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

When I announced the new VET Student Loans program and the cessation of VET FEE-HELP, I did at that time indicate that the government was continuing to consider the sustainability of the overall HELP program, which looks at support for the payment of university fees as well as trade support loans and these VET FEE payments. The government's examination of this is quite openly known and was highlighted in the paper we released in the budget this year, Driving innovation, fairness and excellence in Australian education, which on page 19 details discussions about when and at what rate people should repay their HELP loans. For example, to quote from this paper, we do highlight that in the UK students are required to make repayments once their income reaches 21,000 pounds, roughly equivalent to $39,000, and in New Zealand students are required to begin making repayments when their income exceeds NZ$19,084, roughly $17,000—at least at the time of printing.

Work in relation to finalising higher education reform is ongoing. I expect to have that finalised early next year such that, if we are legislating reforms, that will occur by the middle of next year. But my view and the government's view in bringing forward these VET reforms was that we should get the VET support structure for the payment of student fees via an income-contingent loan effectively established. If there need to be changes to the way in which all student loans are repaid, we should maintain the consistency of that process for the sake of administrative simplicity and taxpayer simplicity across all student loans. Therefore, it ought be best considered in the context of the higher education reforms because that remains where the overwhelming majority of those loans are accrued.