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

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the Government's commitment to making Australia's student loan system better and fairer by:

(a) cutting 20 per cent off all student loan debts, wiping around $16 billion in student debts for around three million Australians;

(b) raising the threshold people can earn before they start having to pay off their loans;

(c) changing the way these mandatory repayments are calculated through a marginal repayment system; and

(d) building on reforms to fix the indexation formula, which is cutting around $3 billion in student debt;

(2) recognises that all up, the Government will cut close to $20 billion in student loan debt for more than three million Australians; and

(3) notes that these commitments are all part of the Government's plans to create a better and fairer education system for all Australians.

Education changes lives, and, like many members in this place, I had the absolute privilege of attending Monash University. My alma mater has one of their incredible campuses in my electorate in Caulfield. However, my grandparents on my father's side left school when they were teenagers. They didn't have the opportunity to attend university and access higher education. It wasn't because of attitude; they were brilliant—the opportunity was not afforded them. They moved to Australia in search of freedom, opportunity and equality. Part of that was the ability of their children to have the opportunities that they did not have and for their grandchildren to have the opportunities that they do not. That is what the HECS system is all about. It's about ensuring that everyone can have access to higher education studies. It's about ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to climb the ladder in Australia. I know how much education has changed my family's life, and I know how much education has changed other Australians' lives as well.

The reality is that HECS was never designed for young people to have lifelong debt. I've spoken to countless members of our community who feel the burden of student debt right now. In Macnamara, we have approximately 27,000 people facing student debt—HECS debt. They're feeling it at the supermarket. They're feeling it when they pay their bills. They're feeling it when thinking about whether they can afford to buy a home. That is why I was so proud of our announcement a couple of weeks ago. The Minister for Education announced that we will wipe off 20 per cent of all student debt. That will wipe around $16 billion of student debt for around three million Australians. It's not just university debt; it also includes debt from TAFE courses and apprenticeship loans. Someone with a HECS debt of $27,600 will see around $5½ thousand wiped from their loan next year.

Additionally, we announced our plans to make the repayment system fairer by cutting the repayment rate as well as increasing the threshold before one starts to pay it off. For someone on an income of $70,000, this means they'll pay around $1,300 less per year in repayments. We know Australians are doing it tough right now and, fundamentally, this is about giving young people a bit more of the support that they need right now. They shouldn't have to be worrying about paying off their HECS debt until they are earning a sustainable income.

Last week, the Minister for Education joined me in the great electorate of Macnamara. We had a coffee with some university students who were at different stages of their university degrees and were talking about what this meant for them. They also told us about the increases in the cost of humanities degree. As a student of the humanities, I completely support the idea of making sure that humanities are not too expensive and that we encourage critical thought, writing, literature history and, of course, politics. Our reforms not only provide cost-of-living relief for people when they need it most but also are about making sure higher education is there and opportunity is there for those when they need it and wherever they live across our great country, including those from regional Victoria. All up, our government will wipe approximately $20 billion in student debt loans for approximately three million Australians. This recent announcement was on top of the budget announcement we made earlier this year to make indexation fairer and wipe an initial $3 billion of student debt. These recent changes provide significant relief for students while continuing to protect the value of the HELP and other student loan systems which have meant that more young people can get access to higher education.

Across my electorate we have some fantastic higher education providers, including Monash University in Caulfield and of course the University of Melbourne in South Bank, just to name a couple. I know how much accessing these universities as well as so many of our great universities in Victoria and across our country means to the lives of young Australians. It should be hard. University is hard. You should have to work hard in order to complete it. But it also should be possible, and so should paying off your student debt. We are making changes. We are making it fairer. We are reducing that debt, and we're going to make sure that more young people can have access to university in this great country of ours.

Marion Scrymgour (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for the motion?

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

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

MILLER-FROST () (): Australia is a country with a bright future for our citizens. A Future Made in Australia, the National Reconstruction Fund and the energy transition are all big policies that are driving industry and opportunities that every Australian will benefit from whether it is from the secure, well-paid jobs that they will create, the services they will benefit from or the thriving economy. The one thing that all of these strategies need is a skilled workforce. For many of these jobs, an apprenticeship, university degree or TAFE qualification is the entry ticket. When we came into government we inherited workforce shortfalls across the economy. There wasn't a sector that I didn't hear from telling me how hard it was to get the skilled workforce they needed—tradies, the health sector, retail services, manufacturing, defence and the list goes on. The previous government ran down TAFE and universities, cutting their funding, jacking up the cost of degrees and making students and graduates pay their HECS or HELP debts when they could least afford it, as they were setting up their careers and setting up their lives post qualification. No wonder there was a shortage of skilled workers.

