George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Di Natale, you really are a lot smarter than to ask a silly question like that. Among the things we owe young people is the opportunity to have access to a world-class university education, and that is what we are doing by ensuring that that world-class university system is funded. It will ensure that students who go through university are more than 50 per cent subsidised by taxpayers, who do not get the benefit that those students get of a world-class university system. Nevertheless, it will ask students to make a substantial contribution to the education of which they are the beneficiaries and which will improve their life chances above those of the people who subsidise them. We are asking them, via the HECS system, to make a contribution at a preferential interest rate which does not have to be repaid until they are well and truly in a position to do so. (Time expired)