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

My question is to the Minister for Education. How is the Albanese Labor government helping young Australians with student debt, why is delivering on this commitment so important and what has been the response?

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

I thank my friend the brilliant member for Blair for his question. Young Australians don't always see something for them on the ballot paper when there's an election, but they did this year, and they voted for it in their millions. The front page of the Courier Mail on the Monday after the election said it all: 'Albo's HECS appeal'. The truth is the legislation that we've now introduced into the parliament to cut student debt by 20 per cent is going to help millions of young Australians—teachers, nurses, tradies and lots more just out of TAFE, just out of university, just out of home and just getting started. It will take a weight off their shoulders.

Cutting student debt by 20 per cent was one of the biggest promises that we made in the election campaign, but it was also one of the biggest differences between us and the Liberal Party. They attacked it from day one. In fact, they didn't just attack it. They didn't just oppose it. They actually promised in the election campaign to increase HECS debt. In the costings they released on the Thursday before the election, they said that they would make people pay back paid prac. That's the funding that we're now providing to teaching students and nursing students, to midwifery students and social work students, to help them with the practical part of their university degree. Instead of providing that financial support for them in their pocket, the Liberal Party wanted to add that to their HECS debt. That was their policy, and they're still attacking the policy that cuts student debt by 20 per cent today. A new MP in the chamber this morning called it grossly unfair—

Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And it is!

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

There you go!—and he added this one. He said there is no such thing as a free lunch. We've heard that before. That was actually your policy!

They mightn't have thought that cutting student debt by 20 per cent was a good idea, but young people did. As one National Party MP told the Daily Telegraph after the election, 'My kids are paying off a university debt, and I reckon they voted Labor.' When even your own family won't vote for you, you know you've got it wrong. Tomorrow the coalition have a chance to get it right. They've got a chance to come in here and do what millions of Australians did on 3 May: vote to cut student debt by 20 per cent.