Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Lambie for her question. We have taken a number of steps in relation to the administration and operation of the HELP scheme. Most notably in my time as minister, we passed legislation through this place to expand collection of debts to graduates who are living and working overseas, to ensure that we reduce the level of debt not expected to be repaid. Further, in relation to the way the HELP scheme interacts with the vocational student loan market, we abolished the failed VET FEE-HELP program of those opposite, which saw billions of dollars of loans that were never going to amount to anything given out, and we have now put in place, with the support of the Senate, I note, a much more stringent vocational student loans market that does guarantee far tighter access to loans, much better value for money for taxpayers, much better results for students. So, across all of those areas, we have taken real action on the student loans scheme, which is one of the most generous in the world, in terms of there being no real interest rate charged to students and a very high threshold at which repayments kick in, relative to any of the comparable schemes around the world. Our scheme is more sustainable into the future. But the reality we face is that there is around $50 billion of unpaid debt, student loan debt, on the books at present and on current settings, no matter how efficient governments are, in terms of the repayment rates, around 25 per cent of that $50 billion will not be repaid. The Turnbull government doesn't believe that is sustainable for the long term and, if we want to preserve access to university with no up-front fees—free of charge, essentially, and for people to walk through the gate and only repay when they get a reasonable income—then we need to make sure that loan book is more sustainable into the future, which is what our reforms seek to do.