Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

The Education Legislation Amendment (2020 Measures No. 1) Bill 2020 includes provision for full-fee-paying university students to have the 25 per cent loan fee waived for six months, due to COVID. The bill also gives the Secretary of the Department of Education, Skills and Employment the power to determine certain students who, due to having more than one Commonwealth Higher Education Student Support Number, have exceeded the HELP loan limit and allows these students to repay their resulting excess debt amounts through the taxation system.

The bill extends the unique student identifier regime to all higher education students by requiring all VET student loan recipients commencing on 1 January 2021, and all students from 1 January 2023, to have a USI in order to be eligible for Commonwealth assistance under HESA. The bill also includes a range of measures that are technical in nature. Labor welcomes the small fee relief—for that small proportion of full-fee-paying undergraduate students—that a six-month waiver in loan fees will provide. It is right to ensure that students who have exceeded the student loans cap due to the administrative glitch can repay the debt over time rather than be pursued for lump sums they may find difficult to repay.

Labor has supported the expansion of the unique student identifier across higher education and understands that this should reduce the likelihood of such mistakes happening again. Labor will support this bill.