Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) in the 2023 financial year the Government collected more money from HECS/HELP debt than it did from gas companies;

(b) millions of Australians with student debt were hit with a 7.1 per cent indexation increase last year; and

(c) many federal politicians received free university themselves; and

(2) calls on the Government to wipe student debt and make university and TAFE free.

If you've got a HECS or HELP student debt and you want to know how badly you're being screwed, look no further than Norway, where they provide free university education, funded in part by the fact that they properly tax their gas corporations. In fact, the opposite happens in Australia, where we tax our gas corporations so poorly—we let them get away with often paying no tax at all—that, in the last financial year, this Labor government made more money off student debt than they did off their special tax on gas corporations. What's happening in Australia is that students are being asked to pay more so gas corporations can pay less. Meanwhile, in Norway students are given free university education and no student debt at all, funded by making gas corporations pay their fair share in tax. I think most Australians would agree that it would be much fairer if we made those gas corporations pay their fair share in tax so we could scrap student debt and make university and TAFE entirely free—the way it used to be in Australia, by the way.

Not only is it especially young people and people graduating from university getting smashed by skyrocketing house prices, to the extent that a vast majority now are giving up on ever being able to buy a home, and not only are they stuck paying exorbitant rent increases, leaving many of them financially crippled, but, once you get past all of that, they're also left with massive student debts that are often increasing faster than they can afford to pay them off. We have a situation basically where, if you're a student and you graduate with, say, a $30,000 or $40,000 student debt, even on a good income you know that you're probably never going to be able to buy a house on your own. But, even if you do apply for a mortgage, the bank will look at your student debt, and they will make it less likely that you're able to buy a house. On top of that, even if you pay a little bit off on your student debt every year, last year the government effectively charged an interest rate of 7.1 per cent on that student debt. They call it indexation, but, just to be clear, a lot of mortgage holders paid less on their mortgage than students paid on their student debt last year. What that means is that you effectively cop a wage cut. Every year, out of your tax, comes money from your wage to pay your student debt, which is often increasing faster than you can afford to pay it off because the Labor government refuses to properly tax gas corporations to fund what people in Norway get right now—free university education so that people get to graduate completely debt free.

I mentioned before that it happened in Australia as well. In fact, a lot of politicians in this place got free university education, including the Prime Minister, who graduated from university without any debt at all and then was able to go and buy a house for about three to four times the average income. Now a student graduating from university graduates with a $24,000 debt, on average, and, if they want to try and buy a house in a capital city, sometimes those house prices can be 30 or 40 times the average income. That's how badly young people are being screwed in this country.

We have the wealth in this country to bring back free university and TAFE. We have the wealth in this country to forgive student debt and finally let people have a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel and stop this grossly unfair situation where gas corporations are paying less on the PRRT than students are paying on their HECS debt. We have the wealth to do that. We could do that right now. But what's happening right now is that we're being held back by a political and economic system completely stacked in favour of large gas corporations, big multinational corporations, one-third of whom, by the way, often get away with paying no tax at all.

This would not just be of benefit to students. How many people right now—in particular, from working-class backgrounds—are choosing not to go to university because they know they'll graduate with a massive student debt that they probably will never be able to pay off? How many people in the later stage of their lives who want to go back and retrain to become a teacher or become a nurse are choosing not to because they know they can't afford to cop the massive student debt? There is a broader social benefit that comes with providing free university education. There are countries around the world that recognise this. If the choice is between making Chevron and Santos pay a little bit more in tax so people don't have to graduate with massive student debts, and letting Chevron and Santos, who also happen to be significant donors to the Labor Party, particularly Santos, get away with it— (Time expired)

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