Cassandra Fernando (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In 2008, the former Minister for Youth Kate Ellis released a report into the impact of voluntary student unionism on services, amenities and representation for Australian university students. This report suggested that the defunding of student-led organisations in the early 2000s had a negative impact on the provisions of services and amenities for Australian university students as well as their ability to participate in university governance and decision-making. By returning funding to student-led organisations and providing them with secure funding, we will enable greater services, representation and advocacy for students. It will also ensure more consistent service provisions across the country, making sure that all students, regardless of where they study, have access to the support they need.

These reforms build on the government's first set of changes under the Higher Education Support Amendment (Response to the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report) Act 2023. The interim report act removed the strict 50 per cent pass rule, which disproportionately forced lower-SES and regional students to drop out. Instead of penalising students who may be struggling to adapt to their new adult life, we are requiring universities to provide the support necessary for their success.

This bill also expanded the demand-driven system to include all Indigenous students. This is a crucial step in closing the gap and addressing the generational inequality that many of our Indigenous Australian face. With this change, the government aims to double the number of Indigenous Australians with a university degree within a decade.

The interim act also doubled the number of university study hubs from 34 to 68, including 20 in regional Australia and 14 in the outer suburbs. These hubs were designed so that students in the outer suburbs, such as Cranbourne, Hampton Park and Clyde, have access to university services close to their homes. This is about bringing education closer to the people, ensuring that distance is no longer a barrier to higher education.

The passage of the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 is a step forward in our nation's history. It is a demonstration of our commitment to education as a cornerstone of our future. By reducing student debt, by supporting our essential workers to complete their placements, expanding access to university prep courses and by ensuring strong student representation, we are laying the foundation for a more equitable higher education system.

Our education system should be a beacon of opportunity, accessible to all, regardless of background or circumstances. This bill takes us one step closer to that vision. It is a step towards a fairer and more equitable higher education system. It is a step towards a future where every Australian will have the chance to reach their full potential and contribute to the success of our great nation.

Thank you to the Minister for Education Jason Clare for your hard work on this bill. Thank you for standing up for working-class students and those from the outer suburbs like Holt. It is truly commendable to see a minister who places communities like Holt at the heart of our nation's future rather than as an afterthought. I commend this bill to the House and urge all my colleagues to support it wholeheartedly.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024. This bill implements recommendations of the Universities Accord, whose final report was released in February this year. The Universities Accord involved an expert panel led by Professor Mary O'Kane and undertook vitally important work that produced a long-term plan for our university sector. In particular, I want to recognise panel member the honourable Fiona Nash, who is Australia's first Regional Education Commissioner and a former minister for regional development. I acknowledge her particularly important role on the panel in advocating for university students from regional and rural Australia. Indi, a regional electorate, has one of the lowest rates of higher education attainment in the country. Just 17 per cent of Indi residents have a bachelors degree or more compared to the national average of 26 per cent, and we must close this gap.

This bill implements four recommendations of the Universities Accord. First, it will cap the indexation rate for all HELP loans, more commonly known as HECS, to the lower of the consumer price index or the wage price index and backdate this to 1 June 2023. Second, the bill provides for the creation of a weekly prac payment, a new form of income support for students who are required to undertake unpaid placements in teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work. Third, the bill establishes a new Commonwealth grant scheme for fee-free uni-ready courses so that more students can access bridging courses to transition to university. I was pleased to recently meet with La Trobe University's vice-chancellor, who emphasised this measure would help more regional students enrol in university. Finally, the bill requires higher education providers to allocate a minimum of 40 per cent of student services and amenities fees revenue to student-led organisations.

I support all of these measures and I want to draw particular attention to the first two: capping the HECS indexation rate and the new Commonwealth prac payments. More than 14,000 people in my electorate currently have HECS debts amounting to $300 million in total debt. It is a staggering amount for our electorate and, with more than 10 per cent in indexation applied to these debts in the last two years, it means around $30 million in extra debt in Indi in that time just because of indexation. I know that rising debts are causing rising concern right across my electorate and indeed right across the nation. It is making it harder to balance study and work, harder to save for a home and harder to have a family. Debts are hanging around longer and it will take many of today's young people decades to pay them off. I'm concerned that ballooning levels of debt will discourage young regional Australians from pursuing higher education, that it will discourage more working Australians from upskilling or making a career change, that it will deny more people the opportunity to build a meaningful and rewarding career and that it will set regional communities such as mine back. The Universities Accord agreed, stating that the status quo risks:

… deterring some people from seeking higher education at exactly the time we need growth in participation.

In regional Australia, I know how desperately we need more teachers, nurses, engineers, planners and agricultural scientists, just to name a few professions. Frankly, if debts continue to grow like we've seen in recent years, then we have Buckley's chance of meeting the government's 80 per cent higher education target by 2050.

That's why I support reform to HECS. The Universities Accord recommended significant reform, including ensuring that debts don't increase faster than wages. The government is now delivering on that recommendation, and I heartedly commend them for that. But let's be clear: that would not have happened without the strong advocacy of the crossbench. This change came on the back of a petition led by the member for Kooyong that amassed more than 288,000 signatures, making it one of the largest petitions in Australian political history, calling on the government to fix the broken HECS debt system.

The proposed changes in this bill will wipe more than $3 billion in debt across Australia and many millions of dollars in communities across my electorate. It will soften the blow caused by sky-high inflation, but it will not fix many of the underlying issues. There is more work to do. HECS is not fixed yet. I support the Universities Accord recommendation and amendments put forward by my crossbench colleagues to change the timing of indexation to deduct compulsory repayments before applying indexation. The status quo is unfairly adding thousands of dollars to Australians HECS debts, and it could be fixed. In a cost-of-living crisis, this simply isn't good enough. I support the calls from the member for Goldstein and the member for Warringah to change the unfair timing of HECS debt indexation.

Alongside the changes to HECS indexation, the introduction of Commonwealth prac payments was another welcome budget announcement. The new prac payment, around $319.50 per week, will support around 68,000 teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students per year to complete their university placements. Recipients will be means tested, and the payments will be delivered by the universities as a type of bursary to students. This was the result of years of advocacy by students and the organisations representing professions that require practical placement to complete their degrees. Income support during university placements was also a recommendation of the Universities Accord, which explicitly recognised the need to reduce the financial hardship and placement poverty caused by mandatory unpaid placements.

According to the Department of Health and Aged Care registered nurses require a minimum of 800 hours of unpaid clinical placement. For teachers it's 80 days, and for social workers it's 1,000 hours. As a former nurse, I know that students must complete this practical training before they receive their qualifications. But, especially in a cost-of-living crisis, students should not be expected to work for free. On many occasions, that's exactly what unpaid placements are. Take it from me; I've seen plenty of this. They're critical to the whole clinical team.

Unfortunately, what should be a necessary course requirement has turned into what is widely known as 'placement poverty'. A 2022 survey by the Council of Heads of Social Work Education, which surveyed more than 700 students, found that the financial burden of placements—often requiring travel, parking and professional clothing or a uniform—could be crippling. There's the cost of undertaking the placement and then the lost income that comes with giving up other paid work in order to undertake these placements. More than a third of students surveyed said they lost their entire weekly income because of placement, with 96 per cent of students saying they didn't have enough money to pay for food, clothes and travel required. The consequences of these challenges aren't just financial. The mental health of many students also suffers with these pressures. These experiences are reflected in the stories of many constituents who contact my office about the significant challenges they face or a family member faces when they're required to find the time to study, work, care for children or other family members and then, on top of this, undertake weeks of unpaid placement.

Last year, I wrote to the minister on behalf of the constituent who is an enrolled nurse trying to upskill by undertaking training to become a registered nurse. This requires this particular constituent to undertake 20 weeks of unpaid placement, suspending her employment in the process. The constituent noted that, if the placement is at a hospital far away from home, then they also have to find and pay for their own accommodation, not to mention child care and all the other expenses. For some nurses, this means they must choose between working and completing a degree. As this constituent said, have you ever heard of apprentices not getting paid? I've also heard from a family member of a woman trying to obtain a childcare qualification requiring 60 days of unpaid placement. She highlighted to me the absurdity of a struggling industry that can't attract workers due to abysmal pay getting 60 days of free labour.

I want to acknowledge that women are much more likely to have careers in the professions we are talking about—teaching, early childhood education, nursing, social work. According to the latest census, in my electorate, more than 9,000 women are employed by the healthcare and social assistance sector, compared to almost 2,000 men. In education and training, almost 5,000 women are employed, compared to around 1,500 men. And we know only too well about the gender pay gap in this country. Underpaid, overwhelmingly feminised professions, like teaching and nursing, contribute to this. The gender pay gap is exacerbated by the requirement to undertake weeks or months of unpaid placement. We must support women to expand their professional opportunities. The Commonwealth prac payment will provide more financial assistance to help women complete qualifications and therefore improve their income. Truly, this is a step in the right direction.

So I strongly support the new prac placements, but here's the thing: I don't just want teachers, nurses and social workers to be eligible; the government must consider expanding the payment to allied health students and other important professions that require unpaid placements. I draw attention to allied health because they are an absolutely vital, critical sector of our health workforce, providing crucial services in aged care, the NDIS, schools and our acute hospitals. Unpaid placement hours are a real barrier to training in this profession, and, again, I know—I have worked alongside allied health professionals. We cannot deliver the care that we must without them. As the Chair of the Australian Council of Deans of Health Sciences, Professor Terry Haines, said, placement poverty does not discriminate. For example, occupational health therapy requires 1,000 hours of clinical placement. Dietitians require a minimum of 100 days of placement. Physiotherapy requires 1,000 hours of unpaid placement across 12 months. Medical radiation practitioners require 52 weeks of placement over four years. Again, we can't do without these people. This is why I will move an amendment that will require an independent review on the operation of the new prac payments three years after they commence. This review must consider expanding payments to students undertaking courses that require placements, including allied health courses. I want to see allied health courses included before three years. I absolutely do. But, if this doesn't happen, this amendment will make sure that the government considers including them, and that's really important. This review will also consider whether the new prac payments are effective, whether they are accessible to the teaching, nursing and social work students and working as they should.

It's important to note that the bill itself doesn't specify the eligible courses, the means testing method used or even how students will receive the payment. This detail will be laid out in guidelines and regulations determined by the minister. Higher education policy expert Professor Andrew Norton has raised concerns that universities who would administer the payment don't have the resources to run means testing. A mandated review of the payments should consider things like this so we can make any necessary improvements. We want this to work. I want to thank the minister and his office for the productive discussions we have had. I appreciate his understanding of this, and I'd really encourage him to think more broadly about the other professions who need to be included in these payments.

The measures included in this bill are important. Progress has been made in acting on the Universities Accord recommendations, but if we are to achieve the 80 per cent tertiary education attainment target by 2050 there's a lot more work to be done. I've already outlined changes that could be made to this bill to ensure it delivers for regional, rural and remote Australia, including changing the date the HECS debts are indexed to come after compulsory repayments are made. Prac payments should be expanded to include degrees in allied health, which are vital to addressing workforce shortages in the regions.

