Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025. This bill will provide welcome debt relief to many people and make changes to the repayment of student debts. I support this bill because I know that higher education is essential to the success and prosperity of our country and particularly to people in our regions. At this point, though, I want to note that this speech is a statement on the bill and not part of the substantive debate, as the bill has already been passed. The Leader of the House has indicated to me and the House that this practice is unlikely to be repeated. It's important for our democracy that the government holds to that, and I certainly intend to hold the government to that.

Where higher education was once a specialised path for few, today it is required by so many jobs in our society. The landmark Universities Accord review, released in early 2024 and led by Professor Mary O'Kane, concluded that we need to increase the tertiary education attainment rate from the current 60 per cent to 80 per cent of Australians who are in the workforce by 2050. This is a nation-building task. The review makes it clear that we will not achieve this goal and thus fail to unlock the full potential of our workforce and our economy if we don't increase higher education participation rates, especially for disadvantaged groups.

One of these groups is people living in regional Australia. Across most of rural, regional and remote Australia, educational attainment rates fall well below those in the major cities. This exacerbates workforce shortages in our regional communities, limits economic opportunities for individuals and their families and can worsen health and social outcomes. It's clear that, as a country, we need more people to undertake higher education, but it's also clear that the significant cost-of-living barriers are preventing people from taking up the opportunities that higher education brings to both them and the wider community, which brings us to the bill before us in the House today.

The Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025 makes three key changes to the higher education loan, or HELP program—also known as HECS. First, it will provide a 20 per cent reduction of loan balances for all students, regardless of the size of their debt. Second, the bill will increase the repayment threshold so that students will only start to pay their debt off when they're earning more than $67,000, instead of the previous $56,000. Third, the bill makes changes so that repayments are only made on the income earned above the $67,000 repayment threshold and not on the first $67,000 of income. I note that there is not broad agreement on whether the changes to repayment thresholds are absolutely 100 per cent the right way to go in balancing the cost-of-living pressures and sustainable ways to pay off HELP debts.

The changes in this bill will benefit some, but may not benefit all, and we don't know the full impact. This is complicated, and the government has stifled debate on this bill, meaning these matters can't be fully explored in detail. The 20 per cent reduction will provide a one-off much needed debt relief, while the changes to the repayment system could make a difference to those balancing their repayments while the cost of living is so high. It will also reduce the rate of repayment for students earning below the average wage. Despite my desire to have more detail about the impacts of the payment threshold changes, I do welcome and support this bill because ensuring that higher education, whether that be at university or at TAFE, is vital to the prosperity of our community, and nowhere more so than in regional Australia.

In Indi, there are almost 14,000 people with a HELP debt, with an average level of debt of $21,000. This means that the average student or graduate in Indi will receive a $4,200 reduction if this bill passes the parliament. For these people and their families, this will of course be welcome relief. Of course, though, not everyone in Indi has studied at TAFE or university, and tertiary attainment rates are indeed low in my electorate by national standards. But the reality is that we all benefit from our higher education system. When university or TAFE is hard to access or out of reach financially, it can lead to exactly the kinds of workforce shortages people in regional electorates such as mine know all too well. Increasing costs and debt burdens are exacerbating existing barriers to study and discouraging young people or midcareer people from choosing to study.

So I support this bill because it is getting harder to study—right when we need to be making it easier. This bill builds upon reforms made in the previous parliament, such as changes to the indexation of HELP debts. However, there is more work to do. HECS is not fixed yet. I strongly support the member for Kooyong's amendment to change the timing of indexation to deduct compulsory repayments before applying indexation. The current indexation arrangements are unfairly adding thousands of dollars to Australians' debts. It could be fixed and it should be fixed by this government.

Another key recommendation of Mary O'Kane's Universities Accord review was the paid prac placement system that's now being rolled out for a small number of degrees. Those studying to be teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers will receive payments while they undertake compulsory work placements in order to earn their qualifications—a welcome and overdue change. I've made it clear that the government needs to go further and expand prac payments to other areas of study, such as allied health professions and medicine. Last year, I was glad to secure an amendment to ensure a review of the prac payment system is undertaken after three years. This review will specifically look at the possible inclusion of allied health placements. Although I hope that this will happen sooner, it's good that this date is now locked into the calendar.

I'm pushing for more paid placements because I hear from so many people having to choose between study or work. Some are even putting their degrees on hold because weeks and months of unpaid placements are simply not an option when there are mortgages, rents and bills to pay. Last week, I heard from Zac, a mature-age student in Wodonga. Zac is a dental assistant who's now training to become a dentist in the public health system. He's currently completing a placement six hours away in Bairnsdale. Not only is he paying for rent while on placement; he's unable to earn an income. As he says, 'This burns both ends of the candle.' Gemma in Wangaratta is studying diagnostic radiography and works full-time hours to meet her placement requirements. She completes course work and placement work and has an additional job on the weekends. She's had to relocate for three of her four placements, each costing thousands of dollars.

While Gemma is incredibly making it all work, some of her peers are not so fortunate and have had to stop studying because of the pressures of placement requirements. Are we the kind of country that forces students to choose between food and housing or their studies? These are the choices students in Australia are forced to make. It's wrong and fails our next generation of doctors and allied health professionals.

One key outstanding recommendation of the Universities Accord review is a new needs based funding model for universities. This model must recognise the added costs of delivering tertiary education in regional areas. Regional universities in my electorate undertake influential research and drive regional employment and economic development, but the status quo is failing them, their staff and their students, and the government must ensure they're set up to succeed.

I support further reforms to the sector, including to the job-ready graduates program, which has punished students simply because of what they choose to study. While I voted for the bill that implemented the job-ready graduates program because it implemented other important reforms for regional communities, such as the tertiary access payment and regional university study hubs—both of which have been implemented and are going well—I criticised the job-ready graduates program fee structure at the time for its lack of an evidence base. With evidence now showing that Job-ready Graduates has failed to achieve its stated goal, it is more than overdue that we fix this system. Changes like the ones we're debating today will not have their full impact on making higher education more affordable until Job-ready Graduates is addressed.

I support this bill because it will help many people facing cost-of-living pressures in my electorate, and it's a step forward to making our Higher Education Loan Program fairer. However, this is just a step. This parliament must act to make higher education affordable, available and accessible to all Australians, regardless of whether they live in a regional area or come from a low-income background or have other barriers to participation. Studying at university or TAFE should not send you broke.

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