Gabriel Ng (Menzies, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to help Australians with a student debt? What has been the response?

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

I thank my good friend the mighty member for Menzies for his question. In the wee small hours of this morning, between 3 am and 6 am, when I hope most of us were still tucked up in bed, something very big happened. One and a half million Australians had their student debt cut by 20 per cent—and, next Thursday, it's all going to happen again. Another 1½ million Australians will have their debt cut by 20 per cent. This is the biggest cut to student debt in Australian history. To give you an idea of just how big this is, for the average Aussie with a student debt, it means $5,500 off their back, off their debt. It's all automatic. You don't have to do a thing; just wait for the 'ding'. As the Prime Minister said, the text message will come next week.

But it is also important to know why this has happened. There is one reason that this has happened, and that's this man here. It's because of this Labor Prime Minister. It's because he promised it, because he fought for it and because he believes in it. It's because he believes that young Australians deserve a break and because millions and millions of Australians voted for it.

As one very smart National Party MP—or potentially a former National Party MP—said, 'My kids are paying off a university debt and I reckon they voted Labor.' I bet they did. But, even now, there are still members of the Liberal Party who think this is a bad idea. On Monday, the member for Goldstein described celebrating this as 'despicable'. You've got to ask yourself: what sort of planet does this mob over here live on? It explains why there are now 42 of them over there and why the seat that Tony Abbott once represented—or Malcolm Turnbull or Julie Bishop or Bronwyn Bishop or Brendan Nelson or Alexander Downer or even Sir Robert Menzies himself—are now located up there. Young Australians see them, and they see through them. They know that the Liberal Party no longer represents them and they also know this: it's this Labor government and this Labor Prime Minister who cut their debt by 20 per cent.