This government must also deliver on its commitment to a new needs based funding model that works for regional Australia and that recognises the added cost of delivering tertiary education in regional areas. Regional universities in my electorate are key contributors to the community. They undertake influential research, and they're a driver of regional employment and regional economic development. But the status quo is failing them, their staff and their students, and the government must ensure that they are set up to succeed. It's why I support regional university study hubs, which make it easier for students to succeed while living in regional Australia. I know firsthand what an impact centres in Corryong, Mansfield and Wangaratta have had, and I hope to see a hub finally funded in the Murrindindi shire, where it would make such a difference for students in communities such as Yea, Alexandra and Kinglake, which quite frankly are locked out of further education.

While I commend the government for its action on some key recommendations of the Universities Accord review, the work is not done. As a regional Independent, I will ensure the education needs of regional, rural and remote Australia are strongly represented in this place and I will continue to push the government to do better. All in all, I'm pleased with the reforms that are here and I commend this bill to the House.

Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Education changes lives. Like many in this place I am the first person in my family to have gone to university. Unlike some I was not lucky enough to have a free university education—I missed out by a matter of a year or so, I think—but I continue to be grateful that here in Australia we have subsidised universities and that we have what used to be the Higher Education Contribution Scheme and is now called the HELP system. I think if I'd had to pay full fees for university, as they do in some countries overseas, I would not have been able to go to university and I certainly wouldn't have been able to go on and do higher degrees, or like those in overseas countries I would still be crippled with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. I was lucky enough to have completed my tertiary education here in Australia and to have a good career and I'm lucky enough to have paid off my HECS debt over time. I often say I should get frequent flyer points at South Australian universities, but I digress!

In my electorate of Boothby I have the main campus of Flinders University and a smaller campus of Adelaide university called the Waite institute, and I have a particularly high number of tertiary students living in the electorate. I hear from them and from their families about the higher HELP debts that they are accruing, the cost of undertaking long, compulsory placements on a full-time basis, how students are having to give up paying jobs to undertake these placements in order to complete their degrees, and how so many of them simply don't complete the degrees because they can't afford to not have paid work. I want something better for those that come after me—for my children's generation and the generations that follow.

As a country we want—we need—the next generation to be able to take their place in the workplaces we need: the hospitals, the schools, the advanced manufacturing businesses, human services. We need them to bring their skills and ideas to agriculture, mining and construction, and we want for them to be able to follow the careers that interest them in well-paid, secure jobs. For many of those jobs, tertiary education is the entry point, so we want tertiary education to be an attractive and an affordable option for anyone who so chooses to undertake it, no matter what their background.

The Albanese Labor government is putting in place significant reforms in response to the Australian Universities Accord to provide cost-of-living relief and to make higher education better and fairer for students, including those from low-SES or disadvantaged backgrounds and those from the outer suburbs and regional Australia. The Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 enacts many of the important changes announced in the 2024-25 budget.

We're making the HECS-HELP system fairer for all Australians and wiping around $3 billion in student debt from three million Australians. Currently the HELP indexation is based on CPI, and last year saw a spike of 7.1 per cent. This meant that the indexing of HECS-HELP debt was higher than wage growth. We don't want to see students and former students going backwards, so we are changing the way the indexation is calculated so that it will be capped at the lower of the consumer price index or wage price index. Not only that, we're backdating this to 1 June 2023, so, for those with a current HECS or HELP debt who saw indexation jump over the past year, this will cut some of that existing indexation. For those who paid off their debt last year, including that higher indexation, the credit will be applied to them as well. For someone with an average HECS debt of around 26½ thousand dollars, this means that their HECS debt will be cut by about $1,200. These changes cover HELP, VET student loans, the Australian apprenticeship support loans and other student loan accounts that existed on 1 June last year. This will benefit around 24,000 people in my electorate of Boothby.

The other area of this bill that is generating the most excitement in my electorate is that, for the first time ever, the Commonwealth will introduce a prac payment to support teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students to do their mandatory placements. I can't tell you how positive the feedback on this has been. At a street corner meeting last weekend, a current social work student told me she had had to give up her paid work to undertake her prac placement. She was lucky: her husband was working and supported her through this, and her mother was available to look after their two-year-old child. However, I'm sure it wasn't easy for them as a family. Even though she herself would not benefit from paid prac placements, she was so pleased that her fellow students, those following along after her, would not have to do what she had done and give up paid work, because many of them were not in the same situation with family available or able to support them. A lot of students have said that when they do the prac component of their degree, they've got difficult financial decisions to make. Some have to give up their part-time job; others have to move away from home. For a lot of people that can mean delaying finishing their degree or not finishing their degree at all.

We need more teachers, more nurses, more midwives and more social workers. These are some of the important jobs in this country. These are people who are going to teach our kids, who are going to look after us when we're sick or old, who will help women during pregnancy and childbirth and who will support women in domestic violence refuges. Supervised practical placements are an important part of these qualifications to ensure that, when graduates enter the workforce, they are experienced in practice as well as in theory. These jobs have a direct impact on the health, welfare and education outcomes of the people they work on and with. We want these to be attractive courses to study and attractive career options. Reducing these financial barriers of unpaid prac placements will help, and that's why this is important. It's a bit of practical support for people while they do their practical training.

We've talked about changes to HECS-HELP calculation and reduction of HECS-HELP debt, and we've talked about the payments for compulsory prac placements for social work students, teaching students, nursing students and midwifery students. But this bill also uncaps fee-free, uni-ready courses right across the country so more people get the skills they need to start a degree. What is a uni-ready course? Many people starting university aren't coming straight from school. They may have left school many years previously; they may not have finished year 12. They may lack confidence about studying. Schooling may not have been a great, successful experience for them. These courses are effectively a bridge between school and university to help people get the skills they need and succeed when they get there.

As a former university lecturer I can tell you that mature-age students are often the most committed and motivated. They know why they're there, they know the value of tertiary education and they've often given up a lot to get back into university. But even students who haven't been out of school for a long time may lack confidence in their ability to study and, particularly, study at a university level where there's an expectation that students will be more self-directed. Uni-ready courses, often called bridging courses, are a great way for potential students to learn about how to study at university and what the expectations are, to practice their skills in a safe environment and to gain the confidence to enrol in a university course. These changes are expected to increase the number of people doing free uni-ready courses by about 40 per cent by the end of the decade and double the number in the decade after that. The flow-on will be more students at university and more well-prepared students at university.

This bill also mandates that higher education providers allocate at least 40 per cent of student services and amenities fees to student led organisations. This will strengthen student led organisations and their ability to act for the best interests of students. The bill also includes a definition of 'student led organisations' and allows for transition arrangements to support higher education providers and the student led organisations to put in place appropriate arrangements. Of course, relevant to my home state of South Australia, this bill also adds Adelaide University to the list of table A providers, reflecting the merger of the University of South Australia and the University of Adelaide, which is currently being undertaken.

I'm going to end where I began: education changes lives. It changes careers. It changes families. It changes communities. This groundbreaking bill is only one part of the Universities Accord, but it is a really important part because this bill is about making education more affordable for all. The reduction in financial barriers for students will particularly encourage people from lower SES communities and regional areas, women, mature-age students and those who disproportionately experience barriers to tertiary education to consider a tertiary course and a tertiary qualified career. I commend the bill to the House.

Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The final report of the taskforce charged with coming up with the Universities Accord put it bluntly:

Australia must significantly increase participation in tertiary education. This is a matter of urgency. Australia is not meeting its current skills needs and will not meet them in the future unless we produce more higher education and VET graduates.

Failure to increase student numbers to meet these needs will do lasting damage to Australia's prospects of national economic success. It will also do lasting damage to social cohesion by preventing generations of Australians from enjoying the career opportunities and higher incomes that tertiary education makes possible.

This is not a surprise. Businesses and economists were warning about skills shortages years ago. COVID exacerbated the problem, and now we find ourselves without the skilled workers we need, whether it be workers to supercharge the transition to clean, green and cheaper energy or the skilled workforce to build and service the AUKUS submarines, should they ever see the light of day.

To make up for lost time, the report listed four ambitious targets: lifting the tertiary attainment rate, university as well as vocational education and training, from 60 per cent currently to at least 80 per cent by 2050; increasing the proportion of university educated Australians aged 25 to 34 from 45 per cent currently to 55 per cent by 2050, requiring a doubling of the number of Commonwealth supported students in universities from 860,000 currently to 1.8 million by 2050; planning for 40 per cent of 25- to 34-year-olds to have a tertiary-level vocational or technical qualification in 2050; and providing opportunities for lifelong learning for all Australians to reskill and upskill. None of these targets is out of the question, but they are quite a challenge.

When HECS was introduced in 1989, less than eight per cent of the population had a degree. By 2023, it had risen to 21 per cent. That is quite a climb, but it is also a reminder of the task ahead of us if we are to get to 80 per cent by mid-century, especially when young people are under pressure in ways that most of us were not at their age. Forty-five per cent of Goldstein residents have a degree, which is close to double the national average. Nearly 20 per cent are currently studying at university, which is nearly five per cent more than elsewhere. But these students are living with greater instability, insecurity and uncertainty than earlier generations. Employment is much less secure than it was in the past and there is no certainty anymore that a university degree will reward a graduate with higher income than someone without tertiary qualifications. On top of all that, they are living amid a once-in-a-generation cost-of-living crisis. Rents have reached a record high, with the median weekly rent in Australia now at $659 a week—9.4 per cent higher than a year ago. The days when it was relatively easy to find an affordable share house are over, as are the days when students could be sure their pay in part-time jobs would keep pace with inflation.

Many young students in my electorate are still living at home with their parents because they simply can't afford to move out. That because, in real terms, although recently wages have finally grown slightly, the average wage is the same now in real terms as it was in 2011. Meanwhile, the escalation in tuition fees means that graduates have much higher HECS debts in real terms than even a decade ago, and much more than when the system was introduced. When HECS came into being, the idea was that all university degrees would cost the same amount—$1800 a year, the equivalent of around $4,700 today. Significant, but not insurmountable. It's not the same story now. Tax office data compiled by the Australia Institute shows that Australians in their 20s with a HECS-HELP debt in 2005-06 had an average debt of $12,557. From then until June 2023, inflation increased by 57 per cent. Had the average size of debt increased in line with inflation, the average 2022-23 HECS-HELP debt held by people in their 20s should have been $19,546. Instead, according to the Australia Institute, the average debt had risen by 145 per cent, and was $30,763. That doesn't even consider the previous government's ineffective and punitive Jobs Ready Program, which saw the cost of a communications degree, for example, rise from around $20,400 to $43,500.

