Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

Another point to make here is this: HECS is an interest-free loan. It's not like a bank, where they lend you money and then they charge you interest and make a profit. The taxpayer doesn't make a profit here. The taxpayer lends a dollar and they get that dollar back in real terms. That's it—no profit. If we make a change here, what this means is that taxpayers, in all of our electorates, have to pay more. If we do what the Greens are suggesting, that's taxpayers paying $9 billion more.

But, more than that, it means that fewer people go to university, not more—just a lucky few, a privileged few. I want more people to go to university. I said yesterday that there are some parts of the country where 70 per cent of young adults have got a university degree.

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