Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

There are a number of topics that we get to debate in this chamber in a particular parliamentary term, but I think it's really important that we take a stand on the sort of nation that we want to be. Today, I've actually had three primary schools come through the House, so to have an opportunity to stand and talk to the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill tonight, for me, is particularly timely.

Ultimately, I think the question we need to ask ourselves as a nation is do we see the education of young people and others across the country as an investment in the future of our economy on the basis that those that are educated and upskilled are able to generate significant personal income that then translates into significant personal income tax takings, or do we want to continue in a mindset where the investment is only warranted where it is into high-return professions, or is the case where those who can afford to learn are given the opportunity to learn while those who cannot afford are left on the sidelines? Like many in this chamber, I am the first person in my family to go to university, and it was drummed into me from a very young age that education was the way out and up. It's a message that I have passed onto my children, but it's not lost on me, as somebody in this House, that, actually, I am the first generation of HECS.

When I entered university, it was the first time that HECS and a user-pay system was introduced. I can't help but reflect on the fact that the first generation exposed to that regime have actually gone on to continue to thrive. We were asked to abide by a set of rules that enabled us to have a sense of paying back our education, but it didn't hold us back from achieving everything else we wanted to do, including owning homes and setting up businesses. Somewhere along the line, in the pursuit of an ideal that was established back in 1989, we have lost our way as a nation, and we are uncertain about what tertiary education now means to us and why we wish to invest in it or how we wish to invest in it.

What I'd like to do tonight is take a moment to say I encourage all of us in this parliament to reset our expectations around education and to be prepared to fight for education as a fundamental human right—a right that all should have access to. For us to enable that, though, we are going to need bipartisan support in this place, and so I do reach out to colleagues right across this chamber to say please weigh up in your mind what you role you think education plays in driving our economy and our society forward.

As it relates to this particular piece of legislation, the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 implements some of the recommendations of the Australian Universities Accord final report, which was tabled in 2023, and it takes the necessary and long overdue steps to start to improve our higher education sector. It's true: the community of North Sydney welcomes this legislation, particularly the changes to the method by which HELP debt indexation is calculated each year, as this is an issue my community specifically raised with the government within the first six months of my term.

Changing the way the indexation is calculated ensures the perverse indexation outcomes of 2023 are not repeated and that HELP debts will no longer grow faster than wages. I sincerely thank the minister and his team for their engagement on this issue. Many in my electorate have written to me about HELP debt indexation over the last two years, including current school students worried about their ability to afford tertiary education, recent entrants to the workforce who were shocked to find their HELP debt growing despite their repayments and parents who see their adult children struggling to launch themselves into the world under the weight of HELP debt. In an environment where the cost-of-living crisis is being felt by everyone, burgeoning HELP debts reduce young people's capacity for economic engagement and disincentivise the personal investment in education that we, as a society, are looking to encourage. Indeed, the various targets outlined in the final accord report, such as lifting tertiary education attainment rates to 80 per cent by 2050, are incredibly ambitious. I think we need to be clear: that will not be achieved without making the system more equitable, more affordable, more accessible, more inspirational and, ultimately, more aspirational, particularly for people from disadvantaged or remote backgrounds.

But the truth of the reform that we see in this legislation is that it's only part of the story, and there is still definitely more for this government and this parliament to do. For this reason I welcome the opportunity to support the member for Goldstein's second reading amendment, which appropriately draws the House's attention to one fact that I think is often overlooked. That is that the costs of many degrees have increased well above CPI in recent years, resulting in punitive HELP debts which are placing additional financial burden on Australians in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.

The member's amendment also calls on the government to calculate HELP debt indexation after the due date for individual tax returns each year, and on this my community could not agree more. While changing the rate of debt indexation will make a difference and is very welcome, the truth is that my community believes the government should consider whether the equity ambitions underlying this legislation could be furthered by changing the date of HELP debt indexation to allow indexation to be applied to the truly reduced balances—one that takes into account the payments that have been withheld against a debt in any given year. Alongside addressing the rate of debt indexation, changing the date of indexation was a recommendation in the final accord report and is something I have previously written to the minister about.

