Stephen Bates (Brisbane, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It is well known that we are currently living through a cost-of-living crisis. Families are struggling to put food on the table, rents everywhere are skyrocketing and income support is still woefully inadequate. University students, who are often forced to live on income support well below the poverty line, study full-time and are now faced with rents rising at rates far outpacing inflation and their own incomes. Students and young people seeking higher education must oftentimes work additional jobs just so they can support themselves through their education. On top of this, student debt across the country is increasing at an exorbitant rate.

On 1 June this year HECS debt was indexed at 3.9 per cent. This is a substantial increase from last year, when the figure sat around 0.6 per cent. As a result, we're now in a situation where many students are paying off their HECS debt at a slower rate than it is accruing interest, potentially leading to situations where students can never fully repay their debt or where the cost of their degree balloons to even more unsustainable levels because they don't have the income to match the indexation rate. Concerningly, due to predicted increases to the inflation rate, it's likely that indexation could approach nearly 10 per cent. Such a high rate of indexation will make taking on HECS debt impossible for many students and force those studying to cease their education for fear of attracting a debt they will never be able to pay off.

My electorate of Brisbane is home to many higher education institutions and to one of the youngest populations of any federal electorate. Many of the students in my electorate have spoken with me about the challenges of studying up to 40 hours a week, on top of having to work unsustainable hours because the rate of income support is so low that they aren't able to cover their basic expenses like rent and food. Many of them have spent entire years navigating the challenges of virtual learning in the wake of the pandemic. After years of struggling to make ends meet and achieve the results they want, they're still left in tens of thousands of dollars of debt.

The system urgently needs reform. Once again, we're seeing Australian students being left behind. We're also falling far behind our international counterparts, who appreciate the value of making education more accessible and affordable, and who have seen the vast economic and social benefits that have come from expanding free public education to include the tertiary sector. New Zealand has adopted a policy of one fee-free year of higher education. Even the United States has taken steps to cancel up to US$20,000 of student debt. Once again, Australia is left playing catch up.

Tertiary education has the potential to be an incredible force to boost the skills and research capabilities of our country. We need to value it with the importance it deserves, we need to properly fund higher education and we need to ensure it is accessible to Australians of all backgrounds—regardless of class or postcode—because every Australian deserves access to the world-class education we have the potential to provide. We need to give those Australians hope that the financial barriers they face do not make them undeserving of the education they want.

The Greens welcome this action that the government is taking on this bill, particularly changes to ensure that all students pay the same rate for courses they are enrolled in regardless of their ability to pay upfront. This is a small step, but we must continue the process of reforming how we value education in this country, because the positive outcomes of higher education are numerous and far reaching. Whether it's increases to innovation, higher workforce productivity or workforce specialisation, we must value higher education and the improvements it brings to both our economy and society as a whole. If we are to truly recognise the value education brings to Australia, we must make it universally accessible for all Australians and remove the financial barriers in place, particularly during the cost-of-living crisis we're currently in. The first step on that path is to acknowledge that no-one should be in debt for receiving an education and to wipe student debt.

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