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

I got asked to tell a story—let me indulge you! A UTS midwifery student told me this: 'I'm a first-year mature-age midwifery student. This payment is going to be absolutely life-changing for me. As a mother of two small children, I'm often balancing between work, placement and looking after my babies. There are literally some days where I'm doing 16-hour days between my study, my work and looking after my children. I cannot wait for this payment to be available for myself and other future mature-age students who might also want to enrol in this course but previously couldn't afford to do it.' That's real cost-of-living relief.

When parliament returns after the winter break I will bring forward legislation to wipe out $3 billion of student debt for more than three million Australians, retrospectively. Both of these things—paid prac and wiping out student debt—help with the cost of degrees and with the cost of living, and encourage more people to become a teacher, a nurse, a midwife or a social worker. And when they get to work, Albo's tax cuts will help them to keep more of what they earn.

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