Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Isaacs for being able to remind me of the name of Michelle Smith, because I can tell Michelle Smith that she will not have to pay back her loan until she earns more than $50,000—and even then she will pay it back at two per cent of her income. Even if her income rises to over $100,000 a year—I think the threshold is about $108,000; do not hold me to that as it is from memory, but it is certainly over $100,000 a year—she will be asked to pay eight per cent of her income. That is the maximum she could ever be asked to pay of her income. It is a very generous scheme. But, as the Treasurer reminds me, there is absolutely no reason to believe that Ms Smith might not get a scholarship to go to university, because we will have the biggest Commonwealth scholarships fund in Australia's history. And people like Ms Smith, if she is from a low-socioeconomic-status background, if she is a first-generation university goer, has every reason to believe that she will attract a scholarship, because they will be merit and disadvantaged based. And she will get to go to university, potentially, for absolutely nothing, and the university will give her a scholarship from the Australian taxpayer. So, it is all good news. Rather than trying to scare her constituents, the member for Lalor should actually be telling them the truth.

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