Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and Australians know that to be the case, but what's worse is that this government has given a free lunch to the few and stung the rest of us with the bill. Those with the highest income earning potential—the doctors, dentists and lawyers—have turned up at the pub and been shouted by Prime Minister Albanese, and it's for the rest of us to foot the bill. At some $16 billion of borrowed money, the cost of this to each Australian household is around $1,600. Every single Australian taxpayer will be paying for this desperate attempt to outbid the Greens before the last election. With more than 24 million Australians struggling with Labor's homegrown cost-of-living crisis and seeing no benefit at all from this policy and yet 27 million Australians being left to pay for it, it is grossly unfair.

But let's not forget where this started, because HECS debts began to increase at eye-watering rates as the Albanese government's complete failure to manage the economy bit hard. Indexation rates have exceeded the Reserve Bank's upper target of three per cent for inflation for the last four years, and that's even after they artificially lowered the rate of indexation in both 2023 and 2024 to mask how completely they had lost control of inflation. More than 55,000 people in Australia have a HELP debt of between $100,000 and $200,000, meaning that under this policy the Labor government has delivered them an average cheque of $25,000. How is this fair when so many young Australians aren't or haven't been students and are struggling to pay the rent or put food on the table because of this government's cost-of-living crisis?

It is also grossly unfair to the millions of Australians who have, in good faith, worked hard to pay off their HELP debt with no discount at all. Take for example Hayden, a physiotherapist I met in Bunbury. He's worked extremely hard in recent years to make additional HECS repayments of some $30,000 on top of the mandatory minimum that he had to pay, and he's now debt free. But having scrimped and saved and done the right thing, he's just seen this Prime Minister take his tax money and give it to his colleagues who didn't do the right thing, who didn't do the hard yards, and who didn't pay down their debts early. What sort of message does this send to the next generation of Australians?

As an opposition, of course we will be critical where we see this sort of industrial-scale pork barrelling, but we will be constructive. I welcome Senator Henderson's proposal today to amend this bill to see the HELP indexation limited to the lower of CPI or a maximum of three per cent, because why should tertiary students pay the price for the Albanese government's complete failure to control inflation in this country? This cap on HELP indexation would apply to all future students, unlike Labor's bill, which leaves them high and dry and subject to the same sorts of failures in the future. Senator Henderson's proposed HELP loan inflation guarantee provides a crucial safeguard against large increases to future student debt driven by high inflation. As Senator Henderson said:

Australians with a student loan or those planning to undertake tertiary studies should not be blindsided by high indexation driven by high inflation, as has occurred under Labor over the past three years.

That's why we're proposing this limitation on indexation. It would deliver both appropriate cost-of-living relief and, importantly, much-needed certainty into the future. It stands in stark contrast to Labor's one-off sugar hit of a 20 per cent discount to current HECS-HELP debtors, which, in fact, deprives those who have done the right thing of being rewarded for their hard work.

As at 1 June, just this year, student loans increased by another 3.2 per cent because Labor's HELP loan scheme is currently uncapped and provides no protection at all against the risk of ballooning indexation into the future. Indeed, since Labor was elected, with the changes to the way that help indexation is calculated, student debt has increased by a staggering 14.3 per cent, which puts this policy into stark perspective. In contrast, annual indexation under the former coalition government averaged just 1.7 per cent. Let's not forget where the blame for this crippling student debt belongs; it is over on the government benches

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