Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a parent, I rise to speak in support of this critical piece of legislation from the Albanese Labor government, the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025. It is legislation that delivers on a promise that we made to millions of Australians to cut debt by 20 per cent. It's about fairness. It's about opportunity. It's about restoring confidence in a system that should be opening doors, not closing them.

Labor believes education should be the great equaliser and that it shouldn't matter what suburb you grew up in, how much your parents earn or whether your family has ever been to university. If you work hard, you should get a fair go. But, for too long, too many Australians have been shackled by a student debt system that punishes ambition. Student debt in this country has become an anchor. It weighs people down, it delays homeownership, it limits choices and for some it's the reason why they walk away from study altogether.

This legislation changes that. It will cut 20 per cent off every outstanding student debt, benefiting more than three million Australians and wiping away around $16 billion in total debt. In my home state of Tasmania, nearly 53,000 people will benefit. That is not just a number. It's thousands of lives—in Clark more than 13½ thousand people, in Franklin nearly 12,000 people, in Bass over 10,000 people, in Lyons nearly 9,000 people and in Braddon close to 8,000 Tasmanians, saving $240 million for Tasmanians. Importantly, this reduction is backdated to before the most recent indexation, because we knew that, while the parliament was preparing this legislation, peoples' debts would continue to rise. So we acted. In our first term we wiped more than $3 billion in student debt by reforming indexation, changing it so that it's now based on the lower of the CPI or the wage price index.

We are going further. This legislation also lifts the income threshold for student loan repayments from around $54,000 to $67,000. This change means people can start their working life, get on their feet and gain financial stability before they are asked to repay a cent. This is practical, sensible reform. It's about improving cash flow for working Australians. It's about reducing financial stress. The result is that someone earning $67,000 will now pay around $1,300 less each year. That's a little bit more for the household budget, because education should come with opportunity, not a lifetime price tag.

This belief that education is a public good, a national investment, is a thread that runs through the proudest moments of Labor's history. We have fee-free TAFE, with over 300,000 places—and counting—already delivered, and the Commonwealth prac payment, a cost-of-living payment for over 68,000 teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students. This is the difference between a government that invests in people and one that leaves them behind. The legislation before us today is a key part of that. It's a bill that will directly improve people's lives, remove barriers and deliver on a promise that we took to the Australian people.

I want to finish by sharing my story of Emily, a young woman from Glenorchy, who graduated from her teaching degree a few years ago. She is passionate about education. She has already given back to her community, but like so many others she has been burdened by student debt that keeps growing faster than she can pay it down. Emily told me that this legislation will take thousands of dollars of that debt away. That will give her a sense of progress and a belief that government can still make a difference to people's lives. And that's why we are here. I'm proud to support this bill, I'm proud to be a part of a government that puts people first and I'm proud to carry forward the Labor legacy of lifting people up through education.