Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I thank my friend, the cracking Government Whip, for his question—see what I did there? Last week, the ACT became the fourth jurisdiction to sign on to the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement, following Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. That means more funding for public schools, including $256 million more for ACT public schools over the next 10 years. That extra funding will start to roll out from January, in just over a month's time. But, as I've said before, this is not a blank check. That money will be tied to real and practical reforms to help children who fall behind when they're little to catch up and to keep up and to help more young people finish school. This week, the Senate will debate legislation that we have to pass to make this happen.

Today, the Senate is also debating legislation to create, for the first time, paid prac. That's financial support for teaching students, nursing students, midwifery students and social work students while they do the practical part of their degree. These are the people who have signed up to do some of the most important jobs in this country—people who teach our children, look after us when we're sick or when we're old, or look after women in domestic violence refuges.

That same legislation will wipe $3 billion of student debt for more than three million Australians. It'll mean that someone with an average student debt today of about 27 grand will have their debt cut, when that legislation passes, by about $1,200. That's just the first step. If we win the next election, we'll wipe a further 20 per cent off all student debts. Combined, these two reforms will mean that, for someone with that average student debt of about 27 grand, we will wipe $7,000 from their debt. That's real help for a lot of young Australians, just out of uni, just out of TAFE, just out of home and just getting started.

What does the Liberal Party think of all of this? They say that it's a terrible thing to do. They attack a 15 per cent pay rise for childcare workers. They attack extra money for public schools. They attack making TAFE free. They attack making university degrees cheaper. I've heard more 'noes' and drivel and less sense from the Liberal Party in the last week than I have from my three-year-old. This reckless and arrogant Liberal Party seems to not understand the power of education or what it can do, but we do and so do the Australian people.

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