Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Young people are getting screwed over by the cost-of-living crisis. Rising rents, supermarket price gouging and mounting student debts are all making it harder for young people to keep their heads above water. University students are graduating with bigger and bigger debts that grow every year and that take longer and longer to pay off. Most people in this place went to university for free but they're more than happy to sentence people to decades of debt. People are now choosing not to go to university because they'll be saddled with these mammoth debts until their 40s or their 50s.

Next year, for the first time ever, arts degrees will cost more than $50,000 under a Labor government. You have Labor to thank for that. With this bill Labor want you to think that they're doing something about it. They want you to think that they give a stuff about these massive debts that young people are being saddled with when, in reality, the Labor government's plan to provide student debt relief will still see student debts rise by 11½ per cent in their first term. That's an 11½ per cent increase to people's student debts under Labor. They're gaslighting you. Under this bill student debts will continue to grow, and young people will continue to struggle under the weight of the cost-of-living crisis.

Here's an idea: wipe student debts and make TAFE and university free. One in three big corporations pays no tax in this country. Let's make them pay their fair share of tax instead of asking students and people who graduate to go even further into debt. The student debt system cannot be fixed, because student debt should not exist. In a wealthy country like ours, if we make the big corporations pay their fair share of tax, then we can make higher education free.

It is beyond doubt that the massive debts that people are under are making the cost-of-living crisis worse. They're locking people out of the housing market. They're causing people to delay having families and they're crushing people's dreams of going to university. We are going to see student debts rise 11½ per cent in Labor's first term. They're saying, 'We'll take $3 billion off the top of that while debt grows to $78 billion.' Three billion dollars is peanuts at a time when one in three big corporations in this country pays absolutely no tax at all. When students who have graduated end up paying more tax than a multinational, something is seriously wrong in this country.

Instead of whacking students with $50,000 for an arts degree under Labor, why don't we go to those big corporations that are making massive profits off the back of people's pain and ask them to pay their fair share of tax. Until we do that, we risk becoming a society where the gap between the haves and the have-nots is just going to keep growing and growing. We are becoming a society where even if you do all of the things that are asked of you and all of the things that they say are the right things—study hard, get a job, try to find a house—you're always going to be behind because you have graduated with a massive debt. Your wages aren't enough to pay for the soaring rent increases because Labor backs unlimited rent increases. If you do manage to find a house to buy, which is out of reach for most people including many graduates at the moment, you end up with a massive mortgage. Mortgages have gone up $1,400 a month under Labor.

We are becoming a society, under this government, where no matter how hard you work—even if you do all the right things—you are never going to be able to get ahead. The Liberals are just as bad because they are the ones that increased the cost of going to university, which Labor has backed and kept with $50,000 arts degrees. These little tweaks—these bandaid answers—from Labor just don't touch the sides. In fact, people are feeling absolutely betrayed. This isn't going to provide any cost-of-living relief right now at all. People thought, when they saw the headlines, 'There's going to be a change to student debt.' People were excited and thought that maybe there would be some relief. But it's not making a difference to the struggles that people are going through right now. It is more gaslighting.

We have an alternative in this country. Instead of asking everyday people like students, graduates and everyone who has done the right thing to pay more, we could ask the big corporations to pay a bit more because—do you know what—the share of national income going to corporate profits has never been higher than under Labor at the moment. Corporations are making massive profits. The banks are making huge profits. Rents are skyrocketing so property developers are doing incredibly well. Instead of reining that in and saying, 'Maybe we shouldn't be giving $175 billion to wealthy property investors that are denying renters and graduates the chance to buy their first home,' Labor is saying, 'We are just going to let the student debt pile keep growing and the cost of doing an arts degree go up to $50,000.'

We are becoming the kind of society where people will stop going to university because they are worried about ending up in a lifetime or decades of debt. That is where we are at now. Astoundingly, earlier today in the Federation Chamber, I heard the Labor member for Higgins warn students not to toy with going to university because debt is dangerous. She said: 'Watch out; you might end up in debt.' Labor is now warning people against going to university because they might end up in huge amounts of debt. That is not the kind of society that we should be living in.

We have an alternative in this country. We could stop giving billions of dollars in handouts to wealthy property investors that are denying renters and first home buyers the chance to buy their first home. One in three big corporations pays no tax in this country. If we say to these big corporations that are making billions of dollars profits—we're talking about excessive profits, multibillion-dollar profits—'You have to pay extra tax when you make above-normal profit' then we would have enough money to do things like wipe student debt and make education free in this country. It is a matter of choice. Labor and the Liberals back the big corporations. They take donations from the big corporations. They back a system where one in three big corporations pays no tax and they back a system where big corporations can put up the price of everyday essentials as much as they want and can make massive record profits and then ask everyday people to pay for them.

I am really proud that my dad was the first person in his family to go to university. He went and studied social work and he was able to do it because education was free. The people in this parliament have enjoyed free education and now they are saying not only to people like my dad but to everyone else out there, 'If you want to go into an arts degree, it will be $50,000 under Labor.' That is what they are saying. Other degrees can cost even more. But meanwhile, they are happy to let the big corporations who pay no tax off the hook. They are happy to say to big multinational gas giants, 'You don't need to pay tax.' But to students, they say, 'We are going to warn you against going to university. We are going to warn you off it because it is going to cost $50,000 and if you can't afford it you shouldn't go.' That is the official Labor position that we heard in the chamber earlier today.

The Greens think we can be a different kind of country. We can be a wealthy country where you are not turned away or warned away from going to university or TAFE because of your income or because of your family background, where you are not put off having a family because you are in mountains of debt as a result of having gone to university, where you are not struggling to make ends meet because you are paying off your university debt at the same time as dealing with another massive increase from your landlord because Labor backs unlimited rent increases. We want the society where everyone in this country and their kids are able to go to university regardless of how much they earn and know they are not going to be saddled with such a big debt that it affects their decisions about whether to have a family or find a home, and we can do that. It is within our grasp. All we need to do is make these big corporations and billionaires pay their fair share of tax. Yes, those big corporations making massive profits are going to have to pay a bit more, but, as a result, everyone else will be able to have what they need to live a good life, including being able to go to university for free.

In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, one of the best things that we could do to relieve the pressure that people are under is to wipe student debt, and, again, we can afford to do that if we make these billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share of tax. That is the kind of society that I want. That is the kind of society that most people in the country want, not one under Labor or Liberal where it is $50,000 to get an arts degree.

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