Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I support the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025. It's a welcome first step to cut student debt by 20 per cent and ease the cost-of-living pressures for so many of them. But let's be really clear: it's only the first step. Our education system needs much bolder reform to better support all of those undertaking further studies so that they can play a vital role in meeting the skills needs that we know Australia has for the future. They will be the ones who boost our productivity.

We hear a lot, in this place, about the value to Australia of our resources and everything else. Our most valuable asset is our people. Training and educating them has to be the No. 1 priority, and ensuring they have access to those opportunities is incredibly important. My office is full of brilliant young interns—passionate, driven, ambitious and caring—but they're struggling. They're juggling degrees, casual jobs, unaffordable rents and high HECS debts. Their story is not unique; it's the norm for students across Australia and young people. A university education should challenge you intellectually, not cripple you financially.

We know this bill is very welcome, when it comes to reducing the debt by 20 per cent, as of 1 June 2025. It provides an average saving of some $5,500 for students. It does wipe $16 billion in total student debt, so I commend the government for that. By raising the payment threshold, it gives young people, in particular those starting out, the opportunity to get to better employment before having to start repaying debt. And that lower repayment rate does indicate a saving per year. So these are meaningful cost-of-living reliefs for millions of Australians.

But let's be clear: the timing of indexation is highly problematic. It is unconscionable that the ATO can withhold, during the course of the year, the ongoing payments, the HECS repayments for a former student, without applying it to the debt prior to indexation. The student does not have the benefit of the use of those funds, but the ATO does. So there has to be something done about the date of indexation. It is unconscionable that, in every other sector of our lives, it is possible to apply repayments in real-time, but, for some reason, it simply can't be done in relation to HECS repayments.

So, while this is positive, there is still so much more that needs to be done. In fact, I was in this parliament during the 46th parliament, when the job-ready scheme was introduced by the Morrison government. I spoke out loudly against that, because it was so fundamentally unfair to move the dial and to change the payment system—to try and pick winners in that way—and impose on a whole cohort of students an absolutely unreasonable fee structure.

The job-ready graduates scheme is a completely failed policy. It doubled the fees for arts, humanities and social work. It unfairly targeted critical degrees and pushed students into higher debt. Personally, I have two degrees. I have a Bachelor of Arts in media and communications and a Diploma in Law. To me, it was unconscionable that we were changing the dial and making it so much more difficult for students to achieve their goals and to be able to contribute back and that it would make their degrees so much more expensive.

The Universities Accord recommended it be scrapped, but the government has not yet acted. So, before there's too much patting on the back and congratulating itself for this move, it also needs to focus on the rest of the recommendations to make sure they are enacted without delay so that more people are not being crushed by debt.

There's no doubt that the job-ready graduates scheme entrenches inequality and devalues democracy. It's enriching disciplines, and it should be repealed.

As I said, the other issue is that indexation of 1 June. The repayments are held throughout the course of the year and then not applied in real time. When I took the time during the election campaign to explain that to people, they were shocked and horrified. All too often they don't realise that is what's happening. So, if the government really wants a big tick of having acted on this generational inequity and the issue of student debt, then it has to address the issue of timing of indexation. The ATO says it lacks the resources to fix it—with respect, I don't buy that. Where there is a will, there is a way, and it's a question of prioritising the resourcing and correcting this design flaw.

University governance is an issue that is brought to bear for me quite frequently: the integrity we need in university structures. It's all too relevant here in Canberra because of the situation with ANU. I've had a lot of contact from ANU students lately in relation to the changes at ANU and the impacts they are having on students. The ANU restructure is gutting courses, overworking staff and sidelining students. External consultants, instead of students and academics, are making decisions. Education quality must be paramount. If the university needs to make cuts or changes, it must not be at the expense of students.

Funding gaps are an issue. Government contributions per student are down six per cent on pre-JRG levels. The universities over-rely on international student fees, which is problematic, but we saw prior to the last election during the last term of government the use of international students as a political weapon to try and point-score, in the process undermining our university sector and its fiscal sustainability. All in all, we have to be focused on young Australians and how they are facing rising debt and fewer opportunities. We have to make sure there is adequate public investment in higher education to meet the skills demands we know we have.

To summarise, we need to repeal the Job-ready Graduates scheme, fix the HELP loan indexation, lift the youth allowance and improve student welfare. It's quite interesting that in opposition Labor talked a lot about raising the rate of youth allowance, but we saw minimal changes to it during the 47th Parliament, and it's really urgent that it be addressed in this parliament. We need to secure long-term funding for universities and we need to make student housing more accessible.

There's no doubt, as the Treasurer heads into his productivity roundtable, that our best assets are our people. We need to make sure that they are ready and that the workforce has the future skills we know it needs. Ninety per cent of new jobs in the next five years will require tertiary education, so we need a robust and healthy university sector to make sure that we can deliver on that. We know we face shortages in the teaching, nursing, engineering and climate transition sectors, to name just a few. We must invest in education now or we risk falling so short as a nation. There is a global race on for talent and skills. We need to be at the forefront of that race and to attract the smartest and brightest here but retain them as well. Not only must we educate them; we need to make sure they have opportunities here.

As much as I commend the government for this bill, we need further reform, not just relief. We need bold, ambitious reform to build an equitable, future-ready education system. Students deserve more than just short-term relief; they deserve a fair, accessible and supportive education system. There's a lot we need to address regarding education reform and cost-of-living relief, but, unfortunately, that's not all going to be achieved during this debate.

I have to also raise the process around this bill. Whilst I agree that this is urgently needed and I want to see this relief flow to young people and everyone that it will apply to as fast as possible, I cannot commend the process the government has followed in this. We have passed this legislation and now members of the House are been given the opportunity to make statements in relation to it. This means the government is at risk of making a mockery of this parliament. By essentially using its numbers to just flick things through without proper debate, it means that second reading debates and the consideration in detail stage are curtailed—and then we are given the luxury of being able to come and make a statement in relation to legislation that will impact so many people in our communities.

So I urge the government to be mindful of its procedure. So many new MPs come to this place shiny and full of ambition and good principles. Let's make this a chamber of debate where we genuinely look at legislation. If the government needs more time to do its job, then allocate more sitting days to this place so that we do provide the scrutiny and debate necessary for good legislation for the benefit of Australia.

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