In an ideal world I think we could agree: debt repayments would be applied in real time in the same way that they are when you pay off any other debt, be that your credit card or a mortgage. Sadly, however, the ATO have previously stated that this is impossible because their systems can't cope with it. The ATO's systems can't cope with what should be a fundamental truth. My community would strongly advocate that the ATO's systems be fixed, that if we've identified this challenge then we should step in to it and address it, and that indexation should be changed from the current date of 1 June to 1 November each year as a pragmatic middle ground that goes some way to addressing the current inequity. A date of 1 November would allow time for those with a HELP debt to complete a tax return and have the indexation applied to the reduced debt. While it's not perfect, this would at least reduce the extent to which withheld payments are accrued without benefit whilst incentivising those with a HELP debt to complete a tax return before 1 November. Surely, that's a win-win.

My community is also pleased to see that the legislation seeks to address the financial hardship that comes with students completing mandatory practical study, including in critical areas like teaching, nursing and social work. Placement poverty is absolutely an issue that is being experienced by people living in my electorate, and it has been raised with me time and again by both students and parents as they struggle to afford to support themselves or their child through extensive periods of mandatory placement, which often take place in locations far from home and necessitate forgoing individual income-earning opportunities. Indeed, according to the government, some 68,000 students studying teaching, nursing or social work and 5,000 eligible VET students will benefit from this Commonwealth prac payment. Conceptually this is a welcome initiative, but the detail on what percentage of existing enrolments it will cover and what increases this might encourage is conspicuously missing.

It is also quite inconsistent with other employment law in other places. As somebody who has run businesses, I remember, with clarity, when it became illegal for me to bring an intern into my business without paying them, whether that was in a communications role or in a marketing role, and I do not understand why that law has not been equally applied across all workplaces. We are essentially putting these students out as free labour in specific areas.

Having said that, the payment the government is pursuing in itself is only proposed to be a maximum of $319.50 a week, which is significantly less than comparable payments, including Austudy. With eligibility rules that require students either to be on some form of Australian government income support or to be able to demonstrate that they needed to work more than 15 hours per week prior to their placement to attend uni, this modest compensation of $8 an hour will be hard to access and it probably won't cover what's being lost. It is, of course, better than nothing, but I question whether the payment will actually shift the dial on student decision-making. It will certainly not be enough to cover the cost of city based students undertaking their prac placements in rural communities, or, reciprocally, to enable students located in remote areas to experience a placement in the city.

Interestingly, I witnessed this firsthand recently, when a daughter of one of my friends took a social work placement in Orange. Far from home and with no time for another job, my friend's daughter relied on her limited savings and her family to cover her rent and basic living expenses for just on four months, and I saw the pressure it placed on everyone. It's not that anyone begrudged her the opportunity, and everyone was ecstatic that she was headed to a regional community, but the challenge was real. While this legislation provides a good headline, I can't see how it is going to help a young person like my friend's daughter, and, to me, it's a missed opportunity.

There are also many other important studies requiring significant student commitment to unpaid placements that are not covered by this proposal, including medicine, vet science, allied health and psychology. Given that we are in the middle of a mental health crisis, I wonder at the exclusion of what I think we can all agree is a critical and in-demand profession. With mental health in mind, I'm conflicted as to accepting that this payment must be targeted using economic imperatives, rather than being driven by student welfare—although I understand there is only so much money to go around. If we are truly to encourage young people to undertake degrees, however, and stem shortages in professions identified as key enablers in our economy, we need to do better than $8 an hour, and I implore the minister and this government to open these payments to other courses as quickly as possible.

Finally, this bill mandates that 40 per cent of student services and amenities fees, or SSAF, revenue is to be distributed to student-led organisations. From what I can tell, most organisations are comfortable with this, as are the universities. However, it is imperative that the organisations have a demonstrated capacity to manage the funds, and I note that some universities—including the Australian Catholic University, which has a campus in my electorate of North Sydney—currently actually provide student services directly, and, in the ACU's case, there is no student union arrangement. This poses obvious challenges insofar as the ACU has dedicated, trained, permanent staff providing student services and support and no immediately qualified student leadership groups to which the SSAF funds could be redirected. The ability, therefore, to seek transitional relief from this mandate is both sensible and welcome.

In closing, I believe my community will welcome this as a good piece of legislation, which could be made better by the adoption of the amendments moved by the member for Goldstein and others on the crossbench. For this reason, I commend the amendments to the government.

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