Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. When Steven Miles was deeply unpopular, he went on a spending spree to try and help him reset and gain his popularity back.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Miles was willing to sacrifice the state's finances to try to make people like him again. The Prime Minister played this card trick on the weekend with his $16 billion university degree debt policy. Prime Minister, our country is off track, and this Labor government is damaging the economy and keeping interest rates higher for longer, which is hurting families. When will the reckless spending stop?

Government members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Members on my right will cease interjecting. There was far too much noise during that question.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question, and I give him credit for having the courage to come to the dispatch box, having been part of a government that left a $78 billion deficit that we turned into a $22 billion surplus—we then produced a second surplus a year after—and an opposition that, when they were in government, left $1 trillion of debt, red ink as far as the eye could see. What we have done in government is halve inflation. When we came to government, it had a six in front of it, and today it has a two in front of it. We've done that while we've created on our watch one million jobs—the first time that has ever happened by any government in any term since Federation.

At the same time, we've got real wages increasing. They've increased by more since we came to government than what occurred under their previous nine long years. What we have also done is provide cost-of-living relief when it's been necessary and done it in a way that is responsible. But they've never seen any cost-of-living relief they didn't want to bag. They've never supported any of it, so it's not surprising they're not supporting this relief either.

What this is about is cutting student debt by 20 per cent. The first thing we'll do if we're re-elected is introduce legislation. Three million people will benefit. A typical university graduate will see their debt cut by $5½ thousand. As a direct result of what the former government, the Morrison government, did—by lowering the threshold in which payments have to come back—for some people their interest that they are paying is more than their original debt. That is a direct result. So we're also raising the student debt repayment threshold from $54,000 to $67,000 and lowering the repayment rate. If you're earning $70,000 a year, you'll save $1,300 a year in repayments.

But, in addition to that, we are also making free TAFE permanent. Already, 500,000 Australians have benefitted. There are more tradies to build homes, more apprentices getting a start, more carers to look after our loved ones and more opportunities for Australians. We understand that education is the key to opening those doors of opportunity and we want to widen them. That's what this government is about, and I'm proud of the announcements that we made over the last few days. And, over the coming days and weeks and months, there will be more about what our second-term agenda looks like. (Time expired)

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

My question is to the Minister for Education. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to support Australians with a student debt, and what has been the response?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Gippsland is warned. No-one is to interject before a minister begins their answer. The same rules are applying.

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

Can I thank my friend the fantastic member for Macnamara for his question. Yesterday the Prime Minister announced that, if we win the next election, the first legislation that we introduce to parliament will cut all student debts by 20 per cent. That will help three million Australians right across the country, including 27,000 people in the electorate of Macnamara.

They're people with a uni degree. They're also people with a TAFE qualification. If they have got the average student debt of, say, 27 grand, that will wipe $5,500 off their bill. If they have a debt of 50 grand, it will wipe about $10,000 off their bill. That's a lot of help for a lot of young Australians just out of uni, just out of TAFE, maybe just moving out of home and just getting started. If we win the next election, we will also make it easier for them to pay off those debts. You won't have to start paying it off until you earn $67,000. In other words, you won't have to start paying it off until going to uni or going to TAFE starts to pay off for you. We'll also reduce the minimum payments that you have to make each year. So, if you are earning about $75,000, we'll reduce the repayments that you have to make next year by about $1,000. That's an extra thousand dollars in your pocket rather than the government's. That's real cost-of-living relief—cutting their debts and reducing their repayments. It's all part of building a better and fairer education system. It's all part of building Australia's future.

And guess who wants to stop all of this?

The Liberal Party. That's what they said on the weekend. At least three million Australians now know where they stand. That's everyone from chippies and sparkies with a TAFE qualification to teachers and nurses with a uni degree. They now know that, if Labor win the next election, we will cut their debts by 20 per cent and, if the Liberals win, they won't. They know Labor will help them and the Liberals will dud them. That's what they'll be doing—dudding three million Australians, making them pay thousands more in debt and making it harder to pay off, harder to get started and harder to get ahead. That's what's happened. That's what we've got now with the modern Liberal Party on any education or any aspiration. This Prime Minister wants to open the doors of opportunity wider. This opposition leader wants to slam them shut.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I didn't sit through that answer continually saying, 'Order, order, order!' all the way through. I shouldn't have to. But during that answer the member for O'Connor interjected 11 times continuously. So he will leave the chamber under 94(a). I shouldn't have to continually chide members. I am going to try something different this week and asked everyone to lift their standards and decrease the number of interjections.

The member for O'Connor then left the chamber.