Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My first visit to East Malvern RSL was on Anzac Day for a dawn service attended by hundreds of people, young and old. I saw for myself the vital role they play in our community in providing a safe, open space for veterans to build new bonds, maintain old ones and have a few laughs along the way. I was struck by the warmth and hospitality of their volunteers. Service is a lived value in this place—a straight line from conflict or humanitarian zones to the community. President Geoff Tobin told me how the RSL had taken the brave step of scrapping their slot machines in the hope of creating a warmer atmosphere for families, not knowing whether they would survive without the machines.

Their courage has been rewarded. I've been back to East Malvern RSL five times since—for a veterans forum with Minister Keogh, an NDIS forum with Minister Shorten, a climate forum with Minister Bowen, a scams forum with Minister Jones and a thankyou to our selfless volunteers during the Voice referendum. Attendance has been high at every event thanks to the warm community atmosphere of the venue and its leaders. Constituent after constituent has told me how, in all the years they have lived in Malvern East, they have never known the RSL to be so close in proximity, let alone being so welcoming. I thank the team at East Malvern RSL for all they do for our community, and I encourage all my constituents to pay them a visit.

The Australian Universities Accord is a road map to set higher education up for the next two decades. Australia is facing critical skills shortages in the energy, digital and care economies. If onerous HELP debt or unpaid placements leading to placement poverty holds students back, we will not meet our skills needs. I think of Connor, a 23-year-old who contacted me in December last year about his $55,000 HELP debt. He was fortunate to have obtained employment but was concerned about looming indexation, which would see a seven per cent hike in his HELP debt. This is a common refrain. One parent said, 'My son has become despondent; he feels like he cannot get on with life.'

The Universities Accord recognises that students need to be financially supported. It recommends that the Morrison government's Job-ready Graduates Package be ditched, that we pay students for placements and that the Higher Education Loan Program be modernised to reduce the burden of repayment, especially on lower income earners. It also recommends limiting disincentives to do more work, changing the timing of indexation and ensuring that people's HELP loans do not grow faster than their wages. I will be advocating for all these reforms within our government.