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

I thank my friend the hirsute member for Hawke for his question! If you want a good example of the difference between Labor and Liberal then this is it. We're cutting HECS debt for three million Australians, and they want to cut the cost of lunch for bosses. That's it in a nutshell. We've already cut HECS debt by more than $3 billion for three million Australians. We passed those laws late last year, and over Christmas the ATO made this change, cutting the debt of three million Australians. But there's more to do and there's more that we will do. If we win the next election, we will cut all student debts by a further 20 per cent. That means that somebody with an average HECS debt of 27 grand today will see that debt cut by more than $5,000. If they've got a HECS debt of 50 grand then that will be cut by $10,000. That's a lot of help for a lot of young people who are just out of uni and just getting started. What do you think the Liberals think of all of this? They're opposed to that.

Government members: No! Really?

Surprise, surprise—they say that's a terrible idea. They think it's a terrible idea that we should cut the debt of Aussie workers and Aussie students. Well, I'll tell you what I think a terrible idea is: making these same students and workers pay for their boss's lunch. I'll give you 1.6 billion reasons why, because that's how much it'll cost: $1.6 billion a year—at least.

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