Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Faruqi. It is the case, of course, that, as the years have gone by, students and graduates have been asked to make a contribution towards the cost of their university education. That process actually began not long before I started university all those years ago, and, as a result of that, I incurred a student debt as a way of contributing towards the cost of my education, as did many people, no doubt, in this chamber.

The Greens would like other people to believe that the Labor government has done nothing whatsoever about the issues facing younger people, including university students. The only problem with the Greens' argument is that we actually have. For example, this year's budget waived $3 billion worth of student debt for the very university students that you are asking about. No government has done that before in Australia's history, certainly no coalition government, which was prepared to—