Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the Greens to welcome this long-awaited and overdue relief for student debtors, the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025, and to say, clearly and unapologetically: it never would have happened without the tireless pressure from the Greens and from the student movement across this country. For years, Labor told us it couldn't be done. For years, student debt grew and student voices were ignored. It took year after year of high indexation for this government to finally act. So let's be clear. This is not the Labor Party leading the way. This is Labor scrambling to catch up. This is the direct result of persistent, principled pressure from the Greens, from this chamber, from the streets, from campuses and from every corner of the country where people are refusing to accept that education should come with a lifetime of debt.

This one-off 20 per cent student debt wipe is a hard-fought win, but it is not a gift and it is not generosity. It is only partial relief for the harm that successive governments have inflicted on a generation of young people forced to carry the financial burden of a broken higher education system. Student debt has ballooned to over $80 billion. That is a hefty $80 billion price tag on people's future and on their ability to buy a home, start a family, start a business or even take a mental health break. It's a debt that punishes people for daring to get an education and it disproportionately punishes women, First Nations people and those from working class and migrant backgrounds. It's not just debt. It's a symptom of a broken system where you can work full-time, pay off thousands and still see your debt go up, and a system that makes education a commodity and treats students as consumers and treats staff as service providers. That is what needs to change.

Let me remind this chamber of what happened in the last few years. The Albanese government allowed the largest ever student debt increase to go ahead in 2023—7.1 per cent indexation—without lifting a finger to stop it. The Greens introduced legislation to freeze indexation and lift the minimum repayment income to the median wage. We pushed for debt to be wiped entirely. We rallied students. We demanded answers. We made noise while Labor sat on its hands. The next year, student debts went up by 4.7 per cent and, again, Labor waved it through while students drowned in debt and stress. After years of delay, Labor then doubled back to tweak indexation and bring in a 20 per cent debt wipe and an increased minimum repayment threshold. We cannot keep loading debt onto the shoulders of the next generation and expect society to thrive.

So today I say to students that this fight is far from over, but this win is yours. You made this happen. Your activism, your strikes, your rallies, your pressure—that is what forced this government to act. And, with the Greens in your corner, we will keep going. We will keep fighting until every last dollar of student debt is wiped and university and TAFE are free for all.

Let me be crystal clear: wiping all student debt is not radical. It's not some utopian fantasy. It's common sense. Other countries do it. Australia used to have free university and TAFE; free education existed in this country. It was dismantled by the very parties who now expect applause for a partial repair job. It's time to bring free university and TAFE back. If we can afford stage 3 tax cuts for billionaires and we can afford $368 billion for nuclear submarines, then we can damn well afford to give people a debt-free education.

This bill is a small step forward, but we are not here to tinker around the edges; we are here to transform. We are here to rebuild a public education system that is free, fully funded and fair, and that starts with recognising that no-one should be punished with debt for wanting to learn. The Greens will support this bill, but let it be known that we support it as a step along the way, not a destination. The movement for free education is alive, it is growing, and we will not stop until it wins, because education is a right, not a debt sentence. I move the Greens second reading amendment to address some of the problems that I have highlighted:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate:

(a) notes that:

(i) students are being shackled by a lifetime of debt which is making the cost of living crisis worse, locking people out of the housing market, causing people to delay having families and crushing dreams of going to university,

(ii) the Government's plan to wipe 20% of student debt amounts to only 7.9% when accounting for indexation,

(iii) a one-off student debt cut is meaningless for students starting today and graduating with $50,000 degrees due to the Government's failure to reverse the fee hikes of the punitive Job-ready Graduates Package,

(iv) the student debt system cannot be fixed because student debt should not exist and higher education, like education at every level, is an essential public good that should be free, universal and provided by the Government; and

(v) all students experiencing placement poverty need urgent relief and should be paid for every hour of work they are required to do as part of their degree, at least at minimum wage, not a lesser supplementary amount; and

(b) calls on the Government to:

(i) wipe all student debt and return to free university and TAFE for all,

(ii) urgently reverse the fee hikes of the Job-ready Graduates Package; and

(iii) pay all students doing mandatory placements at no less than minimum wage rates".