Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to thank the minister for education for moving this bill, the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025, with a degree of urgency. We know that HECS debt is an incredible burden for so many Australians, current students but also graduates. We know that young Australians are deferring starting their studies because of the fear of the extreme debt that they can accrue as a result of the massive increase in the cost of HECS that we've seen in recent years. We've seen the impact of the job-ready graduates scheme, which the government, when in opposition, described as pernicious and punitive. It has doubled the cost of degrees in arts, business and law overnight. As a result, arts degrees are now $50,000; combined degrees are $85,000.

We know that many graduates now have $150,000 in debt when they graduate, and the PBO has told us that some people will struggle to pay off their HECS debt in their working lifetime. One of the implications of the bill that the government has in front of the House is that many students will go onto a debt treadmill when in fact we're going to see that the increase in the repayment threshold, which appears on the surface of things to be a positive move, will mean that many people pay off less than the cost of indexation each year, such that their debt actually increases rather than decreases.

The Prime Minister spoke quite movingly about the impact of students in the care sector having to pay for prac placements. It's great that the government is extending that support now to students of nursing and midwifery, teaching and social work, but it's not extending that support to other students in the care sector. We have medical students sleeping in their cars when they are undertaking prac placements. The system of prac placement is particularly difficult for women, because they often have care responsibilities. It means that people from Indigenous backgrounds and from rural and regional communities are less likely to complete their studies on time. They're having to defer or go part time to meet the extreme cost of prac placements, which doesn't just include travel and accommodation but includes professional registration, uniforms and insurance.

I will speak to this bill in more detail later today, and I thank the government for the opportunity to do that. I move the amendment that has been circulated in my name:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House:

(1) notes that many degrees have increased in cost well above CPI, resulting in excessive HELP debts which place additional financial burden on Australians in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis;

(2) calls on the Government to:

(a) calculate HELP debt indexation after the due date for individual tax returns each year; and

(b) immediately reform the failed Job Ready Graduates Program, which has been the primary driver of increased student debt; and

(3) asks that the government recognise the importance of practical placements in care sector degrees, but also the cost and practical challenges associated with rural and regional placements, by:

(a) extending practical placement payments to students of all care sector professions including medical, allied health, mental health, pharmacy, and veterinary sciences, who are required to undertake such placements as mandatory components of their courses;

(b) reducing both the student and Government funding contribution for units that are delivered as practical placements; and

(c) allowing practical placements undertaken by Australian students overseas to be recognised as course credit by their Australian higher education provider".

This amendment essentially asks the government to change the timing of HECS indexation, which is unfair; to extend the support for paid practical placements to all students in the care sector; to reduce the cost of degrees, particularly by immediately reversing the job-ready graduates scheme; and to look at education more as an investment in our future and not as a cost to the people of Australia.

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