Andrew Gee (Calare, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I will be supporting the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025. I believe it's a very important one, particularly for the many young people of our region who are undertaking tertiary studies. As at 30 June 2024 there were 14,366 people in Calare who had an average HELP debt of $23,349. It's no secret that many of our young Australians are feeling under financial pressure, saddled with more tertiary education debt than previous generations had to contend with, struggling to get a foothold into the housing market. Many young Australians have given up on the great Australian dream of home ownership.

This bill is a significant way to deliver them relief. I have a daughter who's currently studying at university. And while I am pretty certain that she voted Independent at the recent election, I did see her on Prime News welcoming the announcement, as many of her fellow students did. As history shows, the policy did not have bipartisan support when it was announced. It is no longer opposed by the coalition, and I believe that is a good thing. I hope the passage of this bill ushers in a new era of policymaking for young Australians—who are, after all, the future of our nation.

Among the features of this bill, it touches upon the Higher Education Loan Program, as well as Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans and Vocational Education and Training Loans. It will basically provide a one-off 20 per cent reduction in student loan debts incurred on or before 1 June 2025. The bill's fairer repayment system measure involves increasing the minimum repayment threshold for compulsory student loan repayments from $54,435 in 2024-25 to $67,000 in 2025-26 and introducing a marginal repayment system for compulsory student loan repayments, calculated on income above the new threshold.

So, this bill is an important one, as I have stated, and it delivers badly needed relief for students and graduates. But our universities also need support from this government. The university in our electorate of Calare is Charles Sturt University. I have to point out to the House that international student numbers at Charles Sturt University have dropped by 90 per cent since 2019, and it's hit the university hard. It's now burning through its reserves; staff are being laid off. Charles Sturt University runs its physiotherapy, medicine, dentistry and vet science courses at a financial loss, largely due to the current funding models, which severely disadvantage regional universities. These losses simply can't be sustained indefinitely.

To support our regional universities and find solutions to regional funding disparities, our regional universities like Charles Sturt University are seeking reforms. These include an easing of visa restrictions and fees and de facto caps and a cessation of the negative messaging that is deterring international student applications for study in Australia, allowing a return to sustainable international student numbers. Our regional universities are also seeking a needs based funding model for domestic students. They don't believe that the current one-size-fits-all model accounts for the higher cost of delivering education to students who need more support to succeed at university. So they want a better and improved needs based funding model—the regional education loading that properly reflects the cost of delivering comprehensive course offerings in thin markets across dispersed regional campuses that have significant essential teaching and research infrastructure to maintain. This is what our universities are asking from the government. They want that loading which properly reflects the cost of delivering vitally important education to regional students. Our regional universities believe that these requirements are not just a matter of fairness; they are a matter of our national interest. Investment in our regional universities is an investment in the future of regional Australia, because we can't just have the metropolitan sandstone universities educating our young people. We need universities like Charles Sturt University building the future of country Australia and building the future workforce of our regions.

Universities in the regions, like Charles Sturt University, exist to deliver regional solutions. The teachers, the nurses, the doctors, the vets and the social workers of country Australia are what is at stake here. The simple truth is, for higher education in Australia, international student revenue pays for domestic students and supports our country universities. I would urge the government to have a very close look at what is happening to university funding in regional Australia. It is a crisis, it is having a debilitating effect and it will have a debilitating effect on educational outcomes in regional Australia and it will have a debilitating effect on the future workforce of regional Australia.

I think it's a very positive thing that this bill delivers important relief to our students and also our graduates. It will mean a debt reduction for three million Australians. That is a significant and an important initiative. I commend the bill to the House but, in doing so, urge the government to support our regional universities and listen to their cries for help which are occurring right across country Australia.

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