Jo Briskey (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very proud to rise today in support of the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025, a crucial piece of legislation that will support three million Australians with student debt. This legislation was a key Labor promise, and I am excited that my first speech on legislation in this House is on this piece of legislation, something that will directly benefit over 25,000 people in my electorate of Maribyrnong. This bill is about supporting everyday Australians, relieving cost-of-living pressures and making tertiary education more accessible for all. It removes a significant barrier to those seeking tertiary education who otherwise may be deterred by the rising costs associated with such an endeavour.

I take you back to February 2003, when I first walked onto campus. I had the very good fortune of achieving a tertiary education, and I still recall the date that I finally paid off my debt as such a relief. But the reality is that now it is harder. It is harder for our students in terms of both the cost of qualifications and, more broadly, the cost-of-living pressures that we're under. In fact, both tertiary education and vocational education lead to good, well-paid jobs, an integral part of our economy, and therefore we must do all we can to make it more accessible for everyone.

Student debt often leads to sacrifices everywhere, like homeownership, seeking important healthcare and every other daily cost-of-living pressure. While student debt affects many in our community, it disproportionately affects young Australians. By cutting all student debt by 20 per cent, we are making a significant investment in the future of all young Australians. We're cutting student debt by more than $16 billion. This is on top of the $3 billion we wiped off of HELP debt last term and the changes we made to the indexation, ensuring that student debt will never increase faster than the growth rate of wages.

What is also great about this legislation is that it will make repaying student debt fairer. Currently, if you make over $54,435 annually, you pay a percentage of your entire wage towards your student loan. Under this legislation, the minimum income threshold will be raised to $67,000. Further, you will be paying only a percentage of the income you make over that $67,000, so, if you're making $70,000 a year, you will be paying only $1,750 each year. Essentially, this legislation will not only immediately help Australians but also help them to prosper in years to come by changing the current system that is unfairly based on their entire income. What's also important to reassure my electorate about is that this legislation is clear that the cut will be backdated to 1 June 2025, before the increase due to indexation. That means that indexation will only be applied to your total student debt after the 20 per cent cut has occurred.

As a proud Victorian, from the education state, I know that this legislation will have an immediate impact. In fact, over 800,000 Victorians have student debt, totalling $23.2 billion. The average reduction from this legislation will be $5,755. This is huge. Throughout the campaign, I doorknocked every suburb in Maribyrnong and saw the excitement many had when we discussed this policy. This is not surprising, because in my community of Maribyrnong, as I said, nearly one in four have a student debt. The reactions of those I spoke to were those of optimism and relief along with the positive reassurance that, after a decade of being ignored by the previous coalition government, Labor was campaigning to take action on the issues that disproportionately affect younger Australians.

These are life-changing reductions, and everywhere you turn in my community there are stories that speak to how important this legislation is. There is John from Strathmore, who studied teaching at Victoria University and is now a social studies teacher at a local school in Airport West. John is a local who has made the most of our higher education system and is now giving back to his community in the invaluable field of educating our children. In doing so, he has amassed a student debt of over $27,000. But, thanks to this legislation, he'll be saving over $5,000. These changes will also decrease John's future repayments, leaving him with more money in his pocket.

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