It was early in 2023, before that year's federal budget, that it became clear to me that the high rate of inflation was creating hardship for some HECS-HELP debtors, whose debts were increasing faster than repayments. At the same time, real wages had been falling, creating a perverse outcome—as the Universities Accord report noted—where HELP debts were growing just as relative ability to service debts was declining. I spoke to the education minister about recognising the difficulties that high inflation was creating for students and recent graduates by reforming the indexation formula for HECS-HELP debts. I suggested that the formula should be determined based on whatever was lower—the consumer price index or the wage price index—as happens in some places overseas. Although it took a year, to his credit, the minister added this to the work program for the Universities Accord review, which accepted and recommended the change in this year's budget, helped along by a massive petition launched by the member for Kooyong. The result is this legislation, which, by backdating the change to last year, when HECS indexation was pegged to an inflation figure of 7.1 per cent, is wiping out around $3 billion in student debt for more than three million Australian. Those with an average debt will see their liability cut by $1,200.

I truly appreciate the efforts of the minister and his staff, and that he has listened to the crossbench on this matter, but the job in relation to HECS-HELP is only partly done. The government has yet to give effect to two other elements of its recommendation for HECS-HELP reform. They are: to reduce repayment times by changing the timing of indexation for HELP loans so that amounts withheld for compulsory repayments can be accounted for before indexation is applied; and reviewing bank lending practices to ensure that banks recognise that HELP loans are not like other types of loans and are not treated in a way that unduly limits people's borrowing capacity for home loans.

In the 1980s, when HECS came in, the average house cost about 3½ times the average salary, according to esteemed finance journalist and my former ABC colleague Alan Kohler. Today it's more than doubled to 7½ times the average income, and that means that every single dollar that can be scraped together for a deposit matters deeply to a first home buyer. Unfortunately, for new graduates who have started a family, their HECS-HELP debt definitely does not help, because banks penalise people for the amount of HECS owing, adding it to what's owed in genuine debt on a car loan or credit card, for instance.

The minister promised to talk to the banks about this inequity and told reporters, as he announced the HECS indexation change:

… the Assistant Treasurer has written to the banks. He's written to the ABA seeking more information on the way in which banks treat HECS debt.

We have yet to hear about any outcome from the Assistant Treasurer's inquiries. I'm sure that the House would appreciate knowing the result of any discussions and whether lending institutions are prepared to regard HECS debt differently from other debt.

Students and other stakeholders also approached me about another inequity in the system, one relating to the timing of when the annual rate of indexation would be imposed. As the accord review notes:

Though this timing (which is late in the financial year) assists with the administration of the HELP system, amounts withheld during the year are not applied to reduce HELP debts until the following June. In some circumstances, HELP debts may have been 'acquitted' if not for the application of indexation prior to repayments being recognised.

This means that the way that compulsory repayments and indexation are set up means that the extra tax withheld for HECS-HELP repayments on individuals' salaries does not actually apply until they submit their tax return after indexation has been applied. In just one example, modelled by the Parliamentary Library and based on a graduate who completed their studies in 2010 with a debt of $15,292—the cost then of an average degree—the difference is small but significant. The final payment, if indexed first, would be $679, but it would be just $298 if repayments were made ahead of indexation—a saving of $381 to the graduate. Obviously, the bigger the debt, the bigger the saving. The accord review recommends:

… the timing of HELP debt indexation be changed to allow the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to ensure that amounts withheld from debtors' income during the financial year can be applied as a compulsory repayment before indexation occurs …

This change must be made, and I urge the minister to finish the job and get it done.

In the context of the most severe inflation crisis the Australian economy has faced this century, our laws guiding accessibility to tertiary education must serve our students, not saddle them with more and more debt. We know, and so does the government, that the calculation of a student's HELP loan prior to the processing of their end of financial year tax return amounts to a double-dipping of debt repayments. This results in many Australian students often paying more than they otherwise would have, more than their fair share, if calculation occurred later in the year. We also know—and the government does too—that HELP debt is often yet another barrier for graduates and young Australian families seeking a loan or mortgage. Banks and financial institutions consider existing HELP debt as they assess an individual's eligibility. This practice must end.

For these two reasons and to alleviate the financial burden on Australian students who choose to pursue tertiary education, I move the second reading amendment as circulated in my name:

That all words after "House" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"(1) notes that:

(a) many degrees have increased in cost well above CPI resulting in punitive HELP debts placing additional financial burden on Australians in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis;

(b) in 2023, soaring inflation resulted in a HELP indexation rate of 7.1 per cent;

(c) the indexation of HELP debt prior to repayment each financial year unnecessarily increases the cost of debt repayments for graduates and young Australians; and

(d) HELP debt is considered by banks in assessing eligibility for mortgages and loans, creating additional barriers for graduates and young families as they try to buy a home; and

(2) calls on the Government to calculate HELP debt indexation after the due date for individual tax returns each year".

I will be supporting this legislation as a step in the right direction, but there is much more to do.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the amendment seconded?

Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the amendment and reserve my right to speak.

Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Education is at the heart of Australia's success. It's part of the story of success in this country. In my electorate of Wills in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, we have so many staff and students in the university sector. I speak with them regularly and often hear them identify many issues around access, equality and affordability within our higher education sector.

Australians know that there is a very impactful cost-of-living challenge that we are facing in our economy right now. Everyone is seeing and feeling this. That's why the Albanese Labor government understands the immense pressures that have built up in our higher education system, and that's why the government is putting in place significant reforms to provide cost-of-living relief for students and has a long-term focus on delivering a better and fairer university sector for students.

I, of course, have always valued the immense importance of a good quality education. As you'd know, Deputy Speaker Vamvakinou, as a migrant to this country—my parents escaped a region where there was war and persecution—having that amazing opportunity to get a good education was so special and so important for us. It allowed me to be standing here today, because access to quality education is really the key that unlocks opportunity. It unlocks the opportunity and unlocks the potential that we can fulfil. We can make a contribution if we're able to fulfil our potential through a sense of purpose as well.

I thank the Minister for Education for introducing the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 in response to the Universities Accord. The government has consulted widely and ensured that the views of key stakeholders have been heard on this legislation. The Universities Accord was headed by eminent Australian industry expert Professor Mary O'Kane. Her final report set the blueprint for how higher education could be reformed to deliver a higher education system that could be the envy of the world. A key aspect of that is the affordability of university.

This bill will allow students who go on practical placements as part of their degree to finally be paid for the work that they do. I cannot stress enough how important that cost-of-living relief will be to the hundreds of students in my electorate who will get money back in their pockets as a result of this policy. We know for a fact that young women, in particular, are more likely to study degrees with practical placements and receive no wage or payment for the work that is essential to completing their course.

I can relate to the story of a young woman in my electorate who is studying to become a social worker. Aaliyah completed several units of practical work which had to be completed in order to receive her qualification. I spoke to her about her work, and she said that juggling these shifts along with study and trying to pay for the groceries was a real struggle; it was really difficult. There are many stories like this that I'm sure we hear about all too frequently. But it's fantastic to be able to say that the Albanese Labor government is responding to this issue so that women like Aaliyah will not have to cut back on essentials like groceries just so they can realise their dream of completing their studies, and why should they?

Education opens the door to opportunity, as I said. It has unlocked the potential for millions of Australians, regardless of their background—whether they are from regions or the city, whether they're socioeconomically disadvantaged, whether they're Indigenous Australians, whether they're from migrant families or whether they're from different faith backgrounds. Education has been the ticket to a better future. It is that great leveller of society. Many of us in this place have been fortunate, through the facilitation of these policies, to be given the opportunity to get a great education and fulfil our potential. That's why this bill is important, in providing long-term relief to students through the facilitation of a weekly Commonwealth prac payment. It will protect the place of education as a great leveller—not the thing that pushes people into financial hardship, for instance, but the thing that takes people out of that and gives them the confidence to be able to move forward. Per year, this will support approximately 68,000 teaching; nursing, including midwifery; and social work students to complete their university placements. That's not only good for students; it provides cost-of-living relief and is an investment in the future of Australia, ensuring that no-one is shut off from realising their potential and that no-one is left behind.

I know there's more work to do. In May, the RMIT Association of Pharmacy Students and the Victorian Pharmacy Students Association contacted me on behalf of all pharmacy students in my electorate, asking for the government to extend prac payments to them. I received that request and I obviously listened to their representations. On that issue of prac payments for those particular areas, there is a start in this bill. Importantly, we're listening to the different stakeholders in the community and taking a number of measures that will help every student, not just some students. This includes the really important amelioration of the big hike in HECS-HELP debt last year. Indexed to inflation, it meant that HECS-HELP debts across the country would have increased by 7.1 per cent at their peak. This is why the Albanese Labor government is, with this legislation, wiping $3 billion in student debt for three million Australians. That's hugely significant and that's a direct action to particularly help younger Australians in my electorate.

There are a lot of young people who work in my electorate whilst balancing study, whether at the reception of the Glenroy family clinic or at the Hadfield Woolies. The government hears you. We're listening to you and we're acting on this. We know that you want to complete your studies without being financially burdened, and that's why this has been so important. In addition, we know that the cost of living has put a real squeeze on young people having to make choices between studying and getting more work. With inflation at 7.1 per cent and the HECS payments indexed to this inflation, those young people with debts of $50,000 would have been slapped with an additional $3,550 in indexation costs. That's no longer the case. That's real relief for those students and that has been very warmly welcomed by students right across my electorate and the country.

Despite a lot of people in the community pressuring young people and saying, 'Don't eat the avocado toast or the kale. If you save on that you'll be able to save up,' that's not going to work. Pulling back on a couple of breakfasts or coffees or lattes—no amount of saving on these types of things is going to relieve the real intergenerational unfairness that younger Australians are facing in the current economic environment, especially with the debt that they're facing. This debt relief is real. It's practical and substantial. Under a Labor government, we've delivered it and it's here to stay, because HECS loans will now be indexed to the CPI or the wage price index, whichever is lower. If your wages aren't growing, your debt shouldn't be, either.

Importantly, this bill couples immediate cost-of-living relief with a long-term plan to ensure accessibility to quality higher education. The government wants to do more than just remove the barriers to education. We want to actively encourage skills and training. That's why the government set a target of 80 per cent of the workforce having a tertiary qualification by 2050. That's the next step, and it's similar to what Labor has always done to deliver world-class results, starting with the Hawke-Keating reforms.

I remember speaking to the late, great Bob Hawke, one of the great prime ministers if not the greatest Prime Minister this country has seen. Some on the other might dispute that, but he was a great prime minister. I remember asking Bob—it was over a couple of beers—after he had regaled me with all of these stories about his government's achievements during those periods, 'What's something that you achieved that not many people talk about?' He was telling me all about how he helped end the Cold War by negotiating between Reagan and Thatcher and Gorbachev—he was sort of in the middle of that—and about all of the big economic reforms that he did. I'm not going to do an impersonation of Bob, but he said: 'When I started as Prime Minister, some 30 per cent of students were matriculating'—that's what they used to call finishing high school—'By the end of my time as Prime Minister, some 80 per cent of people were finishing high school.' I said, 'Bob, I was one of those,' because I did year 12 in 1990, while he was still Prime Minister. So we've all benefited from the policies of the Hawke government, and later on the Keating government, to boost this access to education and to good education, and the Albanese government is continuing this tradition. It's in our DNA.

