Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to support the member for Lalor in making this statement in support the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025. We promised to introduce this legislation as our first order of business once parliament returned, and we've done it. It was and it remains a high priority for us—a reduction in student debt.

You can tell a lot about the priorities of politicians and the political parties they represent by the number of speakers on the list. I see none from the coalition parties on the list today for statements. I'm not surprised by that, because the party of Menzies, who built universities, is the party that tries to link funding to the tertiary sector to a political agenda—to industrial relations right-wing activity. We saw that during Prime Minister Howard's time, with AWAs and Work Choices. Once again, the Liberal and National parties are absent in the area of tertiary education. They've never liked university education for working and middle-class families. They've never liked TAFE. They've done everything they can to destroy TAFE at a state level. So I'm not surprised they're not speaking on the bill.

They don't mind debt reduction for big corporates, but they don't like debt reduction for students. They are not the party of aspiration and opportunity. That remains the Labor Party. I reckon, if Alfred Deakin came back today, he'd be taking a Labor Party membership ticket. He wouldn't be looking at a Liberal Party, free-trader or protectionist ticket, I can tell you.

We're about making sure that aspiration and opportunity are supported. By cutting all student debt by 20 per cent as a one-off, we're helping more than three million Australian students and graduates across Australia. We're making it easier for students and graduates who are starting off their careers to raise their family, juggle a mortgage, save for a home, rent a better place or have a holiday. We want to make sure that they get cost-of-living relief, and that remains top of our agenda.

This bill amends a number of pieces of legislation, including the Higher Education Support Act of 2003. It's delivering on our commitment to make the Higher Education Loan Program, or HELP, and other income-contingent student programs fairer, more affordable and more accessible. The particular legislation we introduced last week provided a one-off 20 per cent reduction in HELP and other student loan debts—provided under student loan acts—that were incurred on or before 1 June 2025. That will wipe out about $16 billion in student debt for more than three million Australians.

In my electorate, that's 23,149 local students and graduates across Ipswich, the Somerset region and the Karana Downs area in Blair. They'll see a reduction in their HECS or HELP debt. It will help current students as well as hardworking nurses, teachers and tradies who are out there contributing to the local economy. Based on Australian Taxation Office figures, the average student debt in Blair is $24,403, so they'll see about $5,520 wiped from those outstanding student loans. That's a massive, massive difference to people in my electorate. That's help with the cost of living. It's real help—less debt and more money in your pocket, not the government's.

I have spoken to numerous people who rang me after the election, who have seen me at mobile offices or country shows where I'm doing mobile offices, or who spoke to me at prepoll or on election day who said this policy really attracted them.

We have two University of Southern Queensland campuses in my electorate, in Ipswich and in Springfield. These changes will make a difference to students who attend universities there.

As an aside, some will recall in this place that, on 1 June, student debts were indexed. However, the government has backdated these debts to before indexation was applied. We're seeing that people with student debts get the full benefit of the 20 per cent cut.

Our No. 1 focus as a government is to continue to deliver cost-of-living relief for Australians. I should stress these cuts for student debts are not just aimed at university students; they reduce debt for all Australians with student debts, including not just HELP debts but debts from vocational education and training, or VET, student loans; Australian apprenticeship support loans; student startup loans; and other student loans as well. We know they can be a barrier for people to get into the workforce, get into the home they want and have that holiday they feel they need. The bill will deliver cost-of-living relief to almost 280, 000 students in the VET sector, cutting $½ billion of student debt from this group alone, many of whom attend TAFE campuses across Queensland, including the campus at Bundamba in my electorate of Blair. This is a huge help for students attending TAFE Queensland campuses not just in Ipswich at Bundamba but in Springfield as well.

Our government is focused on reducing the barriers to further study and training so every student can get the skills they need for a well-secured and well-paid job. It's worth noting that Universities Australia has welcomed the government's legislation. That's why it's such a mystery, by the way, that the coalition opposed this policy and why, in opposition now, they remain so diffident, if not difficult, about this policy.

In addition to cutting student debt by 20 per cent, the legislation raises the minimum amount before people have to start making repayments from $54,435 in 2024-25 to $67,000 in 2025-26. This will grow in line with wages growth, which will reduce minimum repayments. By the way, this reminds me of the TSMIT argument on immigration. For nearly 10 years, those opposite didn't raise the temporary skill migration income threshold, and workers were exploited and paid lower rates of wage until we increased it initially to about $67,000. The figures have a certain resemblance, and it does remind me about the fact that those opposite would never ever be interested in increasing people's wages. As a result of what we're doing, someone earning $70,000 will see their minimum payments reduced by about $1,300 a year.

The bill introduces a new marginal repayment system, where compulsory student loan repayments are calculated on just the income above the $67,000 threshold, rather than having it based on a percentage of the repayment income or total annual income, and it makes it fairer to be honest with you. It means that you start paying off your university degree when university starts paying off for you, really. Importantly, it was recommended by key experts and stakeholders, namely the Universities Accord and the architect of the HECS income contingent loans system, the eminent economist Professor Bruce Chapman.

When we announced the reform to create a new marginal repayments system, Professor Chapman said it was, 'The most important thing that happened to the system in 30 years.' That's how he described it. It's a marginal collection; it's much gentler and much fairer than previously. We should have done it years ago. He is another expert that those opposite don't want to listen to. They don't want to listen to science or to educators. They don't want to listen to experts at all. Professor Chapman said, 'This relief will make the system fairer by giving those on lower salaries more money in their pockets.' That's cost-of-living relief.

These changes build on reforms we've done to fix the indexation formula, as I said before. It means, all up, that the Albanese Labor government will cut close to $20 billion in student debt for more than three million Australians. It's just another way the government is continuing to deliver cost-of-living relief to Australians, because getting an education shouldn't mean you've got a lifetime of debt. No matter where you live or how much your parents earn, our government will work to ensure those doors of opportunity are open to you. They were for me and my two younger brothers. We hadn't gone to university. Our parents hadn't gone to university or high school. Our grandparents hadn't gone to high school, and their grandparents hadn't gone to high school. The idea of going to high school and then university was a really new thing for my family. That has made such a big difference in the lives of my family, and I know the piece of legislation that we're talking about today will make a huge difference to working class kids in regional and rural communities like Ipswich and the Somerset region in my electorate of Blair.

I commend the bill, and I'm proud to speak on this particular bill because it will make a tangible difference, a real difference, in the lives of young people and older people in my electorate.

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