This government knows that many students are doing it tough. That's why we are changing the way that HELP debt is calculated. Legislation is currently before parliament to make the indexation rate the lower of CPI or the wages price index, and we are backdating that to 1 June 2023. This makes indexation fairer and wipes around $3 billion of student debt for more than three million Australians. It means that your HECS or HELP debt won't go up faster than your wages. Around 80 per cent of those who will benefit from this change are 40 years of age or under and 50 per cent are 30 years of age or under, the same people who are trying to set up their lives while they establish their career and maybe buy house and start a family. This is a practical and direct cost-of-living measure to help them at the stage of life when they need it most.

We also heard from students required to do unpaid pracs as part of their qualification. Some of them had to give up paid work to complete their pracs, and some of them had to move from where they live to a city and pay for accommodation and expenses away from home. Some just couldn't afford to do an unpaid prac, so they didn't finish their qualification. That's an enormous loss to them, but it's also an enormous loss to the country. So we're introducing paid pracs for social work, nursing, midwifery and teaching so that students can afford to complete their prac and complete their qualification. These reforms provide cost-of-living relief for students and graduates, and make higher education better and fairer.

We're also massively expanding and properly funding fee-free uni ready courses to help students set up for success. We've doubled the number of regional university study hubs and established hubs in outer suburbs for the first time. We've established a national student ombudsman to investigate student complaints. And, of course, there is our massively popular fee-free TAFE program, which has delivered over 500,000 places so far and is set to be made permanent. What's next? I'm glad you asked. A re-elected Albanese Labor government will wipe student debt by 20 per cent. That will wipe a further $16 billion in student debts for around three million Australians in relation to apprenticeship loans, and TAFE and university loans.

When I paid my HECS debt, it was calculated at around 30 per cent of the cost of the course. It's now 40 per cent. Students nowadays are paying more per course than my cohort did, at a time when we want more apprentices and more TAFE and university qualified people in the workforce. We will also raise the income threshold at which you need to start repaying your student debt. The previous Liberals and Nationals government lowered it so that students and graduates on relatively low wages had to start repaying, but we want students and graduates to be able to set up their careers and their lives post qualification. We will also change the way the repayment is calculated so that the minimum repayment is lower.

We want Australians to have good, well-paid, secure jobs, and we want Australia to have the skilled workforce that it needs to become an economic powerhouse in this changing world. Helping students and graduates with their student debt is a practical way to achieve both those things and help them with the cost of living.

Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've said it before and I'll say it again: education is the master key to opportunity for all Australians, starting in the classroom at primary schools across the country, right through to the halls of Australian TAFE and university campuses. The doors unlocked for Australians in these buildings have created our families and our communities, as well as our very culture and the country we're so privileged to live in today. Make no mistake. There is no Australia without education. There is no Australia without the hardworking people who have learned trades who are quite literally building the nation brick by brick. And there is no Australia without the innovators across all disciplines who achieved their qualifications at Australian universities. That's why it is on us in this place to support these students who work so hard to build what's in front of us. It's on us to make sure that Australia's student loan system, which has given millions of Aussies the chance to study at tertiary level, is fair and affordable when someone enters the workforce.

That's what this Labor government is going to do. We're slashing 20 per cent off all student loan debts, wiping a total of $16 billion worth of debt for over three million Australians. We're making paying those debts more affordable by ensuring students are starting repayment when they earn more. We're also helping people with these debts to keep more of what they earn by lowering the rate of repayment. These changes build on this government's proposal to fix the HELP indexation rate as well, which, if passed, will save a student with an average HELP debt around $1,200. This is significant. As the motion suggests, it can't be understated. It is taking pressure off the three million everyday Aussies paying off their student debt, and it is helping them to pay it off sooner rather than later.

