Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think we need to note the unusual process today in the House, where we've had only one speaker from the opposite side on this motion, which is very disappointing—that they've absolutely vacated the field when it comes to talking about making life easier for people around this country who have student debt.

I'd like to thank the member for Swan for bringing this important motion to the House today. This is an important motion to my community in Chisholm, too. It is important to me. Indeed, in my very first speech in this place, in the 47th Parliament, I spoke about the importance of higher education to me, to my family and to my community, and I maintain my enthusiasm for higher education and reform in this area.

A total of 26,053 people with a student loan debt in Chisholm are in line for a 20 per cent cut to their student debt following the introduction of legislation to this House on the very first sitting day of this new 48th Parliament. This is legislation that both the Prime Minister and this side of the House promised to introduce as the first piece of legislation under a re-elected Albanese Labor government, and it is a promise that of course we have kept, which obviously is very important to the Australian people. We're cutting the student debt of three million Australians by 20 per cent. More than 26,000 of these students are in my electorate of Chisholm. We know that the average HELP debt today is about $27,600. So, when this legislation passes it will cut that debt by about $5½ thousand. If you have a debt of $50,000 it will be cut by $10,000, and if you have a debt of $60,000 you'll see a $12,000 debt reduction.

These are important numbers. They mean more money in the pockets of people in our communities. This is recognition of the need for university education to be affordable and accessible to as many people as possible in our country. Overall, our government will cut student debt by over $16 billion. Student debts will be cut by 20 per cent based on what it was on 1 June this year, before this year's indexation occurred. And I acknowledge one of the members opposite—indeed, the only member opposite who has spoken on this bill today—who was talking about indexation. I know it has been awhile since he served in the other place, but I would, for his benefit, let him know that we have changed arrangements to indexation since we came to government in 2022, meaning that the indexation will be based on the lowest of either the WPI or the CPI.

Through this bill we will see students right across the country getting the maximum benefit possible from this student debt reduction. It'll happen automatically, which is really important. Students will not have to apply, as the ATO will process changes at their end. They don't need to do a thing to access this 20 per cent debt reduction. While it might take a bit of time for the ATO to do this work, once the bill passes, cuts will be guaranteed.

This was a really prominent issue in my electorate of Chisholm, both before the campaign and throughout the campaign. It was a divisive issue for households, not just for students with debt but for their families, too, when they went to cast their vote on 3 May. That we were doing what we could to support people through higher education was seen as very important to my electorate. We have Deakin University in my electorate, and Monash University is just outside the boundary. I know that we've got lots of academics as well as students in my electorate who are eager to see this change and, indeed, all the changes that we have brought so far to this place based on our reforms from the Universities Accord process.

These changes will make a meaningful difference to people with student debt, and I know both current and former students in my electorate do welcome these changes. These are not the only changes we're making to the lives of students. We've wiped $3 billion of HELP debt already, and we've also established a Commonwealth prac payment scheme which will make it easier for so many people to study and complete the courses they want to do.

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