Jo Briskey (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to continue my contribution on this really important legislation and to reaffirm the difference that this is going to make for John who I spoke about earlier. John from Airport West is a local teacher who has a debt of about $27,000 at the moment, but, thanks to this legislation, he's about to see that slashed by over $5,000. This will be life changing for John, and I'm so proud to see this happen. I am proud to be a member of a government that is committed to the transformative power of education.

From next year changes will be implemented to the way universities are funded which will seek to help more people from our suburbs and regions get a chance to go to university, and from 1 July this year we will establish paid prac to support the 68,000 eligible nursing, midwifery, social work and teaching students to help them with their paid prac so they can get that done easily. This in particular is going to benefit Sally, another constituent of mine, who is currently studying nursing at Kangan Institute. Now that she'll get prac payments, she will no longer be faced with the stress of overworking herself as she tries to balance both making sure she can get those bills paid but also studying this incredibly important qualification that we need in our community. This will be life changing for Sally and so many others.

Labor fights for fairness. An essential tenet to our party is its belief in access to opportunity and belief in a pathway in life regardless of economic circumstances. That is why Labor has locked free TAFE into law, expanded the fee-free uni-ready courses and established the Independent Australian Tertiary Commission to drive reform of Australia's tertiary education sector. And then there's our bold agenda to reform early education and care and to fully fund our public primary and secondary schools. We are the party, the government, of education.

We stand in stark contrast to the previous coalition government that seemingly made it its mission to take a sledgehammer to higher education. They gutted the university sector funding. They lowered the HECS repayment threshold and used any opportunity they had to make life harder for low-income students. As their seats started to diminish one by one in capital cities across the country, as their support from young people hit record lows, did they learn to take younger Australians seriously? I'm not quite sure. Throughout the election they attacked this policy, dismissing it as profoundly unfair. They doubled down, seemingly, saying that there was no benefit to be had and, bizarrely, took to the election a commitment to increase student debt. Clearly, the Australian people did see a benefit, particularly young Australians, and voted accordingly.

The people of Maribyrnong put their faith in me and Labor to be progressive and to undertake the reforms necessary to build a better future. This legislation does exactly that. It seeks to reform a tired and frankly unfair system by implementing progressive changes that will make the lives of students just that bit easier. I'm proud to put my voice in support of this legislation and send a clear message to my community that this Albanese Labor government is listening to younger Australians and is working to make their future brighter and fairer. I commend the bill.

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