This bill also takes an important step in ensuring that students at universities have a greater say in how their student fees are used. The legislation will support students by requiring that higher education providers allocate a minimum of 40 per cent of their student services and amenities fees revenue to student led organisations, ensuring students have a greater voice in how their services and amenities fees are spent. That's a significant addition.

It's important to recognise that this legislation is just one part of the Albanese government's comprehensive reform agenda on education. Whether it's providing fee-free TAFE places for 500,000 students to give them the skills and the training they need for the jobs of the future, expanding access to scholarships for Indigenous students and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, or delivering the largest increase in federal funding to public schools since Federation, the Albanese government is delivering the necessary reforms to deliver a world-class education system.

Under this government, young people will be able to pursue their studies without being crushed by debt. If you are a child of migrants like I am and you are, Deputy Speaker Vamvakinou, we—and I think people who have come from the regions or from socioeconomic grounds that are somewhat disadvantaged—know what it's like to have your parents say: 'No matter what you do, get a good education. Please focus on your studies. Get it done, because we don't want you not being able to fulfil your potential.' Not everyone is going to go to medical school in that context. When your parents say to you, 'Get a good education, get the skills and get the training you need to get a good life and a purposeful life,' it doesn't mean that everyone is going study law or medicine and become a lawyer or a doctor, but it's important that they have the opportunity to study, to go to TAFE or to university, or to get whatever skills or training are required to give them that opportunity. So, whether you choose to go to TAFE or to get a degree or two, you shouldn't face any barriers because of where you come from, what your background is or what your socioeconomic circumstances are.

The Minister for Education spoke about being the first member of his family to go to university, to go on to higher education. There are a lot of people in my electorate that share that experience. Labor understands that investment in education is an investment in people and an investment in this country's future. When we invest in education it's a statement of what we want this country's future to be. We want to give people this opportunity. We want to give people the key that unlocks the door to opportunity, that allows them to step in and fulfil their potential in whatever they wish to do and that makes their life one of purpose and meaning through that. That's what education does. We don't want a future where education is for an exclusive few and where people are shut out from learning. We want a future in which we deliver that opportunity for any Australian that wants to take that step. We want a future where education is an open door to the success that makes us who we are, where dedication and hard work are rewarded, where education is the foundation for realising a better future for those individuals, their families, their communities and the society more broadly, where no Australians are held back because of where they come from or what their background is, and where no-one is left behind.

(Quorum formed)

Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are a number of topics that we get to debate in this chamber in a particular parliamentary term, but I think it's really important that we take a stand on the sort of nation that we want to be. Today, I've actually had three primary schools come through the House, so to have an opportunity to stand and talk to the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill tonight, for me, is particularly timely.

Ultimately, I think the question we need to ask ourselves as a nation is do we see the education of young people and others across the country as an investment in the future of our economy on the basis that those that are educated and upskilled are able to generate significant personal income that then translates into significant personal income tax takings, or do we want to continue in a mindset where the investment is only warranted where it is into high-return professions, or is the case where those who can afford to learn are given the opportunity to learn while those who cannot afford are left on the sidelines? Like many in this chamber, I am the first person in my family to go to university, and it was drummed into me from a very young age that education was the way out and up. It's a message that I have passed onto my children, but it's not lost on me, as somebody in this House, that, actually, I am the first generation of HECS.

When I entered university, it was the first time that HECS and a user-pay system was introduced. I can't help but reflect on the fact that the first generation exposed to that regime have actually gone on to continue to thrive. We were asked to abide by a set of rules that enabled us to have a sense of paying back our education, but it didn't hold us back from achieving everything else we wanted to do, including owning homes and setting up businesses. Somewhere along the line, in the pursuit of an ideal that was established back in 1989, we have lost our way as a nation, and we are uncertain about what tertiary education now means to us and why we wish to invest in it or how we wish to invest in it.

What I'd like to do tonight is take a moment to say I encourage all of us in this parliament to reset our expectations around education and to be prepared to fight for education as a fundamental human right—a right that all should have access to. For us to enable that, though, we are going to need bipartisan support in this place, and so I do reach out to colleagues right across this chamber to say please weigh up in your mind what you role you think education plays in driving our economy and our society forward.

As it relates to this particular piece of legislation, the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024 implements some of the recommendations of the Australian Universities Accord final report, which was tabled in 2023, and it takes the necessary and long overdue steps to start to improve our higher education sector. It's true: the community of North Sydney welcomes this legislation, particularly the changes to the method by which HELP debt indexation is calculated each year, as this is an issue my community specifically raised with the government within the first six months of my term.

Changing the way the indexation is calculated ensures the perverse indexation outcomes of 2023 are not repeated and that HELP debts will no longer grow faster than wages. I sincerely thank the minister and his team for their engagement on this issue. Many in my electorate have written to me about HELP debt indexation over the last two years, including current school students worried about their ability to afford tertiary education, recent entrants to the workforce who were shocked to find their HELP debt growing despite their repayments and parents who see their adult children struggling to launch themselves into the world under the weight of HELP debt. In an environment where the cost-of-living crisis is being felt by everyone, burgeoning HELP debts reduce young people's capacity for economic engagement and disincentivise the personal investment in education that we, as a society, are looking to encourage. Indeed, the various targets outlined in the final accord report, such as lifting tertiary education attainment rates to 80 per cent by 2050, are incredibly ambitious. I think we need to be clear: that will not be achieved without making the system more equitable, more affordable, more accessible, more inspirational and, ultimately, more aspirational, particularly for people from disadvantaged or remote backgrounds.

But the truth of the reform that we see in this legislation is that it's only part of the story, and there is still definitely more for this government and this parliament to do. For this reason I welcome the opportunity to support the member for Goldstein's second reading amendment, which appropriately draws the House's attention to one fact that I think is often overlooked. That is that the costs of many degrees have increased well above CPI in recent years, resulting in punitive HELP debts which are placing additional financial burden on Australians in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.

The member's amendment also calls on the government to calculate HELP debt indexation after the due date for individual tax returns each year, and on this my community could not agree more. While changing the rate of debt indexation will make a difference and is very welcome, the truth is that my community believes the government should consider whether the equity ambitions underlying this legislation could be furthered by changing the date of HELP debt indexation to allow indexation to be applied to the truly reduced balances—one that takes into account the payments that have been withheld against a debt in any given year. Alongside addressing the rate of debt indexation, changing the date of indexation was a recommendation in the final accord report and is something I have previously written to the minister about.

In an ideal world I think we could agree: debt repayments would be applied in real time in the same way that they are when you pay off any other debt, be that your credit card or a mortgage. Sadly, however, the ATO have previously stated that this is impossible because their systems can't cope with it. The ATO's systems can't cope with what should be a fundamental truth. My community would strongly advocate that the ATO's systems be fixed, that if we've identified this challenge then we should step in to it and address it, and that indexation should be changed from the current date of 1 June to 1 November each year as a pragmatic middle ground that goes some way to addressing the current inequity. A date of 1 November would allow time for those with a HELP debt to complete a tax return and have the indexation applied to the reduced debt. While it's not perfect, this would at least reduce the extent to which withheld payments are accrued without benefit whilst incentivising those with a HELP debt to complete a tax return before 1 November. Surely, that's a win-win.

My community is also pleased to see that the legislation seeks to address the financial hardship that comes with students completing mandatory practical study, including in critical areas like teaching, nursing and social work. Placement poverty is absolutely an issue that is being experienced by people living in my electorate, and it has been raised with me time and again by both students and parents as they struggle to afford to support themselves or their child through extensive periods of mandatory placement, which often take place in locations far from home and necessitate forgoing individual income-earning opportunities. Indeed, according to the government, some 68,000 students studying teaching, nursing or social work and 5,000 eligible VET students will benefit from this Commonwealth prac payment. Conceptually this is a welcome initiative, but the detail on what percentage of existing enrolments it will cover and what increases this might encourage is conspicuously missing.

It is also quite inconsistent with other employment law in other places. As somebody who has run businesses, I remember, with clarity, when it became illegal for me to bring an intern into my business without paying them, whether that was in a communications role or in a marketing role, and I do not understand why that law has not been equally applied across all workplaces. We are essentially putting these students out as free labour in specific areas.

Having said that, the payment the government is pursuing in itself is only proposed to be a maximum of $319.50 a week, which is significantly less than comparable payments, including Austudy. With eligibility rules that require students either to be on some form of Australian government income support or to be able to demonstrate that they needed to work more than 15 hours per week prior to their placement to attend uni, this modest compensation of $8 an hour will be hard to access and it probably won't cover what's being lost. It is, of course, better than nothing, but I question whether the payment will actually shift the dial on student decision-making. It will certainly not be enough to cover the cost of city based students undertaking their prac placements in rural communities, or, reciprocally, to enable students located in remote areas to experience a placement in the city.

Interestingly, I witnessed this firsthand recently, when a daughter of one of my friends took a social work placement in Orange. Far from home and with no time for another job, my friend's daughter relied on her limited savings and her family to cover her rent and basic living expenses for just on four months, and I saw the pressure it placed on everyone. It's not that anyone begrudged her the opportunity, and everyone was ecstatic that she was headed to a regional community, but the challenge was real. While this legislation provides a good headline, I can't see how it is going to help a young person like my friend's daughter, and, to me, it's a missed opportunity.

There are also many other important studies requiring significant student commitment to unpaid placements that are not covered by this proposal, including medicine, vet science, allied health and psychology. Given that we are in the middle of a mental health crisis, I wonder at the exclusion of what I think we can all agree is a critical and in-demand profession. With mental health in mind, I'm conflicted as to accepting that this payment must be targeted using economic imperatives, rather than being driven by student welfare—although I understand there is only so much money to go around. If we are truly to encourage young people to undertake degrees, however, and stem shortages in professions identified as key enablers in our economy, we need to do better than $8 an hour, and I implore the minister and this government to open these payments to other courses as quickly as possible.

Finally, this bill mandates that 40 per cent of student services and amenities fees, or SSAF, revenue is to be distributed to student-led organisations. From what I can tell, most organisations are comfortable with this, as are the universities. However, it is imperative that the organisations have a demonstrated capacity to manage the funds, and I note that some universities—including the Australian Catholic University, which has a campus in my electorate of North Sydney—currently actually provide student services directly, and, in the ACU's case, there is no student union arrangement. This poses obvious challenges insofar as the ACU has dedicated, trained, permanent staff providing student services and support and no immediately qualified student leadership groups to which the SSAF funds could be redirected. The ability, therefore, to seek transitional relief from this mandate is both sensible and welcome.

