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

I rise to support the amendments moved by the member for Kooyong. As many in this House would know, and as the minister is very aware, addressing the timing of HECS debt indexation is something my community of North Sydney has long been advocating for.

I want to start by commending the minister for his engagement in this area. It's incredibly refreshing, and I think Australians should be very aware that this is a minister who is very committed to listening to students and families and trying to make the changes needed to make the system fairer. Having said that, it feels like we've gotten part-way there but we haven't yet fixed the entire problem. There is no doubt that the timing of the application of the HECS indexation is a significant issue at the moment, and it's contrary to many other basic financial practices. People are not charged interest on their home loan only once a year without being given the benefit of what they've paid down over time, yet we have a debt system at the moment, that predominantly affects younger Australians, which sees them work to pay off a debt only to be charged interest on an amount that they owed at the start of a financial year, versus where they are in real terms. I've heard on many occasions that this is a technical issue. The ATO says it's just not possible, because of a technical framework, but I think we should be setting ourselves as a parliament beyond that and coming up with a solution to work around this.

I also wanted to take a moment to reflect on the fact that, at the end of the day, we have to move beyond the current crisis that is facing young people. We have to find a way to help them feel like they have a chance to pay down their debts. While, in my second reading speech, I had advocated for a 1 November date, I think 1 December is reasonable. As an added bonus, what I would also suggest to this place and to the ATO is that this bill will, ironically, act as an incentive for young Australians to get their tax returns done, so we'll have a much clearer position of where we stand.

In closing, one thing that really concerns me here is that, whether we like it or not, our system of government is currently making more money off tertiary students than it makes off taxing tobacco or natural resources. It's time we addressed this.

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