Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to begin by congratulating the Minister for Education for making good on the promise made regarding this policy and cutting student debt by 20 per cent, which was our No. 1 priority at the commencement of the 48th Parliament. That was the promise that was made to the Australian public, to Australian students who had HECS debt, and our commitment at the last federal election. I'm very pleased to see this as the very first bill being debated in this House.

We know that this bill will improve the lives of more than three million Australians who have student debt, and not just them but also their families and their local communities. Whether they're just starting off in their career, saving for a home or juggling a mortgage and a young family, every single dollar counts, and this will go a long way for those people who have a HECS debt.

In my electorate of Adelaide, 37.2 per cent of constituents aged 18 and over have a level of educational attainment of a bachelor's degree or higher, and we have a number of educational institutions in the electorate, including Torrens University, Adelaide University, the University of South Australia and many other institutions. Therefore, I have one of the highest numbers of students in Australia in my electorate—as I said, the university campuses on North Terrace, City West and City East campuses, and of course the third-oldest university in Australia, the University of Adelaide.

Of course, in January 2026 the University of SA and the University of Adelaide will be merging to create a new university, Adelaide University, which will have its flagship campus in the city of Adelaide, right in the heart of my electorate. As the electorate is home to so many educational institutions, I'm constantly hearing from students and from constituents who were students how they are worried about the student debt, including parents, who come to see me to talk about their kids who are studying and how many years it will take for them to pay off the debt. That's why we're making these changes, slashing 20 per cent off every student's debt.

The average student debt today is about $27,600, and this legislation will cut that debt by about $5,520. That's an extra $5,520 for all those students, which will go back into the economy, generating jobs, helping the local economy et cetera. All up, it'll cut student debt by more than $16 billion. The legislation makes it clear that this cut will be backdated to 1 June 2025, before this year's indexation occurred. The policy applies to uni students, vocational education students and some apprentices.

The bill also makes important structural changes to the way the repayment system works. It raises the minimum amount you have to earn before you have to start making repayments from $54,000 and 2024-25 to $67,000 in 2025-26. It also replaces the current repayment system with a new marginal repayment system, and the current system is based on your entire income.

Currently, once you earn above the minimum repayment threshold of $54,000 you pay a percentage of your entire wage as repayment. Under these changes, students and graduates will only pay a percentage of their wage above the minimum repayment threshold. For example, right now if you earn $70,000 you'll pay $1,750 each year, and under these changes you'll pay only about $450. That's a saving of $1,300 per year in payments, which means you can still pay off more if you want to—there's no prevention of that, and no-one can stop you from doing that, and I'm sure some people will pay more. But it is absolutely vital that we as a nation continue to produce world-class health professionals who are working in our health system, who save lives and care for the vulnerable with health issues, as well as teachers to educate the next generation, agriculturists to produce our food and professionals in many other vital fields, all of which have a pathway that leads through tertiary studies. This bill will help this to become a reality.

Many Australians are wary of entering these fields, as they are worried about being able to pay off that student debt. That's what I hear from many people, especially parents who are contemplating, together with their children, the future in year 12 et cetera. I've heard that discussion many times. People are wary because of that debt that they'll accrue during the course of their studies. This will go a long way to removing that barrier and giving people more of an opportunity to study, go on and fill those skills that we require in this nation. The policy absolutely promotes intergenerational fairness, recognising that quality education can change lives and noting that the rising cost of tertiary education over recent decades has coincided with increasing demands for higher qualifications.

I'll give you an example; I mentioned this the other day in debate on the private member's motion. When I left high school, I went on to university. I dropped out very early; I found it very boring. A few years later, I went back to TAFE and found a course that suited me. At the time, the fees for TAFE were approximately $30 a semester. In the last few years I've always been asking what the TAFE fees are, and they've been in the thousands, which would prevent people who are in the situation I was in from going to TAFE. When I was at TAFE I was married with one or two kids—I can't remember how many I had at the time—and a mortgage. I was able to work full time and go to TAFE part time, paying $30 a semester. That is what changed my life. Through the policies of successive governments over the years, we've put up a barrier to that. We've put up a barrier to people wanting to change their lives for the better, because of the costs that are associated with it. So this will go a long way. I think it's important to give people the opportunity to be able to study, which then gives them a pathway to skills that will allow them to fill positions that we need, especially in health, but also in other areas. It will also allow them to turn their lives around.

We know that the easiest way out of poverty is through education. Through research that's been done throughout the world and here in Australia, we know that if you want to turn someone's life around and break the cycle of poverty, it's education that does it. We should be doing everything we can in this place to ensure we put all the levers in place to be able to assist that because, after all, we're here to help people do better in their lives.

We know that to build Australia's future productivity and prosperity, we need to educate and upskill more Australians. We've also locked free TAFE into law, as I spoke about earlier. This landmark policy has already seen more than 650,000 enrolments across the country, with 170 courses already completed. What we'll see through this in TAFE is more engineering skills, more mechanics and more trades, which we desperately need, especially in South Australia with our submarine building and shipbuilding. We will need more trades. I'm very proud that in SA we've set up a TAFE specifically training people for the submarine builds plus the shipbuilds that are taking place. We're going to need to train thousands of people in the near future. This government has also established the Commonwealth Prac Payment from 1 July 2025 to support about 68,000 eligible teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students while they are completing their compulsory practical training at university.

I am so proud that this Albanese Labor government will cut the student debt by 20 per cent. What this means is that the 28,520 students and graduates in my electorate of Adelaide with a HECS or student debt, including VET and TAFE loans, will enjoy an average saving of $5,825 per person. This shows that we on this side of the House are building Australia's future. Most of us in this chamber are aware it takes a lot of time, hard work and sacrifice to save or pay off $5,825.

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