In closing, I believe my community will welcome this as a good piece of legislation, which could be made better by the adoption of the amendments moved by the member for Goldstein and others on the crossbench. For this reason, I commend the amendments to the government.

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This bill, the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024, implements the first stage of the Australian Universities Accord, focusing on measures which will have an immediate impact on students in higher education, including: changes to HECS indexation, the introduction of the Commonwealth prac payment, the introduction of fee-free uni-ready courses, and changes to student services and amenities fees.

Since I was elected in 2019, I have engaged thoroughly with our university sector here in Canberra. My electorate is home to the most universities of any electorate in the country. The Australian National University, the University of Canberra, the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, the Australian Catholic University and Charles Sturt University all have campuses here in the Canberra electorate. We're also looking forward to UNSW opening their Reid campus in the next few years. What they're planning looks amazing, and there are already a lot of great things happening there. It is safe to say that Canberra is a university town.

Almost 53 per cent of Canberrans in my electorate hold a university degree, which is around double the national average, and 43 per cent of Canberrans are currently either studying at a university or in vocational education. Higher education is the third biggest employer in the electorate, following the government sector and defence. It's clear that reform to the sector is important for my constituents, and I'm very proud to be part of a government that's committed to making our universities stronger for their students, for their staff and for the research they produce, which makes our nation and world stronger.

Today, with this bill, we progress some of those core reforms recommended in the Universities Accord. The Universities Accord provided us with a blueprint to reform higher education over the next several decades. It's a long-term plan to make the sector even stronger. Funding and implementing it will take more than one single budget cycle. This bill is the first phase of the implementation of the recommendations. A key part of this is reforming the Higher Education Loan Program, which used to be known as HECS—and I note that, although much better, the acronym 'HELP' has never seemed to have caught on so much as 'HECS'. The changes mean that the indexation of HELP debts will be based on either the consumer price index or the wage price index, whichever is lower. This change applies to HELP loans, VET loans, Australian apprenticeship support loans and other student support loans. We've listened to people who are paying off their student loans, and we've acted.

Last year, with CPI as high as it was, millions of Australians saw a significant increase in their student debts at tax time. For many, the indexation essentially added back onto their debts the payments that they had made on every payday over the year. Some saw indexation push their debts even higher than that, and many wondered if they would ever be able to pay off these debts. The changes to indexation will be backdated to loans that existed on 1 June last year. In essence, what that means is that the indexation that occurred based on the CPI rate of 7.1 per cent will be replaced with the lower wage price index of 3.2 per cent. For this year's indexation, instead of the 4.7 per cent it would have been, it will now be four per cent. This will wipe about $3 billion worth of student debt for three million Australians across the country. For someone with an average debt of $26,500, they will see around $1,200 taken off. For someone with a debt of $45,000, their debt will be lowered by $2,000, and, for someone owing $60,000, their debt will be reduced by $2,700. This is what happens when you have a government that listens and better decisions are made. We've taken this action to support students and people with student debts because it is undoubtedly the right thing to do.

This bill also establishes the Commonwealth prac payment. It was wonderful to join the Minister for Education at the University of Canberra Hospital recently to talk to nursing students about the huge difference it will make to them. For students studying nursing, midwifery, teaching or social work, the Commonwealth will support them as they undertake their previously unpaid prac placements. The accord recommended that these are the courses we focus on first, and that's what we're doing. I know I've heard from others in my community wishing to include other courses, and this is a starting point for this scheme.

We know that a huge barrier in accessing higher education for many is the costs, and, for particular courses, hard decisions need to be made. When students are undertaking prac placements, they're essentially undertaking full-time work, and many will need to move away from home to undertake the prac in a different location. They need to decide whether to give up their part-time jobs. They may even need to rent in two places at once. For too many students, these decisions will mean either they have to delay their degrees or they don't finish them at all—or they don't start them at all. This payment will support them through their degrees so that our future nurses, teachers, social workers and midwives are able to graduate and enter the workforce, filling those critical skills shortages in some of the most important professions.

This will be practical support while people are doing their practical training. As we heard from the students at the University of Canberra Hospital, this will mean a lot to them and will make it much easier for them to be able to undertake these practical placements, particularly when they are unable to do any paid work while they are doing them. We also heard about people who had not been able to enrol in those courses at all because of the inability to cover those times without an income and that this will make a big difference to those people.

To give an example of what this will mean, a mature-age midwifery student from the University of Technology Sydney, who is a mother of two small children, told the Minister for Education that this reform will be life-changing for her and that it will help her better balance her studies, her practical work placement and looking after her children. She said that it will also benefit future mature age students who might want to enrol in courses but who previously couldn't afford to. That's what this reform is all about.

The Albanese government is also uncapping fee-free uni-ready courses right across the country so that more Australians can get the skills they need to start their degrees. These courses, often known as bridging courses, help people to succeed when they finally start their tertiary studies. The changes we're making to these courses are expected to increase the number of people completing these free bridging courses by about 40 per cent by the end of the decade and double that number in the decade following that.

Jennifer Barker from Newcastle is a prime example of how these courses can change lives. As a young mum at 19, Jennifer had worked long term in hospitality and didn't have the opportunity to undertake university study. She saw an ad in her local paper for one of these fee-free courses. She went and enrolled and she now has a science degree, an honours degree, a PhD and was the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship. Today she works as a computational medicinal chemist.

This government wants to ensure that higher education is available to everyone who wants it and that every person in Australia is able to pursue those dreams and is not held back by the relatively minimal costs which can be such a barrier to people undertaking a bridging course or something like that. We don't want people's chances in life to be decided by their bank account or their parents' bank account or their postcode.

This bill also mandates that higher education providers allocate at least 40 per cent of the student services and amenities fees to student led organisations. This will strengthen student led organisations in their ability to act in the best interests of students.

Universities are a major part of our economy. They educate our citizens, conduct groundbreaking research, drive innovation and employ many thousands of workers. Unfortunately, however, our university sector is not currently fit for purpose and requires serious reform. Fortunately, we've got a government and a minister that are up to the task.

How refreshing it is to be standing here talking about reforms we wish to make to the university sector, rather than having to defend the sector from attacks from those opposite. For a decade we saw ideologically motivated attack after attack on our universities, often because they told the government inconvenient truths. We saw the previous occupiers of the education minister's office wage war on the humanities. They picked and chose the disciplines that would be so lucky—not to receive extra funding but to not have their funding levels cut. We do things differently on this side of the House, and this bill is one example of that.

Australia's education system is already world-class, but it could do a lot better and it could be a lot fairer. The reforms in this bill are just the beginning. We've got an ambitious agenda for higher education, and work is already underway. Some of the big recommendations we're implementing include removing the 50 per cent pass rule that was part of the Morrison government's Job-ready Graduates Package, expanding demand-driven funding to all First Nations students who are eligible for the course they apply for, expanding the number of regional university study hubs across the country and setting them up in the outer suburbs, extending the Higher Education Continuity Guarantee for a further two years to provide funding certainty to universities as the accord process rolls out, and working with state and territory governments to improve university governance.

Two years ago we announced a review of the Australian Research Council, the first in more than 20 years. We're implementing all of the recommendations of that review, including the most important one: the establishment of an independent ARC board responsible for the approval of grants instead of the minister. This is getting the politics out of ARC grant funding, where it shouldn't play any role. Since then, both of those reports have been turned into legislation, have been passed by the parliament and are now law.

Our government is also acting on the appalling rates of sexual violence on campuses around the nation. Shockingly, one in 20 students have been sexually assaulted since they started their university studies, one in six have been sexually harassed, and 50 per cent of those feel their voices are not listened to. We've agreed with the states and territories to establish a National Student Ombudsman. The ombudsman would be an independent body to investigate and resolve disputes, giving students a stronger voice. I acknowledge the really important and groundbreaking work of some students right here in Canberra at organisations such as End Rape on Campus and the STOP Campaign, who put in incredible work to protect students from sexual violence. You spoke up when your institutions failed you, and the government has listened.

Labor has always been the party of education and higher education. When Bob Hawke came to government the number of Australians finishing school stood at 40 per cent. At the end of the Keating government, that number had increased to 80 per cent. The Universities Accord has set us a target that by 2050, 80 per cent of our workforce should be not just finishing school but also going on to study at TAFE or university. It's an ambitious goal, but it's one that we are fully committed to.

I acknowledge the work of the Minister for Education, Jason Clare, his staff and the hardworking public servants at the Department of Education for their work putting this bill together and for the broader reforms already enacted and yet to come. Education is so critically important to the health of our nation, and that's why this bill is so important.

Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We know intergenerational inequality is growing, and growing rapidly, and the cost of university degrees and the HECS or HELP debt, as it's known today, plays a major part in that generational inequality. My parents' generation had free university. My generation had a system that did not burden us with too much debt. What we are now seeing, what I am seeing with my children and their friends and so many of the younger generation, is they are burdened by, I would say, nearly an unconscionable debt when it comes to how they are going to face their prospects.

This will impact young people's ability to get ahead. We know some 2.9 million Australians have some form of HELP debt, and it takes them close to 10 years to repay it in full if they are so lucky as to be able to. The current HELP system impacts a number of young people attending university to be our future workforce, and it also impacts how they choose their subjects and what they are looking at. It also impacts older Australians that are returning to university to retain or gain further qualifications. We need them—we need more people to be considering this. We know current younger generations will have up to 10 different jobs in their work lives—it's changing dramatically—and that will mean retraining. We can't have a situation where, to meet our skills demand—which we want people to do, especially older Australians where an industry they have been may be a dying industry, or something where the prospects are not there but there are new opportunities that require retraining—we are not burdening them with so much debt that there's a disincentive to go forward and do that. We know many in that category of retraining or gaining further qualifications are, all too often, women—older women—and that really impacts them and creates a really big inequity.

I am strongly urging the government—and I support this bill—to do all we can to ensure younger generations and those looking to retrain and upskill can do so confidently without being burdened by this unreasonable amount of debt. We know so much of our economic future as a nation relies and is linked to many being able to retrain and us being able to fill all the areas where we have significant skills shortages.

This bill is a start, but let's get real—much more needs to be done. That includes the further reform when it comes to how and when indexation of HELP loans occur. It's just unacceptable that the ATO can withhold a HELP loan repayment from someone's salary or pay on a monthly basis during the year, but that that amount is not applied to their HELP debt in real time. Essentially, indexation is applied to HELP loans by the ATO on 1 June each year, but the ATO does not process the loan repayments that it has withheld, that a person has not had the benefit of, until after personal tax returns are processed. So you have this inequity whereby, despite the payments being withheld from someone's pay, they're not applied to reduce the debt, which is ultimately indexed and grows.

