Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. Minster, the recent 650 per cent increase in HECS-HELP indexation is an entirely unreasonable and, indeed, a crippling impost on a great many Australians, especially coming, as it does, so soon after the previous government's reduction of the compulsory repayment threshold. Minister, education in this country was too expensive already. Will you urgently review the indexation rate and bring some relief from the soaring cost of living to the 2.9 million Australians lumbered with a HECS-HELP debt?

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

I thank the member for Clark. I know, as many members of this House know, the power and the importance of education. I think the member for Clark knows that very well, as well as you do, Mr Speaker. I congratulate you on your election. I also note the comments you made yesterday about the parliament and schools program and how important that is. I'm looking forward to working with you on that.

In answer to the member for Clark's question, last year the indexation rate was 0.6 and this year it's 3.9. That's calculated and based on the CPI over the last two years. The member for Clark mentioned the cost of living. In that regard it's important to remember that HELP payments are set as a set percentage of your income. In other words, they don't go up unless your salary does. That said, the issue of affordability is important, and it will be one of the things that will be looked at by the government as part of the universities accord process.

It's important to make this point. When HECS was first introduced in 1989, fewer than eight per cent of Australians had a university degree. That percentage now stands at about 33 per cent. HECS is largely responsible for that. Amongst younger Australians that percentage is even higher. I think more than 43 per cent of younger Australians now have a university degree. But that figure hides another fact, and that is that kids from poorer families are less likely to go to preschool, less likely to finish high school and less likely to get a university degree. Where you live also matters. My friends on both sides of the House who represent regional areas will know this. About 48 per cent of young people in our major cities have a university degree, but that percentage in regional Australia is about 20 per cent. For our Indigenous brothers and sisters that percentage is even lower. Fewer than about 10 per cent of Indigenous Australians have a university degree.

We have to do something about that. I don't want us to be a country where your opportunities in life depend on your postcode, your parents or the colour of your skin. That's why this accord process is so important. Soon I'll be announcing a group of eminent Australians who will lead that work. They will look at everything, including the sorts of things I'm talking about here: access for people from low socioeconomic backgrounds and the regions and for Indigenous Australians. They will also look at transparency, regulation, employment conditions, how our universities and TAFEs work together and also the issue the member for Clark raised—the issue of affordability—and the concerns he raised in his question.