Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know how important education is to my wonderful community in Chisholm, and it's important to me too. I've always been an advocate for accessible and affordable pathways to higher and vocational education and the opportunities that they deliver for people, communities and our nation. In fact, I spoke about access and affordability of higher education in my very first speech in this place. Constituents of mine are passionate about reforming higher education and making it more affordable too.

I undertook a survey in my community about higher education, and I was absolutely blown away by the response. Hundreds and hundreds of people contacted me and said they thought debts should be lower and that younger people should have better access to education pathways. So I'm really pleased to be part of a government that is taking action to reform higher education. A re-elected Albanese Labor government will cut student debt by 20 per cent for everyone. We'll also reduce the amount graduates have to repay every year, and we'll make fee-free TAFE courses permanent.

This is the start of our positive plan for a second term: helping with the cost of living and building Australia's future. We'll cut around $5½ thousand from an average uni student's debt, and we'll make the repayment system fairer. This will boost take-home pay for people repaying student debts. Together we can keep building Australia's future.