Whilst it is a welcome change in this legislation, this system does not make sense—that the timing and how indexation occurs continue to be as they currently are. The government should legislate to either allow for repayments in real time or move the day of indexation from 1 June to later in the calendar year, to reduce the burden on those paying back their debt and stop the double dipping effect, in essence, that it has on people with their HELP loans. It is certainly not a system we see in any other area that the ATO engages in, and it's quite nonsensical that it remains in this case. The government, I know, is well aware of this, and I thank the minister for our discussions around this, but I think we need to hurry up with the change. This really is a burden on top of so many younger people and people that are looking to further their skills, to retrain and do further study.

But I do acknowledge that this bill represents progress, especially progress when it comes to the huge mobilisation of young people in our communities who called on the government to do this. In fact, we first met with the minister back on 1 June 2023 to raise the issue. At the time, we had the situation of 7.1 per cent of indexation, meaning debts were growing at a rate that was incredibly alarming for so many.

What does this bill do? The HELP debt indexation rate will now be linked to either the consumer price index or the wage price index, whichever is lower. That is welcome.

That will create a significant reduction. It is also really good to see the establishment of the Commonwealth prac payment. This payment will support students undertaking mandatory workplace placements required for university and vocational education qualifications. It's good progress. We know having to attend that vocational placement is often prescriptive and simply unaffordable for many, so I know that goes some way to alleviating the placement poverty that many have faced.

However, it is still picking winners; we are only covering some placements, not all mandatory placements for certain qualifications. I've raised that with the minister, and the answer was simple—that ultimately it's a budgeting question. At the moment, it's a question of picking priorities. I would argue that this is an important aspect. If we're going to fill skills shortages, we need to make sure any qualification that requires a vocational placement has access to the prac payment. So the bill is a good start, but more needs to be done to reform the student debt system and to support those already in study.

There is no doubt that a lot of the work and the progress of this bill are a result of the final report of the Universities Accord, and that important work was led by Professor Mary O'Kane AC, with some expert support from a range of individuals with expertise in higher education. It's important to note the final aspects in that report—that higher education is integral to Australia's future and that 'the knowledge, skills and research it produces enable us to be an economically prosperous, socially equitable and environmentally sustainable nation'. If we do not invest in our future in training and qualifications, we simply will not be at the table of the future economy of a net zero world. And we will really be selling our future generations short if we don't take care of that.

We know there is already a lot of pressure on many sectors in relation to skills shortages. We need more teachers for early childhood through to secondary schools. We need more doctors and nurses, more engineers and more skilled trade people. It is particularly key as we look to the transition to the net zero economy. In the next five years, 90 per cent of new jobs will demand tertiary education, yet we're seeing a decrease in completion of bachelor degrees, and a worsening skilled worker shortage looms. For example, for AUKUS, we know there is going to be a significant demand for engineers and there's a requirement that they be Australian-born or Australian citizen engineers. We don't qualify anywhere near the necessary number of engineers through our university system to meet that demand. That's just AUKUS, let alone the requirement we know we will have around the transition to clean energy and the transition that so many of our industries need to do. That's just one other area where we don't talk about it enough, but this is a major problem to many.

We know that the cost-of-living crisis and the spike in inflation haven't helped this sector and this debt. They've put many under pressure, and I know, for example, that many businesses in Warringah are also deeply affected by skill shortages. It's where we need to look for innovation and for ways to get efficiencies and to support so many more of our industries. For the government to meet Australia's needs and create the future we want for our society, our education system needs to be equitable, especially for marginalised groups. So I do wholeheartedly support the bill. It shifts the dial ever so slightly on the issue of fairness and an equitable future. I want to thank the many who raised their voice on this issue, because it's a real power of democracy to put pressure on government to move on an issue.

I think it's also important from a gender equality point of view. We know that many women are impacted by this. According to 2022-23 data from the Australian Taxation Office, women make up up to 60 per cent of those who still owe repayments on their HELP debts. The average debt is $26,000, and women's debts are larger, because they owe 58 per cent of the overall debt. Writing for Women's Agenda earlier this year, Dr Marg Rogers noted that the indexation of HELP debt 'is more likely to hit women harder because women take longer to pay off their student loans'. She noted that that is unfortunately because women, amongst other factors:

1. Take more career breaks to care for children and other members of their families,

2. Are more likely to work part time, reducing their income and amount they repay,

3. Earn less in feminised care industries,

4. Earn less overall,

5. Are more economically impacted during a relationship breakdown, and

6. Struggle to work in regional, rural and remote locations due to the lack of services (e.g. early learning, disability care and aged care).

But, still, young women studying at universities are set to benefit from the measures in this bill. The prac payments for those training in teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work are a welcome development. From July 2025, eligible students will be able to access some $319.50 per week while they're undertaking a placement; a means test will apply. Placement poverty is a real issue, including for those in Warringah, and I am glad that there is now a program in place to help alleviate that for them. And, yes, of course, many in those sectors are women; these are highly feminised sectors. According to the statistics of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, women make up almost three-quarters of education and health students at Australian universities. In nursing, women are nearly 90 per cent of the workforce in Australia.

There's no doubt that this is another step that the government has taken in relation to greater gender equality, and I very much welcome it. Along with paid parental leave, superannuation and child care, it's another step in the right direction, but of course more can be done. Whilst the debt write-off, indexation change and prac payments in the bill are welcome, they're only a start. For example, there are many recommendations remaining from the Universities Accord, and I encourage the government to act on further changes before the end of this year, particularly on that change to the indexation date that I referred to earlier. We know that will make a tangible difference to students, and we really need to go a lot further.

I've received a lot of positive back from Warringah residents and students since it was announced, many who had in fact signed the petition from the member for Kooyong. Many medical students and veterinary students and those studying to become psychologists will miss out, and these are key industries in which we know we have major shortages. So I encourage the government to also look at medical students, veterinary students, those studying to become psychologists and all other areas requiring prac placements—at anyone who has a practical element in their degree and cannot access a payment.

In the last parliament, the Morrison government also introduced some very controversial changes to the cost of tertiary education—in particular when it came to humanities degrees. I strongly opposed those changes then and I call on the government to revisit and reverse the decision. It inappropriately, substantially increased the cost of humanities degrees compared to others. As a society, we need all levels of education. We really will benefit from having all areas available to many, especially to young people. So I think it's really important that, while the government is making improvements here, it looks to reviewing the changes that were made by the previous government when it came to the cost of university degrees and, in particular, humanities degrees.

I know there are a number of amendments that will be discussed that will go to some of the points that I have raised and I look forward to further questions with the minister in relation to that process. But I do commend the government for taking this good first step in relation to this problem.

Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to be speaking on the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill and I thank the member for Warringah for her contribution. It was a very measured contribution in which I think she made some excellent points. I also think the member for Warringah rightly pointed out that some really important steps have been put forward in the bill. Obviously the university sector is one that is ever evolving and one where we need to continue to strive. While there are a whole range of issues around access and around student wellbeing and student welfare that need to be captured and dealt with, this bill is a very good piece of legislation that will make some significant changes to the lives of university students in our country.

I might start with some personal reflections. I, like many members in this place, had the privilege of attending university—one of the outstanding universities in this country. But my grandparents, especially on my father's side, left school when they were 13 and 14, and I know from my own family that the ability, privilege and opportunity to go to university was not a reality for generations past. They then moved to Australia and were able to provide a situation where my father's generation and our generation were all able to access higher education and further training post school. We all finished school, and my generation went to university. It was a great privilege, and it meant that there was social mobility, that there were options in life and that Australia was a place where it didn't matter where you came from or what your background was. University was an option, and, if you wanted to strive to get to university, it wasn't necessarily going to be easy, but it was going to be possible.

That's exactly what the HECS system was all about. It was about ensuring that Australia had a system where people could access university regardless of whether they could pay for it upfront. The HECS system was originally designed to be a low-interest loan system where students would not be penalised and students would have the lowest interest possible, but, with the high inflation, what that meant was that students had ever-increasing university bills, and that is one of the key reforms outlined in this bill, which I'll come back to in a moment.

The other point I want to mention on this bill is that, inside Macnamara, we have a number of higher education providers, but we also have campuses of two of Melbourne's finest universities: Monash University and the University of Melbourne. Monash Caulfield campus is tucked away in one corner of my electorate, right on the edge, and the University of Melbourne Southbank campus is on the other end. Also the University of Melbourne is building a big engineering precinct in Fishermans Bend, which is going to be really one of the most exciting prospects for young engineering students in the country. It is going to be truly not only a national but a world leader in terms of education, industry connections and practical applications. It is going to be a world-class institution, and we're very excited for that to be unfolding. There are so many wonderful universities around town, and there are so many wonderful universities in our country. I'm pleased to support them and pleased that they are providing so many opportunities to young students.

But we know that access to university is not straightforward and that students are being left with significant debt. We know that a whole range of issues, including student welfare and student wellbeing, are real and live, and they are things that were examined under the Universities Accord, which was the product of 12 months of work by the expert review panel. There were 785 public submissions, 150 meetings with stakeholders and a comprehensive report of 47 recommendations to make our higher education sector fairer and more accessible. I'm not going to go into all of the things that the accord did, but this bill has three important measures that are all about assisting with access to university, the cost-of-living pressures and mandatory training as well.

The first measure, obviously, is the changes to HECS. As outlined in this bill, it will wipe $3 billion of student debt for more than three million Australians, and it will be backdated to 1 June last year. This means in practical terms that, if you've got a HECS debt of $26,500, for example, your HECS debt will be cut by around $1,200, which is significant, especially when you look at the scale and the number of people who will be affected by this. It's a really positive thing, and I think that we need to do as much as we possibly can to reduce the financial burden and financial strain on our students.

One of the advantages of HECS has obviously been that more people have been able to go to university. The government no longer provides universal free university access, but it does mean that literally hundreds of thousands more people can access the university system and get a degree, which is obviously a huge benefit of the HECS system. This bill makes a fundamental reform to that system which changes the way in which the debt is indexed. This bill caps the indexation rate to the lower of either the consumer price index or the wage price index.

Once this legislation passes, individuals will receive a credit to their outstanding student loan debt balance for the difference between the indexation rate under the current legislation and the new indexation rate. For example, last year the CPI was 7.1 per cent, and we're replacing it with the wage price index's lower rate of 3.2 per cent. In my community of Macnamara, nearly 27,000 people will benefit from these changes. I'm really proud of that and I'm proud that, for all of those 27,000 people, they are going to get much-deserved support and financial credit in order to help them deal with the very real challenges around the cost of living.

The second important measure that this bill introduces is around paid prac. For the first time, the government will introduce paid prac to support teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students to do mandatory placements. These are critical workforces. We know that we absolutely need to be doing more to support our teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers. But we also expect them, as part of their training, to go to schools, to go to hospitals and to be in the field working and supporting those who they will be, ultimately, working for throughout their work. We know that part of their training is not just theoretical. In order to turn a student into a teacher or a nurse, we need to ensure that those young people or those trainees have access to practical placements.

