Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills) Share this | Hansard source

I thank those members who spoke on the Higher Education Support Legislation Amendment (Student Loan Sustainability) Bill. The bill amends the Higher Education Support Act 2003 and other legislation that underpins student loans, including the Higher Education Loan Program, or HELP, and the Student Financial Supplement Scheme, or the SFSS. It introduces a new set of repayment thresholds for student loans, changes indexation arrangements for repayment thresholds, amends the order of repayment of some student loan debts and introduces a combined loan limit for HELP. The policy measures that are the subject of this bill will ensure that Australia's world-leading income-contingent student loan system can continue to be available to future generations of students. Australia must face up to the task of putting our higher education system on a more sustainable, responsible path for the future. The measures in this bill are proportionate, and they help achieve that goal.

I wish to advise the House that there was an error of fact in my second reading speech, and I wish to correct it. The error does not go to the substance of the bill or its provisions. It was an error in descriptive material about how VET student loans course caps operate. The second reading speech stated that VET student loan caps apply per year rather than per course. In fact, with the VET student loans program that was introduced in 2017, the Turnbull government put in place loan caps on the amount of financial assistance available to be borrowed per course. To be clear, 2018 indexed course caps for VET student loans ranged from $5,075 up to a maximum of $15,225, depending on the course, with an exception for specified aviation courses, which have a loan cap of $76,125. A revised second reading speech has been prepared and will be tabled with the bill when it is introduced in the Senate.

In summing up, I also present a correction to the explanatory memorandum that was tabled with the bill on 14 February 2018. The original explanatory memorandum stated that the changes to the combined HELP loan limit would have a cost of $22.9 million of fiscal balance over the forward estimates, or a cost of $10.3 million in underlying cash. In fact, the financial impact of the bill as introduced is a saving of $3.2 million in fiscal balance terms over the forward estimates and a cost of $9.9 million in underlying cash terms. Today I am tabling a correction to the explanatory memorandum in those terms. I note that the amendment I am moving today will have an additional minor financial impact.

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