It's a policy that is fighting the cost of living in this country and helps level the playing field for millions of Aussies in electorates like Spence. It's a shame that there are members of the opposition both in this House and in the other place that have referred to these changes as 'a cash splash that amounts to waste'. I'd like to ask those opposite if these changes are wasted on people like Isaac, someone who is currently studying a double degree in my electorate. He told me: 'I think that, for a lot of us, HECS is seen as an investment in our own future. We forego work and a stable income to pursue an education with the promise that we'll be better off once we graduate. In an entry-level law job, I stand to earn as little as $55,000 a year—slightly less than I made working a full-time admin job during COVID. Yet, despite this, I'll meet the threshold for HECS repayments. These changes guarantee I will be earning a decent wage before I start paying it off, and that should be the case for all students. It's good to see that finally reflected by the government.' Isaac is one of nearly 20,000 people in Spence with a HELP debt. Under a Labor government, he will be one of 20,000 people in my electorate paying off their student loans sooner and more affordably while earning more under a fairer system.

On top of changing the game for former students, this commitment achieves something even more important in my view, especially considering the community I represent, and that's changing the game for future students. This goes back to what I said earlier. Education is the master key for opportunity in this country, and all Australians, regardless of who they are and where they're from, need to be able to access it. This is especially important in disadvantaged areas of Australia, like the suburbs of Munno Para, Elizabeth and Salisbury, which I represent. That's because, in those suburbs and across Spence overall, we lag behind in rates of educational attainment. In the north, where families are already disadvantaged, not being able to afford and access higher education just embeds that disparity more and makes it harder to break intergenerational cycles of poverty.

That's why reforms to education, which include the university study hub announced for Elizabeth over the weekend, are especially important for my community. By making the education system fairer and more affordable by smashing barriers to give people greater access to university, education becomes a circuit-breaker for people in the north to lift themselves socially and economically and forge a better future for themselves and their loved ones. This is what a Labor government will never stop working towards, and that is what drives me each and every time I walk into this building. I commend the motion.

Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion brought by the member for Macnamara. I thank the honourable member for bringing this motion, because it gives me an opportunity to speak about some of the failures of the Labor government in relation to education generally and specifically in the higher education sector. Just by way of background, this motion talks about the HELP indexation. We have seen escalating student debt as a direct consequence of Labor's high inflation and economic mismanagement. Labor is now proposing to change the way HELP indexation is calculated to the lower of the wage price index or the consumer price index. It changes how the HELP indexation is recalculated and backdates that indexation formula for two years.

Assuming this bill is passed, the indexation, for example, will be 3.2 per cent on 1 June 2023 and four per cent on 1 June 2024, rather than 4.7 per cent. However, this still means an overall increase in student debt of 11.1 per cent. In the face of this cost-of-living crisis directly attributable to the Albanese Labor government, this is still a kick in the guts for struggling students and the three million Australians still with a student loan. Most of these students will not see a refund, as Labor is trying to suggest, providing no cost-of-living relief whatsoever. This is because there will be a rebate applied against each person's HELP loan account, which, of course, will lessen over time because of indexation, depending on how long it takes to pay off the debt itself.

I do just make the comment that this is an attempt to assist some university students. What help has been proposed by this government to assist those who will never walk into a university? What help has been provided by this government to assist those people? What help is proposed to be provided by this government to ensure that more people—for example, more of our younger Australians and our older Australians who wish to return—will have a good trades education?

We have a chronic housing shortage in this country and a chronic shortage of trades across the construction industry, particularly in our manufacturing industries, and I do not hear the government talking anywhere about how they are going to find more fitters, turners and machinists. Those people are the ones running the machinery within our factories, the ones producing manufactured goods and the ones directly contributing to our GDP.

A university education is very important. A university education was the right pathway for me, but it is not necessarily the right pathway for everybody, and we should not be corralling, into a university education, students who either are unable academically to complete the course or will be unable, when they do complete their degree, to find a well-paying and satisfying job into the future.

This bill and Labor's overall higher education policy are completely silent on encouraging universities to engage more with industry to ensure that our graduates that are coming out with very large debts will, in fact, be able to get into the workforce at the end of that time. We unfortunately do see a very large number of students leaving university before they've completed their degree. I think there has been absolute silence from the education minister around what we are doing at the high-school level and where we are encouraging our students. Clearly, the large dropout rates say to me that—and this is from careers advisers in schools overall—we are encouraging students to enrol in universities for degrees that they either are not able to complete or do not want to complete. They are still leaving university without a degree and with a massive debt.

To conclude, the federal Labor government has absolutely failed in the university sector.

Debate adjourned.