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

My question is to the Minister for Education. How is the Albanese Labor government providing cost-of-living relief and building a better and fairer education system, and what's getting in the way?

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

I thank the champion member for Chisholm for her question. Tonight the Senate will vote on three important education bills—bills that will make our education system better and fairer, and bills that will provide real cost-of-living relief for early educators, for students and for three million Australians with a student debt.

The first of those bills will deliver a 15 per cent pay rise for some of the most important workers in this country, and some of the most underpaid: our early educators. As the Prime Minister said, that will start rolling out from next week—just ahead of Christmas. Guess what the Liberal Party said about a 15 per cent pay rise for some of Australia's lowest-paid workers? They called that 'dodgy'.

The second bill that will be voted on tonight increases funding for our public schools. That'll help to turn around the drop in the number of kids finishing high school by tying that funding to real and practical reforms like phonics checks and catch-up tutoring. Guess what the Liberal Party says about extra funding for public schools and those reforms? They say that is the wrong priority.

The third bill the Senate will debate tonight will provide real cost-of-living help for nursing students, for teaching students, for midwifery students and for social work students by providing them with a bit of financial help while they do their prac. That same bill will wipe $3 billion of student debt for more than three million Australians. If we win the next election, we will cut student debt even more—by 20 per cent for every one of those three million Australians. Guess what the Liberal Party think about that? They say that's unfair. They say that would be a terrible thing to do.

There's a bit of a pattern here. The Liberal Party hate everything that's going to make our education system better and fairer. They attack every bit of help that we're giving Australians with the cost of living. The Liberal Party might not want to give early educators a pay rise, but we do. The Liberal Party may not want us to invest more money in our public schools, but we do. The Liberal Party may not think it's a good idea to provide financial help for teaching students, nursing students, midwifery students and social work students, but we do. And the Liberal Party may not want to reduce the student debt of three million Australians across this country, but we absolutely do.