We know there are other industries that also have a similar arrangement but we have said that these four will be covered as part of this bill. Obviously, when you have a track record of supporting people through these arrangements then you will always look to do more. Let's make sure that the bill gets passed, ideally, in a bipartisan way. Let's get that support in for teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers and then obviously, in the future, we will look to do as much as we possibly can. I've had conversations with people doing mandatory placements in other fields and I absolutely think we can certainly advocate on their behalf and ensure that their voices are heard inside government decision-making.

I am really proud of these reforms and proud that those four categories of training and paid prac will be covered. Students will be paid for their placement. If you are a young person and thinking about a career in teaching or nursing or midwifery or social work, it's an incentive to really consider those pathways and to know that you will have the option of being supported while doing your paid prac.

Universities Australia, the peak body for universities across the country, about paid prac, said:

The Government's Commonwealth Prac Payment means fewer Australians will have to choose between paying the bills and studying for the qualifications they need.

For far too long students in so many fields but especially in these four have had to move mountains to finish their paid prac and continue on with their daily lives. Hopefully, this will mean they get the support they deserve. These are four industries that are ultimately not the highest-paid industries and we desperately need those who go into them. We rely on them, we value them and we want them to look after our young people, to look after our patients, to look after some of the most vulnerable people and those people who need social services. That is exactly what we want them to do and we want quality people in those fields because they make our whole community and our whole society better as well.

The third measure in the bill is the fee-free uni-ready courses. The Universities Accord was very clear that we need a lot more people going to university and enrolling in VET courses to deliver the large skilled workforce we need for the future, and these reforms will assist more Australians in taking the step of getting into university. The fee-free uni-ready courses are described as a bridge between school and university to equip young people with the skills they need at university. We will be investing $350 million over four years to deliver this new and vital scheme. This is particularly important, as this will assist students who are from underrepresented backgrounds, ensuring university and higher education is accessible for all, which, I believe, is a fundamental core belief of the Australian Labor Party, which has assisted my family and is one that I am proud to work for.

In summary, this is a bill that supports students. It will support those who have finished their studies by reducing their HECS debt. It will support those who are accumulating studies and it will reform HECS so it always has the lowest form of interest in their loan. It will always be as affordable as possible for our students. We know how challenging it can be for our young people and we want to support them. That's the first measure I'm really proud of. It will help create a bridge between school and university and it will also pay people to do the mandatory prac during their time at university in those four incredibly important professions.

I want to thank the Minister for Education for his work in pulling this together. It is an outstanding piece of reform. It is one I'm very proud of, and I commend the bill to the House.

Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When it was first introduced in 1989, the HECS scheme was the world's first national income-contingent charging mechanism for higher education. In 1989, only 12 per cent of Australians had a university degree. The idea was that students who benefited from their tertiary education by earning average or higher incomes would then contribute to the cost of that education, primarily by making repayments after finishing their studies such as to enable the creation of additional spots for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

The growth in higher education over the last three decades, with the expansion of student loan schemes and the tightening of repayment arrangements, has damaged students' experiences of tertiary education in Australia. It now costs much, much more for students to study at a university. For courses with government subsidies, the expected contribution has increased from about 20 per cent to about 48 per cent of student course costs. Students now finish their degrees with average debts of $50,000 to $60,000. They're taking, on average, about 12 years to repay their debts, and repayment times are trending upwards. This is occurring in a cost-of-living crisis. Graduates are struggling to get home loans. Many are deferring having a family.

The burden of HECS debts is greatest on women, who take longer to pay back their debts and end up paying back more. In this country income 10 years after graduation is more strongly associated with gender than with field of study. Men earn $27,000 more than women 10 years after graduation. The lower payment threshold enacted in 2019-20 now reduces the incentive for women to work, and it can create poverty traps for families. A single parent with two children and an income between $46,000 and $100,000 will lose, on average, 70c of every extra earnt dollar due to reduced family benefits, increased tax, Medicare and HECS repayments. The recent Australian Universities Accord recommended significant reforms to make this HECS system more fair. This legislation goes some way towards that but not nearly far enough. We need this government to act more quickly and more effectively to fix the broken HECS system.

Federal funding of Australian universities has now decreased from 80 per cent in 1992 to around 35 per cent today. In 1996 student fees constituted about 10 per cent of universities' income. For some tertiary centres that figure is now 70 per cent. Most university revenue is from domestic and international student fees. Pivoting to a revenue stream dependent on very high proportions of international students, the large universities have now resorted to workforce casualisation and increased class sizes. They've reduced contact hours for students, and they've increased workloads for academic staff. Our universities have lost more than 46,000 full-time academic staff over the last decade alone. At the same time, the dilution of course requirements, larger class sizes, soft marking for international students and forced group assignments have lessened the educational experience for Australian students. Domestic enrolments have plateaued, drop-out rates are at a historic peak, an increasing number of school leavers are deferring commencing their studies and more young Australians are undertaking their tertiary education overseas because it is cheaper.

HECS is a really big part of this problem. In recent years the annual indexation of HECS by the rate of inflation has resulted in significant increases in residual student debt. The outstanding HECS debts owed by graduates have ballooned from $22.5 billion in 2011 to $78 billion in 2023. Many young Australians had no idea what they were getting into when they signed up to university at the age of 17 or 18. Greater inflation has resulted in indexation of 3.9 per cent and then 7.1 per cent in the last two years. The tax office collects HECS payments on an ongoing basis during the year, but it doesn't adjust the balance owing until a tax return is filed. That's after indexation is applied. So graduates have been finding that their debts have been increasing despite their best efforts to pay them off. It is outrageous that payments made during the year are not taken into account when a student's debt is indexed. My generation would not put up with this creative accounting on our mortgages, but we're expecting the next generation to put up with what amounts to cynical gouging by the Treasury.

To add insult to injury, in 2020 the Morrison government introduced not only a more challenging regime for repayments but also the Job-ready Graduates Package for degrees such as arts, commerce, accounting and business. The cost of these degrees more than doubled overnight, from about $16,000 to as much as $51,000, purely because of the Morrison government's wish to dissuade students from undertaking courses which it, in its infinite lack of wisdom, felt to be of limited value. This, while other courses—nursing, foreign languages and others—cost less than $5,000 a year. The gap between the cheapest and the most expensive courses doubled to more than $10,000 a year.

The indexation of these fees rubs further salt into the wounds. The truth is that, in a post-truth world plagued with populism and polarisation, we need more, not fewer, graduates with high levels of literacy, the capacity for nuanced thought and debate and the ability to communicate complex ideas. Graduates from varied ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds will be the thought leaders of tomorrow, and they should reflect the diversity of Australian society. The job-ready graduates scheme didn't align with labour-market outcomes. It didn't align with national priorities or projected skills shortages. It left a frightening number of students facing debt far higher than was anticipated when HECS was first introduced. That is debt which is vastly disproportionate to the future earning potential.

The job-ready graduates scheme succeeded in decreasing the number of students undertaking arts, commerce, law and psychology degrees, but only by 1.5 per cent. It markedly increased the disparity in debts incurred by students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, First Nations students and women. Debts of $30,000 to $50,000 are common. Debts over $100,000 are not rare. The program was not just flawed and ineffective policy; it persists as an indictment of the Morrison government's intellectual poverty. It should be dismantled immediately. To add insult to injury, since September 2023, banks must, under updated regulatory guidelines, include HECS debts in home loan application calculations. This means that residual HECS debts reduce graduates' borrowing power by between $15,000 and $104,000. The Universities Accord also recommended that we address this inequity.

It's in this setting that the University Accord has suggested significant changes to the HECS system, of which some are being enacted through this legislation. A significant initial change is reform of HECS indexation, to cap it to the lower of the consumer price index or the wage price index. This change will ensure that outstanding loans will not grow faster than the average wage. The new indexation cap has a retroactive effect from 1 June 2023, introducing an indexation credit to HECS accounts, which will help more than 3 million Australians.

These changes are in response not only to the Universities Accord report but also to the sustained and unified efforts of the 2.9 million Australians with HECS debts who have, for two years, represented their need, their want and their desire for the Albanese government to change the system as strongly as they can and the efforts of the 288,000 Australians who signed my petition to fix the broken HECS system. To them are owed the changes in indexation and the refunding of $3 billion.

The legislation also creates a support payment to help students bear the cost of participation in mandatory practical training. The University Accord recommended this form of support to students in the care and education sectors, but the legislation affords it only to the approximately 68,000 students who are undertaking teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work studies. There is really no clear or justifiable rationale for excluding students of medicine, radiography, allied health and other health sector professions—students who are also required to undertake compulsory placements. Some of them have told me that they find themselves paying rent in two places. Some of them find themselves sleeping in cars on their country placements. Some have to take time off to save before they can take those placements. Placement poverty doesn't distinguish between different academic disciplines.

The payment will be means tested, and it will be matched to the Austudy rate of about $8 an hour, but all details of the scheme have been left, at this point, to the delegated legislation, which renders it very susceptible to repeal. The government intends that prac payments will be administered by the universities, but they do not generally administer Commonwealth supports. It appears that there may be a cap on the number of supported placements allocated to each institution. We have limited insight into the practicality of the scheme. We have doubts about its equity and residual concerns regarding the potential for it to be repealed by subsequent governments. The scheme should be administered by the government. It should include all care sector degrees necessitating practical placements away from home for anything more than four weeks. It's time to show real commitment to students who are making sacrifices to undertake the courses that we need them to take.

If we value education, if we value the skills that graduates bring to our society and if we wish to ensure Australia's future, we have to ensure that all Australian students share in the opportunity to benefit from our world-class educational institutes and that all of us can benefit from the fruit of their studies. Students should be able to make choices in line with their strengths and preferences. Course funding should include an appropriate balance between student and government contributions, recognising both the public and private benefits from higher education. Equal or flat-rate student and government contribution rates should be the starting point, with differentiation based on clear evidence for this. This would be simpler. It would minimise inequality, and it would be more justifiable to the public. For student contributions, graduate employment is the clearest and most valid evidence for differentiation of costs, which approximate the private benefits from education. A government contribution system differentiated by cost of delivery but not employment would ensure that universities supply higher-cost courses of interest to students which are aligned with national priorities. A government which is truly serious about improving educational outcomes and stimulating research and innovation would commit to the full funding of our universities. That would ensure adequate places for all competent students. It should adequately and actively address the inequities in our education system.

There's a lot more to be done to make the HECS system simpler and more fair. Let's remember that, in many cases, the graduates who are now experiencing bloated HECS debts are the generation of young Australians who are still making up for time lost during the COVID-19 crisis, a time in which we confined them to their homes and they often received a third-rate educational experience delivered online. That educational experience has not improved in the post-pandemic years. This is a generation which now, in the face of a cost-of-living crisis and a crisis of home affordability and availability, is being burdened with unprecedented levels of personal debt arising from their attempts to equip themselves with the skill sets required for their adult lives. This is a generation which understands that Australian university students contribute more to government revenue than the oil and gas revenue pays in its super profits tax.

