Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I know how important vocational and higher education is to my community in Chisholm. It's really important to me too, and I'll always fight to ensure that people in my electorate can access the high-quality education that they deserve.

I'm really pleased to be part of a government that prioritises education and is taking significant tangible steps to reduce the cost of living for those pursuing an education. We are wiping student debt. We are lowering the threshold for the repayment of HECS and HELP, and this will put money back in the pockets of tens of thousands of people in Chisholm. If re-elected we will ensure that fee-free TAFE is permanent, after we've seen hundreds of thousands of students across the country successfully accessing opportunity through this program.

Our community of Chisholm cannot risk the prospect of a Peter Dutton led Liberal government. We know that when they were last in power they made university more expensive and absolutely neglected vocational education and training. They slammed shut the doors of opportunity that Labor has always worked hard to open. Peter Dutton will send our country backwards and deprive people of a chance of success, and none of us, especially those of us in Chisholm, can afford that.

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