Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Oh, really? There we go. Senator Whish-Wilson, you are older than I thought you were. I certainly went through under the HECS system, an inherently fair scheme. There are many who do travel overseas, some of whom do not ever return, and the taxpayer never sees a return on the investment in that student. There are others who spend some time overseas and, as I have outlined before, enjoy an increasing subsidy the longer they are overseas and the longer they are deferring repayment. That is why this is a fair measure. It is a long-overdue measure, but it is a measure that we can now, with confidence, bring into effect—a measure that will ensure that people living overseas have exactly the same terms applied to them as those living in Australia. We do not support the idea that seems to be being propagated that it is legitimate—whether you incurred the debt in the past, today, or in the future—to avoid repaying that debt by being overseas. You should have to repay that debt if you are meeting the terms of repayment—which, put simply, is the income-contingent threshold: earning more than $54,000 per annum in current terms.

And we are giving people appropriate notice. There is indeed time for people to get their affairs in order, and it is not expected that if people are living overseas that they would be making contributions against their loans until 1 July 2017. As Senator Carr rightly acknowledged, there is time to make sure that the implementation arrangements are rolled out effectively, that the message is communicated effectively and therefore that the debts are repaid appropriately, as they should be for anybody who is earning above the income threshold, wherever they may live.

Finally, as I failed to do so in my summing-up speech, I want to acknowledge discussions I had with Senator Lazarus, who was keen for the government to explore some alternative models in relation to the repayment of debts overseas that may in fact reflect in some way the additional subsidy being provided to students who are overseas for a longer time and see whether there may be some means to either recoup that additional subsidy or ensure that the debt is repaid faster or sooner. These discussions took place only today, so it has not been possible to necessarily fully model and consider amendments that would reflect what Senator Lazarus proposed to the government. But I do give the commitment to consider them in future discussions and to continue to work with Senator Lazarus on this issue.