Renee Coffey (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025. I ask that you imagine the Gabba stadium in the beautiful electorate of Griffith recently on the evening of 18 July, when the Brisbane Lions played the Western Bulldogs. I ask you to imagine the stadium that night filled with what I can only assume were mostly Lions supporters. Imagine the buzz and the energy of more than 29,000 people who attended that game. The majority of those 29,000 people were winners that night there in that stadium. I ask you to imagine that stadium teeming with people, because this bill will help more people in my electorate of Griffith than even the number of attendees at the Gabba that night. This bill will help over 31,000 people in Griffith, more winners than even a Lions game at the Gabba. This bill will cut the student debt of three million Australians by 20 per cent. It will cut the student debt of more than 31,000 people in Griffith.

In the lead-up to the last election, I had the privilege of doorknocking on almost 15,000 doors personally, and I spoke to thousands of young people in my electorate. I heard time and again what cutting student debt would mean to them, their current household budgets and their ability to move forward with their lives. Indeed, most of those helped by this bill are young Australians just out of uni, just out of TAFE, just out of home and just getting started. They're struggling to pay their rent, trying to save to buy a home or thinking about starting a family. They're nurses, teachers, tradies, doctors, paramedics, engineers, architects, IT workers and AI experts. The average HELP debt today is $27,600. When this legislation passes, that debt will be cut by $5,520. For the people of Griffith with a debt of $50,000, it will be cut by $10,000.

Those opposite would have you believe that this bill is only helping write off the debt of lawyers and doctors. The member for Flinders said as much this morning to this House. This bill will certainly help many of the healthcare workers in Griffith; hospitals are one of the largest industries of employment in my electorate. Diligent, hardworking and caring healthcare workers at the PA, Mater and Greenslopes hospitals are performing daily miracles in a universal healthcare system that is the envy of the world. This bill will provide relief to many of the young healthcare workers in Griffith starting out in their careers—doctors, nurses and paramedics. And I have no doubt this bill will provide debt relief to some of the young lawyers at centres like the Refugee and Immigration Legal Service in South Brisbane, who provide free immigration advice, legal assistance and legal education to immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Queensland.

This bill will also provide relief to people like Marcia, a young resident who lives in West End in Griffith. Marcia said:

I took on a big debt to study psychology because I want to help people, especially those doing it tough.

One of my sisters became a teacher to support the next generation. We didn't choose these paths for the money.

We chose them because we care.

Cutting student debt and raising the threshold is recognition that working-class people who give back shouldn't be punished for getting an education.

As promised, this is the very first bill to be introduced to parliament after the election and, as promised, and as we heard from the Minister for Education, it cuts the student debt of three million Australians by 20 per cent.

When I left school in 1999 and went to university, I studied an arts-education degree with the hopes of becoming a secondary school teacher. I had wanted to be a teacher for as long as I could remember. I worked throughout my study, sometimes full time with an almost full-time study load. While I was thankful to be able to go to university, something neither my parents nor I could ever have afforded to do without what was then a HECS debt, the debt repayments were significant. They kicked in while I was still studying and greatly impacted my ability to support myself and get ahead. This bill addresses that as this bill also raises the minimum amount you have to earn before you have to start making repayments from just over $54,000 in 2024-25 to $67,000 in 2025-26 and it reduces the minimum repayments you have to make. For someone earning $70,000, it will reduce the minimum repayments they have to make by $1,300 a year. That's real cost-of-living help. It's more money in your pocket, not the government's, when you really need it. You can still pay off more if you want to. What this does is make the system fairer. As our education minister said, it means you start paying off your uni degree when university starts to pay off for you.

Like our Minister for Education, I believe education is the most powerful cause for good. As the minister outlined to this House:

A good education changes lives.

A good education system changes countries.

It's changed ours.

We have got a good education system in Australia today.

But the truth is it can be better and it can be fairer.

This bill is part of that. I wasn't able to finish my education degree when I first went to university in the early 2000s. I worked throughout my study, usually full time, to be able to afford my rent, food and bills. I completed all of the coursework for my education degree, but when it came to my final prac I could not afford the six weeks off to be able to undertake it. There was no support for somebody like me to be able to complete the final practicum required for their education degree. My rent, grocery costs and bills would not disappear when my income would have. So, instead, I graduated with an arts degree and it took several years of me saving to be able to return to university to complete my education qualifications. I did this, and I am proud to say that I am now teacher trained.

What I'm also proud of is that, from the start of this month, this government is offering Commonwealth prac payments to support teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students. These payments will help these students who are studying to work in careers to help us. This is another way that this government is supporting young Australians, just like cutting their student debt by 20 per cent through this bill.

Whilst we on this side of the House were promising Australians that we would cut student debt, those opposite were making plans to increase it. Unbelievably, those opposite wanted any Commonwealth prac payments added to a student's HELP debt. With thanks to the people of Australia, including the people of Griffith, this week we are able to fulfil our promise and cut student debt by 20 per cent.

I think April, a student of social work from West End in my electorate of Griffith, summarised it best when she said of this action:

It's not just about individuals, it's investment in our nurses, teachers, our scientists …

We all benefit from this.

We do all benefit from this bill. I am proud that this bill will cut student debt by 20 per cent. I am proud that it will cut the debt of three million Australians. I am proud that it will cut the student debt of an almost-filled Gabba stadium of Griffith residents, more than 31,000, mostly young, people. It will take the weight off their backs, it will help with the cost of living and it will help build Australia's future. I commend this bill to the House.

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