Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

That says it all. For Labor, it's a stunt to try to do something about student debt and try to do it now. It's disrespectful to try to help so many millions of people being crushed under the load of student debt which shouldn't exist anyway. That's the reason student debt can't be fixed; student debt shouldn't exist. Here we are, putting your own policy in front of you to say, 'Sure, we legislate it now,' but you won't even do that. You stand here and go on about the hypocrisy of the Greens trying to be political—sorry, this has been our policy. You only moved to do even this meagre 20 per cent because you were forced to do so and because the community is really suffering in the cost-of-living crisis, with ever increasing student debt. It's pretty shameful that Labor can't even vote for their own policy and are coming up with these ridiculous excuses when they're bringing in bill after bill which are really complex and will have terrible consequences. They are ramming them through this week, but they stand here and say abolishing, or legislating to abolish, 20 per cent of student debt is somehow this complex bill which will have unintended consequences. The only consequence it will have is that people will get certainty that some of their student debt at least will be wiped by next year.