The government must immediately reverse the gross inequities visited upon art students by the Job-ready Graduates scheme. I will move an amendment to that effect in the Consideration in Detail stage of this legislation. I will also move an amendment allowing for the payments made by Australians to be accredited to their accounts before indexation is applied each year, to stop this government from gouging extra money from the young and the vulnerable. The Australian tertiary education system is, at this time, broken. A government that really believes in it will demonstrate the commitment required to fixing it, and it will do that now.

Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a positive day for our country. This bill is incredibly important, and it is an effort from our government to wipe $3 billion of student debt. Three million Australians right across the country will benefit from this, including 22,264 people in my local community.

This bill will reform our HECS-HELP system to ensure that outstanding student loans never again grow faster than average wages. In doing so, our government is making it easier for young Australians with student debt to prepare for their future, to save for a home deposit, to set themselves and their families up for the best possible future. Our government does understand that at the moment people are feeling cost-of-living pressures. We are determined to support Australians, and we are, through measures like this, reducing student debt through tax cuts for every taxpayer, energy bill relief, cheaper medicines and much more. We also understand that higher education is transformative and that access to it is important not just for individuals but for us as a community and a country as a whole. So, for all of these reasons, this bill is very important.

Through this bill, our government is providing direct cost-of-living relief for students who in the past were facing the impost of having to do prac placements that they weren't paid for. The introduction of a weekly Commonwealth prac payment will support around 68,000 teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students a year to help them complete their university placements. It is absolutely clear to all of us that people in these sectors are essential to keeping our communities going, so our government is backing them in, demonstrating how much we value the contribution they are making as students and also the contributions we know they will make over time to our country.

This support will help students directly where the financial impact of a mandatory prac placement may otherwise mean they have to defer their studies or withdraw altogether due to those increased costs and the reduced capacity to undertake paid work. We've heard about this directly from people who have been affected by this—for example, Elijah, a nursing student who lives out of home. He said that having a paid placement would mean a great deal to him because over the six weeks of the prac he'd still have money coming in, even if he couldn't do his part-time job, and that would help take some of the financial pressure off him during a busy time. Claire, a midwifery student, is also a mum to two young kids. Claire was facing the juggle of 16-hour days between her placements and casual work while also caring for her kids. Claire said the paid prac is going to be life changing for her and an incredible opportunity for her and other mature age students to help make the switch into a degree that they're passionate about.

Teaching, nursing, midwifery, social work—we rely on all these professions as a community and country. Our government is backing in students to undertake this work, to undertake these paid pracs and to make sure that they are getting jobs and getting into the industries that we need them in for the future.

Through this bill, we are also effectively uncapping fee-free uni-ready courses across Australia, which will help more students make the jump to university study and succeed when they get there. We are establishing the Commonwealth grants scheme funding cluster for these courses, which will act as a bridge between school and university to provide foundational skills. We're also supporting students by requiring that higher education providers allocate a minimum of 40 per cent of their student services and amenities fees revenue to student led organisations. This will ensure that students have a significant voice in how their services and amenities fees are spent. I know that that's a development that will be welcome news for students in my local area, including at La Trobe University.

This bill represents a significant step forward in implementing the recommendations of the Universities Accord and building a better and fairer education system. The accord is the largest and the most wide-ranging review of higher education conducted in this country in 15 years. I think it speaks to how this government approaches the challenges that are before us. We do the hard work. We look at what needs to change, and then we get on with it. We do recognise how important it is to be planning for our country's future, ensuring that we're supporting Australians not just for today but for tomorrow. This is the work that will make sure that our tertiary education system is not just fit for purpose now but is actually fit for purpose for the generations to come. I know that will be important to many people in my community, not just to students at the moment but also to those who are thinking about that intergenerational piece and the fairness and the opportunities they want for those to come.

Our government's wiping of $3 billion worth of student debt will be a game changer for so many Australians. I want to highlight that that will include a number of women. This reform will benefit more than 1.8 million women with an outstanding student loan. As of June last year, women represented around 61 per cent of all people with a student debt. They held around 59 per cent of outstanding student debts. Again, this isn't just good on an individual level; it is good for our entire country and good for Australian women.

I know the Commonwealth prac payment in particular will have a very positive impact on gender equality. As I mentioned earlier, this payment is supporting around 68,000 teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students a year to complete their university placements, targeting cohorts of people who can be typically disadvantaged and helping to address these gender-segregated industries. We know that these are workforces that are dominated by women and that women want to work in, and that this payment will make such a difference to them. Female education is concentrated in female-dominated occupations, and these occupations are too often characterised by lower levels of status and earnings. According to 2022 higher education enrolment data, women make up 88 per cent of nursing, 75 per cent of teaching and 85 per cent of social work enrolments. These women training to do this critical work in our community will be receiving direct support through the Commonwealth prac payment. I hope not only that it will support these women but also that we continue to have more men seeing that they can take up roles in these industries and that they can do it without financial disadvantage. I hope we see men pursuing careers in teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work.

I have heard from many people in my community concerned about HECS debt. It comes from young people who are studying at the moment at La Trobe University, which is just over the border in Bundoora; those who are jumping on the train to the University of Melbourne or RMIT; and those heading across the city to Monash. They have all been clear with me that the prospect of student debt is has genuinely made them worry about their future. Since our government made the announcement earlier this year that we would be wiping $3 billion worth of student debt, I've spoken to many students, and I know that this decision is one that comes as a huge relief for them. This reform is not just for current students; it is for those with an existing HECS debt as well. People in my community who have had student debt for several years will also benefit from this debt relief our government is delivering.

More broadly, I know that parents and grandparents have been worried about this issue of HECS debt, and I've had some of them stop me in the street or write to me, telling me that they want to make sure that their kids and their grandkids can set themselves up for the kind of future that they were able to set themselves up for—that intergenerational peace of fairness. I know that they will be relieved to see this, and I want to highlight some of the locals who have contacted me about this, like Paul from research, who sent me an email earlier this year. Paul told me he had never written to a local member before but was compelled to reach out to tell me about his son. Paul's son is undertaking his first year at a university in the city, studying a business degree. Paul told me, 'We're proud of him achieving a solid result after a torrid time in COVID, and getting a placement in the course he wanted. Tempering that result is the absolute horror I now feel about the burden he will face in regard to his HECS debt.' The bill is good news for Paul and his son.

For someone who is at the end of their degree—maybe in business or something else—who in the past would have been looking at a HECS debt of about $60,000, their debt will be cut by $2,700 this year alone. Someone with an average debt of $26,500 will see about $1,200 wiped from their outstanding loan this year. For someone with a debt of $45,000, it will mean that their debt is cut by about $2,000. I know that this will make a real difference to those students. It will make a real difference in how they can approach their studies and also in the certainty with which they can approach their future.

It's not just a one off; it is for this year and for the years to come. Janine from Eltham contacted me in 2023 about the impact of the indexation rate then on her ability to pay her student debt. Janine told me that at that time it meant that she needed to find in excess of $4,000 a year simply to stop her HECS debt growing. Without paying it down, she felt like she would need to do this every year, forever. Janine, I am very pleased to say that our government's changes mean that not only are we cutting your HECS debt but also that we will backdate it to last year. We will wipe out what you were writing to me about last year when that indexation came into place. We will make sure it never happens again by setting HECS at either inflation or wages, whichever is the lowest.

There are others in my community who've contacted me about this. Todd and Sally from Viewbank—who responded to my community survey earlier this year and told me they were concerned about the impact of indexation on their two daughters and their study—Christine from Eltham, Tim from Watsonia North, Wendy from Viewbank, Ian from Heidelberg and Margaret from Rosanna are just some of the locals who have written to me to share their thoughts and who I am very pleased to be able to tell today that our government has listened, that our government recognises how important access to a higher education degree is for them, for their children and for the future of our country, and that we are doing the reform work that will set us up to be able to do that.

As I said, we will be wiping around $3 billion in student debt for more than three million Australians, and that will ease pressure on workers. It will ease pressure on students right across the country. It provides significant relief for students while continuing to protect the integrity and the value of the HELP and other student loan systems, which, again, all the evidence shows us, have massively expanded tertiary access for more Australians. It's a system that is worth protecting and sustaining.

This bill does cap the HELP indexation rate to the lower of either the consumer price index or the wage price index, and it backdates these changes to 1 June 2023. For students, once this legislation passes, individuals will receive a credit to their outstanding student loan debt balance for the difference between the indexation rate under current legislation and the new indexation rate. These changes cover HELP, VET student loans, Australian apprentice support loans and other student loan accounts that existed on 1 June last year. This will benefit all of those Australians with a student loan. It will fix the issues of last year's spike in the CPI indexation rate of 7.1 per cent, and it will prevent future growth in debt from outpacing wages. As I've said, that is not insignificant for an individual with an average HELP debt of $26,500. Around $1,200 will be wiped from their outstanding HELP loan when this legislation passes. This change provides relief for students at the moment while also making sure that we are setting our higher education system up for the future.

Of course, again, we are backing in students who are studying in some of the most important areas for our country. I am particularly pleased to see the prac payments coming into place, recognising that we do need students to be studying nursing, we do need students becoming midwives and we do need students becoming teachers. We need to recognise that there is a burden that has been put on those people. As I've said, many of them are women choosing to take up these professions and facing a really difficult choice as to whether they can make decisions to study, continue to work part time and also care for their children at the same time. I know that, for all of those people, this decision is going to make a huge difference.

It is a good day when we get to set up our higher education system for the future of this country. It is a good day when we get to support students with very real cost-of-living relief. It is a good day when we get to continue to make sure that our country is a fair place into the future and that we are offering the opportunities of higher education, with all that that entails, to Australians now and into the future. I commend this bill to the House.

Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Nothing is a greater demonstration, perhaps, of the hypocrisy in this place than when it comes to HECS debt—the fact that so many politicians in this place got to go to university for free, graduate without any student debt and often buy a house for a much smaller fraction of their income than people do now, and then those same politicians in this place turn around and declare that it's okay for students to cop tens of thousands of dollars in HECS and HELP debt, in student debt, and pay tens of thousands of dollars just to go to university, often when they're told that the only way they're going to get a job is by going to university. Nothing is a better demonstration of the rank hypocrisy in this place than both Labor and the Liberals declaring that it's okay to charge students tens of thousands of dollars to go to university and cop massive HECS debts that are barely being changed by this government bill, the Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024.

The idea that this is something to crow and brag about, to make a marginal reduction in the indexation rate for HECS debt—that's still going up, by the way. We know that student debt in this country is $78 billion. The government are crowing about a $3 billion reduction, which will be about a four per cent reduction on student debt, which will then go up next year anyway when it is indexed again because the government have not got rid of indexation; they have just tweaked it—as if rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. The consequences are very real for students in this country, because when they graduate, they cop a massive HECS debt. Then, when they have to get a loan from the bank, they are told—

Debate interrupted