government waived the thousands of unfair student debts, but ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said the 'unconscionable conduct' did not just cost taxpayers.
'It also caused distress to the thousands of consumers enrolled in their courses who for many years were told they had significant debts,' she said.
The college had received tens of millions of dollars of federal government funding under the VET FEE-HELP scheme and saw a huge boost in revenue after the misconduct, ACCC said.
Captain Cook College was ordered by the court on Tuesday to pay $20 million for engaging in systemic unconscionable conduct.
It was also ordered to pay $750,000 for making false or misleading representations to students in connection with online diploma courses under the former VET FEE-HELP loan program, which was replaced by the by VET Student Loans program in 2017.
The court ordered Site Group to pay another $10 million in penalties, in addition to a $400,000 for the parent company's former COO, Blake Wills, who was 'knowingly concerned in Captain Cook College's system of unconscionable conduct', ACCC said.
Former CEO Ian Cook was already penalised in a 2020 settlement. He is disqualified from managing corporations for three years and he was ordered to pay $250,000 in penalties and contribute towards the ACCC's costs.
Site and several subsidiaries entered into voluntary administration in March this year.
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3 days ago
- Perth Now
Albo's impossible choice on super tax
Anthony Albanese has indicated that he will work with the Coalition to pass Labor's proposed tax to hit super balances over $3m with a 30 per cent tax. Speaking from Perth on Tuesday, the Prime Minister conceded that Labor doesn't have 'majority in the Senate' and said 'we obviously work with different parties'. 'If the signal from the Coalition is across the board – I'm not talking specifically here – that they will be more constructive and not just be part of a no-alition with the Greens Party, then that would be welcome,' he said. 'I think people in the last term of parliament saw a Coalition that was just committed to blocking everything – housing investment, support for further investment in education,' he continued, adding that he hoped the Coalition will support Labor's push to cut all HELP debts by 20 per cent. Anthony Albanese said he would work with 'different parties' in order to pass Labor's proposed super tax. NewsWire/Philip Gostelow Credit: Supplied While Labor has continued to face questions over its plans to double earning tax on superannuation balances over $3m, the Greens have given the policy in-principle support. This would negate the need for Labor to seek bipartisan support in the Senate. However the minor party has argued for the threshold to be lowered to $2m, with indexation requirements that would result in the threshold increasing over time. Although the Coalition has indicated that it is open for negotiations, this is contingent on the inclusion of indexation provisions, and excluding the tax on unrealised gains, like property. James Paterson said the Treasurer was in hiding. Jason Edwards / NewsWire Credit: News Corp Australia On Monday, Coalition finance spokesman James Paterson accused Jim Chalmers of being 'in hiding' due to the controversy over the super tax. Senator Paterson said the Coalition was 'very proud to oppose it because we think it is bad tax law'. 'He's barely been seen or heard from since the election. He's letting other ministers like Amanda Rishworth front the Sunday shows to try to explain his complicated, confused, and contradictory policy,' he said. Senator Paterson has also This is due to carveouts for people on defined benefit pensions, who won't have to pay the tax until after they retire, while people with normal super funds and self-managed funds will be liable during their working years. This includes long-serving politicians who entered parliament before 2004, and include Mr Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Sussan Ley. 'I think he (the Treasurer) should front up today and explain the rationale for this dodgy exemption that he's given his boss and whether or not Anthony Albanese participated in the decision to grant that exemption.'
