Mary Doyle (Aston, 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 cut student debt and to make it cheaper and quicker to get the skills Australians need? And why is unity so important in delivering for Australians?

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

I thank my friend the legendary member for Aston for her question. School is back, and university will be back very soon too, and this year more Australians will start a university degree than ever before. That's good news because we need more teachers, nurses, doctors, scientists, engineers and lots more. In the years ahead, more jobs are going to require more skills—the sorts of skills that you get at TAFE or at university. That's why we're funding free TAFE, and that's why we're funding more spots at university.

We also want to make it easier, faster and cheaper to get those skills, and that's why we've cut student debt by 20 per cent, the biggest cut to student debt in Australian history, taking a massive weight off the shoulders of three million young Australians. The average student debt has been cut by $5,500. We're not just doing that; we're also cutting the amount of money that you have to repay of that debt every year. For example, if you're on 70 grand a year, we're cutting the amount that you have to repay every year by $1,300. That's real cost-of-living help. It means an extra 1,300 bucks in your pocket rather than in the government's.

These aren't the only things that we're doing. I told the House last year that the University of Canberra has cut the length of six university degrees by 12 months and cut the cost of those degrees by an average of $6,000 if you've done a TAFE course in the same area. I can advise the House that Western Sydney University has just announced the same sort of thing. If you've got a TAFE qualification in nursing, construction, IT or a range of other areas, they'll cut the length of your degree by a year and the cost of that degree by up to $18,000. That's the sort of thing that I want to see more of this year, and I know Australians want to see more of that too—a real partnership, a genuine coalition between TAFE and university, a tailor-made coalition that stands for something and that gets things done, that'll help to make sure that your degree is shorter and cheaper and gets you the skills that you need. That's the sort of thing that Australians want—a coalition that's focused on them. By gosh, surely it's not too much to ask.