Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 is a welcome first step in alleviating some of the unfair and unnecessary pressures facing Australian students and those with ballooning HECS-HELP debts. Great pressures they certainly are, which is why I've been lobbying the government to reform the HECS system for years. In fact, hearing from many of my constituents about the impacts of inflation on their HECS debts, I first asked the Minister for Education to review HECS indexation arrangements way back during question time in July 2022. So for me it was personally heartening to see the government subsequently include HECS arrangements within the scope of the accord review. Though, lamentably, change comes slowly. Subsequently, as inflation took off, I then also called on the minister to freeze indexation in May 2023 and have since consistently argued that more support should be given to those struggling with the surging price of indexation. Now we finally have some movement. While it hasn't gone as far as I'd like, I do applaud the government and the minister for this important first step because today's changes to the indexation arrangements and the limited debt forgiveness will in fact give some much-needed relief to students. But of course much more needs to be done.

For instance, I've long argued for a return to fee-free first degrees for Australian citizens, an idea which I'd hope deeply resonates with the current federal government because it was of course the Labor government led by Gough Whitlam that introduced fee-free degrees in the 1970s. Back then it spoke well of the government and indeed of our country that we valued education so highly that we strongly prioritised investing in and educating Australians. Some of us in the chamber were the beneficiaries of those free degrees or of free degrees in other ways, like the tertiary qualification I was so fortunate to obtain during my time in the military. It's a legacy that has shaped our country, though it's also a legacy that excludes younger Australians who look at us and rightly question why, having benefited from this policy ourselves, we now tell them it's too costly and that their education is no longer our country's priority. Of course, there are those who argue that we can't afford a return to such government largess. Well, I say we can afford it because we are one of the richest countries in the world and more than capable of making higher education accessible and affordable for any Australian with the desire and aptitude to pursue it. Again, it's all about priorities.

I know I don't have the government or opposition support on this, so for now at least there are other changes that could be made—for example, further changes to the indexation arrangements, including fixing the current nonsense where a person's regular compulsory HECS repayments don't actually get subtracted from their debt until they file their tax return the following financial year. There are also the 47 recommendations of the Universities Accord report, many of which still have yet to receive a government response. These recommendations crucially include higher and more accessible income support for university students to support them while studying and ditching the previous government's Jobs-ready Graduates scheme, which raised the fees for many students, particularly in the humanities, which are so important to our nation, not least because of the way they encourage critical thinking.

I look forward to working with the government to address these matters and to ensure that student debts and the cost of university are no longer a barrier to higher education for many people who seek it.

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