Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

Labor supports these amendments, as they effectively keep in place the majority of the current system. We don't believe that students should have to start paying back debt when they earn as little as $45,000 per year.

I acknowledge the hard work of stakeholders like the National Union of Students, the ACTU and the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, who came to the hearings we had on the bill back in March. I was very impressed with the evidence of the NUS president, Mark Pace, who talked about how so many students currently skip meals and live below the Henderson poverty line. This is not a new story, as highlighted by the reports today. It is a shame that for quite some time now these issues haven't been given the prominence that they should have, nor greater interest across the crossbench in addressing the detail of some of the matters as they were presented to the committee.