Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Faruqi. As Senator Faruqi may be aware, Minister Clare, the education minister, has asked his universities and higher education accord team to look at the issue of student debt. It's also important to explain the way that HECS and HELP works. It's not like a home loan or personal loan from a bank, where if interest rates go up your payments go up; it's built on an important principle that people pay what they can afford, and people don't pay more unless they earn more. That is the way the system has always worked. I remember Senator McAllister and I having debates about this when we were university students, about the right way to charge student fees. It's been an issue for a very long time. I'm not sure we were on the same side necessarily, Senator McAllister, on that! But we all grow and change our minds—even people like you and me!

These are serious issues. The Greens should help, and the Greens should provide more social and affordable housing, which is what this Labor government is doing. (Time expired)