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

My question is to the Minister for Education. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering on its commitment to help Australians with student debt?

Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the magnificent member for Melbourne for her question and congratulate her on her fantastic first speech last night and her incredible victory in the electorate of Melbourne. There are more people in the electorate of Melbourne with a student debt today than anywhere else in the country—35,000 people, almost one in three voters—and on 3 May they made their voices heard. This morning I had the privilege of introducing the first bill into this new parliament—the bill that will cut their student debt by 20 per cent, and not just theirs. It will cut the student debt of 20,000 people in the electorate of Dickson; 34,000 people in the electorate of Brisbane; 21,000 people in the electorate of my good mate the member for Banks; 28,000 people in the electorate of Grayndler; 26,000 people in my electorate of Blaxland; and, right across the country, all up, more than three million Australians nationwide. The average HECS debt today is about 27 grand, so that means, as the PM just said, an average debt cut of about 5½ grand. That's a lot of help for a lot of people just out of uni, just getting started—help to buy a home if they are thinking about starting a family. It will just make life for them a little bit easier.

This bill also does something else. It cuts the minimum annual repayments that Australians with a student debt have to make every year. For someone on an income of 70 grand, it will reduce the minimum repayments that they have to make each year by $1,300. That's real help with the cost of living. That's more money in their pocket—an extra 1,300 bucks—rather than the government's.

As I said, on 3 May Australians made their voices heard. They voted for tax cuts. They voted for free TAFE. They voted for more urgent care clinics. They voted for the biggest investment in Medicare ever to make it easier to see a doctor for free. And they voted for this—a 20 per cent cut in the student debt of three million Australians. Today we introduced the legislation to make that happen.