Leah Blyth (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Stronger Families and Stronger Communities) Share this | Hansard source

While the coalition is supporting the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025, I think it's important to note that Australians expect their elected representatives to make decisions in the national interest and to spend taxpayer money responsibly. Last week, Labor MPs were dancing through the halls of parliament like TikTok influencers, patting themselves on the back and celebrating a one-off 20 per cent student-debt reduction for a select few. Meanwhile, hardworking Australians are struggling to pay their rent and their power and gas bills or struggling to find a place to live, and those wanting to see a doctor are reminded that they need both a Medicare card and their credit card. What's Labor's answer? It's a sugar-hit policy for the chosen few, dressed up in spin and staged for social media. It's hard to take this seriously when the deeper problems facing students, our education system and our economy remain completely unaddressed. On the surface, a 20 per cent reduction for a chosen few with student loans sounds appealing, but it raises serious questions about long-term sustainability and the government's commitment to real reform.

It should also be pointed out that this policy is a result of the Labor government failing to manage the Australian economy responsibly. It is a direct result of surging inflation and the skyrocketing of student loans when indexation was applied to those outstanding loans. So this Labor government created the problem and is now using taxpayer dollars to try and fix it. It is a very expensive distraction, not a long-term, forward-thinking solution.

The bill offers a one-off 20 per cent cut to student debts, but it fails the tests of fairness, economic responsibility and national interest. It was never scrutinised by a parliamentary committee. That's not oversight; that's neglect. And, as the coalition has pointed out, it unfairly benefits one group—university graduates and students—at the expense of others. What about the young Australians who didn't go to university and who are working, paying rent and doing it tough? Their tax dollars are now being funnelled to fund debts that they never incurred. It also disregards the millions of Australians who paid off their HECS debt in full without any discount, and it ignores future students entirely. What message does this send? Work hard and do the right thing and you will be penalised.

Raising the repayment threshold might offer short-term relief, but it also means higher indexation and longer repayment timelines. We're not solving the problem; we're kicking it down the road, trapping more Australians in long-term debt and dependency.

This policy comes at an eye-watering cost of $16 billion. That's not saving students money; it's shifting the burden onto families, tradies, small businesses and retirees. Australians who never took out a student loan are now footing the bill. That means higher taxes, more inflation and deeper economic pain. Yes, this may help some graduates today, but it punishes others. It punishes the teachers and the nurses who paid off their debts before the cut of 1 June 2025 came in. They receive no refund and no recognition—just a sense that playing by the rules doesn't pay. Labor's handout doesn't eliminate debt; it redistributes it. From the Barossa Valley farmer to the Port Lincoln fisher, it's robbing Peter to pay Paul. And let's not kid ourselves: under Labor, nothing comes for free. Someone always pays, and it will be the next generations—our children and our grandchildren—who will foot this bill.

We must remember a simple truth. There is no such thing as public money. There is only taxpayers' money. Every dollar Labor spends it takes from someone else. That's why we must see these handouts for what they are: short-term sugar hits, not serious policy. The problem that socialism has is that eventually it'll run out of other people's money to spend. This measure fosters a culture of entitlement and fuels expectations of more handouts before every election. It encourages political stunts, not principled government. Yes, we need to support education, but we must do it responsibly, sustainably and fairly. As a parent and a former education executive, I support improving access to education and learning and reducing barriers to opportunity—I spent nearly two decades doing just that—but not at the expense of those who never went to university or those who have already done the hard work of repaying their debts. This is not a plan for the future, and Australians deserve better.