Fraser Anning (Queensland, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is still not my first speech. I rise to support the government's Higher Education Support Legislation Amendment (Student Loan Sustainability) Bill 2018. This bill amends the Higher Education Loan Program, HELP, and the Student Financial Supplement Scheme, SFSS, to revise the repayment threshold for student loans. It will also change indexation arrangements for repayment thresholds, amend the order of payment of some student loan debts and introduce a combined lifetime loan limit for HELP.

The argument in favour of these changes is conclusive. HELP debt has grown rapidly in recent years, reaching the astronomical figure of $55.4 billion, nearly $20 billion of which is never expected to be repaid. This was driven in part by students doing vocational education and training, which had rapidly expanded under the previous Labor government, loaded with dodgy courses which were promoted by even dodgier private operators. Some professional students have been identified who have skipped from one useless course to the next, running up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt without ever getting qualifications that will get them sufficient income to repay their debts to the taxpayer.

During the life of the HELP scheme, the minimum repayment rates have generally remained around average weekly ordinary time earnings. However, the repayment thresholds are subject to indexation each year by the increase in average weekly earnings. As a consequence, the threshold has tended to increase over time in real terms, until lower thresholds have been legislated. The adjustment proposed by the government is fully in line with past practice.

At a more general level, many people fail to appreciate that widespread tertiary education was one of the great achievements of the Menzies government. Menzies knew that improving the education standard of Australian people would improve their ability to get better-paying jobs and would drive prosperity and material advancement. Many of the great universities of Australia, such as ANU, were built as a consequence of the Menzies government policy.

However, an issue that should be mentioned is that even today not everyone goes to university. It follows that if those who go to university do not pay the cost of their own courses, those who do not get the benefit of a university degree end up subsidising those who do. More than anything else, this is a powerful argument for lowering the income repayment threshold for HELP and SFSS student loans. To those who oppose the bill or actually want to increase the repayment threshold, I ask: why should low-income working families who are unable to go to university be required to pay additional tax so that middle-class students can get a free ride to higher incomes and dazzling careers? Higher repayment thresholds for student loans do not help low-income earners: they punish them. Rich man's degree, poor man's fee, has never been more true.