Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I've said it before and I'll say it again: education is the master key to opportunity for all Australians, starting in the classroom at primary schools across the country, right through to the halls of Australian TAFE and university campuses. The doors unlocked for Australians in these buildings have created our families and our communities, as well as our very culture and the country we're so privileged to live in today. Make no mistake. There is no Australia without education. There is no Australia without the hardworking people who have learned trades who are quite literally building the nation brick by brick. And there is no Australia without the innovators across all disciplines who achieved their qualifications at Australian universities. That's why it is on us in this place to support these students who work so hard to build what's in front of us. It's on us to make sure that Australia's student loan system, which has given millions of Aussies the chance to study at tertiary level, is fair and affordable when someone enters the workforce.

That's what this Labor government is going to do. We're slashing 20 per cent off all student loan debts, wiping a total of $16 billion worth of debt for over three million Australians. We're making paying those debts more affordable by ensuring students are starting repayment when they earn more. We're also helping people with these debts to keep more of what they earn by lowering the rate of repayment. These changes build on this government's proposal to fix the HELP indexation rate as well, which, if passed, will save a student with an average HELP debt around $1,200. This is significant. As the motion suggests, it can't be understated. It is taking pressure off the three million everyday Aussies paying off their student debt, and it is helping them to pay it off sooner rather than later.

It's a policy that is fighting the cost of living in this country and helps level the playing field for millions of Aussies in electorates like Spence. It's a shame that there are members of the opposition both in this House and in the other place that have referred to these changes as 'a cash splash that amounts to waste'. I'd like to ask those opposite if these changes are wasted on people like Isaac, someone who is currently studying a double degree in my electorate. He told me: 'I think that, for a lot of us, HECS is seen as an investment in our own future. We forego work and a stable income to pursue an education with the promise that we'll be better off once we graduate. In an entry-level law job, I stand to earn as little as $55,000 a year—slightly less than I made working a full-time admin job during COVID. Yet, despite this, I'll meet the threshold for HECS repayments. These changes guarantee I will be earning a decent wage before I start paying it off, and that should be the case for all students. It's good to see that finally reflected by the government.' Isaac is one of nearly 20,000 people in Spence with a HELP debt. Under a Labor government, he will be one of 20,000 people in my electorate paying off their student loans sooner and more affordably while earning more under a fairer system.

On top of changing the game for former students, this commitment achieves something even more important in my view, especially considering the community I represent, and that's changing the game for future students. This goes back to what I said earlier. Education is the master key for opportunity in this country, and all Australians, regardless of who they are and where they're from, need to be able to access it. This is especially important in disadvantaged areas of Australia, like the suburbs of Munno Para, Elizabeth and Salisbury, which I represent. That's because, in those suburbs and across Spence overall, we lag behind in rates of educational attainment. In the north, where families are already disadvantaged, not being able to afford and access higher education just embeds that disparity more and makes it harder to break intergenerational cycles of poverty.

That's why reforms to education, which include the university study hub announced for Elizabeth over the weekend, are especially important for my community. By making the education system fairer and more affordable by smashing barriers to give people greater access to university, education becomes a circuit-breaker for people in the north to lift themselves socially and economically and forge a better future for themselves and their loved ones. This is what a Labor government will never stop working towards, and that is what drives me each and every time I walk into this building. I commend the motion.

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