Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

MILLER-FROST () (): Australia is a country with a bright future for our citizens. A Future Made in Australia, the National Reconstruction Fund and the energy transition are all big policies that are driving industry and opportunities that every Australian will benefit from whether it is from the secure, well-paid jobs that they will create, the services they will benefit from or the thriving economy. The one thing that all of these strategies need is a skilled workforce. For many of these jobs, an apprenticeship, university degree or TAFE qualification is the entry ticket. When we came into government we inherited workforce shortfalls across the economy. There wasn't a sector that I didn't hear from telling me how hard it was to get the skilled workforce they needed—tradies, the health sector, retail services, manufacturing, defence and the list goes on. The previous government ran down TAFE and universities, cutting their funding, jacking up the cost of degrees and making students and graduates pay their HECS or HELP debts when they could least afford it, as they were setting up their careers and setting up their lives post qualification. No wonder there was a shortage of skilled workers.

This government knows that many students are doing it tough. That's why we are changing the way that HELP debt is calculated. Legislation is currently before parliament to make the indexation rate the lower of CPI or the wages price index, and we are backdating that to 1 June 2023. This makes indexation fairer and wipes around $3 billion of student debt for more than three million Australians. It means that your HECS or HELP debt won't go up faster than your wages. Around 80 per cent of those who will benefit from this change are 40 years of age or under and 50 per cent are 30 years of age or under, the same people who are trying to set up their lives while they establish their career and maybe buy house and start a family. This is a practical and direct cost-of-living measure to help them at the stage of life when they need it most.

We also heard from students required to do unpaid pracs as part of their qualification. Some of them had to give up paid work to complete their pracs, and some of them had to move from where they live to a city and pay for accommodation and expenses away from home. Some just couldn't afford to do an unpaid prac, so they didn't finish their qualification. That's an enormous loss to them, but it's also an enormous loss to the country. So we're introducing paid pracs for social work, nursing, midwifery and teaching so that students can afford to complete their prac and complete their qualification. These reforms provide cost-of-living relief for students and graduates, and make higher education better and fairer.

We're also massively expanding and properly funding fee-free uni ready courses to help students set up for success. We've doubled the number of regional university study hubs and established hubs in outer suburbs for the first time. We've established a national student ombudsman to investigate student complaints. And, of course, there is our massively popular fee-free TAFE program, which has delivered over 500,000 places so far and is set to be made permanent. What's next? I'm glad you asked. A re-elected Albanese Labor government will wipe student debt by 20 per cent. That will wipe a further $16 billion in student debts for around three million Australians in relation to apprenticeship loans, and TAFE and university loans.

When I paid my HECS debt, it was calculated at around 30 per cent of the cost of the course. It's now 40 per cent. Students nowadays are paying more per course than my cohort did, at a time when we want more apprentices and more TAFE and university qualified people in the workforce. We will also raise the income threshold at which you need to start repaying your student debt. The previous Liberals and Nationals government lowered it so that students and graduates on relatively low wages had to start repaying, but we want students and graduates to be able to set up their careers and their lives post qualification. We will also change the way the repayment is calculated so that the minimum repayment is lower.

We want Australians to have good, well-paid, secure jobs, and we want Australia to have the skilled workforce that it needs to become an economic powerhouse in this changing world. Helping students and graduates with their student debt is a practical way to achieve both those things and help them with the cost of living.

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