Sarah Witty (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion and to welcome the Albanese government's delivery on the commitments made to young Australians by cutting student debt by 20 per cent and making repayments fairer and simpler.

This matters deeply to Melbourne. My electorate has more than 36,000 people carrying HELP or VET student debt—the highest in Victoria. You see them every morning walking into RMIT and Melbourne Uni, weaving through Carlton, Fitzroy, Parkville and the CBD. You see them behind the espresso machines in Collingwood, doing night shifts at the hospitals, running tutor sessions in Abbotsford or bouncing between share houses in Prahran. For them, student debt has not been an abstract line on a tax statement. It's been a weight they carry every day. The people of Melbourne have been telling me the same story even before I was elected to parliament. Their debt grows faster than their pay. Indexation felt brutal and unfair. With Melbourne's rent rising faster than anywhere else in the country, they felt like they were running on a treadmill that never slowed down.

This government heard that and we acted. This 20 per cent cut is the largest reduction in student debt in Australia's history. For an average debt of $27,000, that's a reduction of more than $5,500. Around three million Australians will benefit, including tens of thousands in my community of Melbourne. People won't need to fill in a form or fight through government processes. The ATO will do it automatically. People will simply receive a text or email telling them their debt has been cut.

That is a relief you can feel in your chest. It is the difference between whether or not you still have something left over after paying rent. It is the difference between being able to save for a deposit or staying stuck. It's the difference between exhaustion and hope. And this government did not stop there. We raised the minimum repayment threshold to $67,000 and replaced the outdated whole income repayment system with a fair, modern marginal system. For someone in Melbourne earning $70,000, that is $1,300 back every year—real money, real relief. These reforms reflect a simple truth: opportunity should not come with a lifetime of punishment.

They sit alongside broader investments that matter to Melbourne's young people and mature aged students alike. We introduced the Commonwealth prac payment, giving financial support to future teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers—people who keep our great city running; people who staff our hospitals, our schools and our community services. We expanded FEE-FREE Uni Ready courses so that more people can transition into university, including those who never imagined they would take that path. We doubled the number of university study hubs, bringing tertiary education closer to where people live.

Melbourne is a city built on brains, creativity and ambition. We are home to some of the country's best universities, but we are also home to thousands of people who feel locked out by rising rent, rising costs and rising expectations. This government is bringing those barriers down. I meet students in Richmond who work two jobs and feel like they are going backwards and young workers in North Melbourne who feel crushed between rent, groceries and student repayments. I meet parents in Parkville and South Yarra who tell me their talented kids are working hard but can't see a path to owning a home because the HECS debts keep dragging them behind—like an anchor. These reforms cut that anchor loose.

The opposition called the policy profoundly unfair. They said Australians will see no benefit. Australians saw a benefit, and they elected a government that promised to deliver. And deliver it we have. Education is not meant to trap people; it's meant to launch them. Debt should never be the thing that decides whether someone can dream of a future in a city they love. Melbourne is an electorate where people chase opportunity with everything they've got. Our job is to make sure the system does not punish them for doing so. Today, I am proud to stand here and say we promised it, we delivered it, and we are just getting started. I commend the motion to the House.

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