Fatima Payman (WA, Australia's Voice) Share this | Hansard source

():  I rise to express my support for the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025. We support any relief that eases the crushing weight of student debt on young Australians. Any form of relief is welcome. However, I must point out that this measure comes across as quite tokenistic, where it's designed to win votes rather than to provide value for money and support to those who need it most. While cutting student debt by 20 per cent across the board sounds good—in fact, even generous—we must ask ourselves who benefits most. It is those with the highest debt and with the greatest capacity to take on a debt in the first place. Research from e61 Institute found that a more equitable method of distributing this relief would be a flat $5,500 cut helping 15 per cent more people clear their debt sooner. That's value for money. This doesn't appear so. I have heard countless horror stories from countless students in WA, and the eye-watering amount of debt they have accrued is completely unjustifiable. If the government were serious about tackling student debt, they would start with the timing of indexation. Students are being charged interest on debts they've already paid. Senator David Pocock has rightly called this out and argued that fixing it could save students $704 million over four years. That's $704 million over four years. That's the kind of urgent and fair relief we're demanding.

Debts are not the only problem affecting university students. For many students who complete a placement, the issue of placement poverty has made completing a degree while working an unpaid part-time job a very difficult balancing act. The recent implementation of the Commonwealth prac payment is a welcome reform, but students in degrees that are excluded from the payment, such as medicine, psychology and radiography, have been left out in the cold by this government. President of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Danielle McMullen, said:

Medical students are required to undertake about 2000 hours of unpaid clinical placements … The costs associated with this unpaid placement are a significant barrier to participation among current and potential students from low socio-economic and rural backgrounds.

So, in a time when medical services, particularly in rural areas, are under serious pressure, we need to be doing as much as we can to support the students and increase the resilience of our healthcare workforce.

Then, again, there's the elephant in the lecture theatre, university fees. Under the government's so-called Job-ready Graduates scheme, student debt has exploded by more than $10 million. Government senators on the other side don't seem to believe me. Well, the PBO confirmed it, the Universities Accord confirmed it, and still the government seems to be stalling. Students are paying more, but the quality of tertiary education they're receiving is decreasing. Overworked tutors, pre-recorded lectures, declining ranks—these are the serious issues that I keep hearing from those learning and from those teaching. Research from the Australia Institute has found that the average HECS debt for a student in their 20s has more than doubled since 2006 from $12,600 to $31,500. Despite our international reputation as an education superpower, a poll found 83 per cent of Australians are concerned about universities focusing on profit over providing quality education, and it's easy to see why when we have universities across Australia cutting jobs for tutors and lecturers while vice-chancellors rake in around $1 million a year. Australia's international university rankings have been slipping in recent years, with 70 per cent of Australian universities suffering a fall in ranking this year. The Director of Strategic Insights at RMIT, Angel Calderon, has said:

Over the past five years, we have seen the reputation of Australian universities gradually decreasing.

Organisational restructuring, staff movements, operational deficits and any kind of disruption are likely to influence institutional perceptions everywhere.

Upon graduation, you would think students would have something to look forward to, but many students face a brutal job market and are struggling to secure employment. Many large-scale recruiters like the big four accounting firms, for example, are cutting back on graduate recruitment. In IT alone, despite the Australian Computer Society predicting a need for 52,000 new workers a year until 2030 to meet demand, most graduates can't land an entry-level job. Why? Everyone is asking, 'Why is that?' Because only one per cent of employers rated Australian graduates as job ready, and 65 per cent reported having to reskill their new hires. The rat race for certificates and other qualifications leads many graduates to question, 'What was the whole point of the degree?' This bill, in addition to cutting debts, increases the repayment threshold, allowing more students and graduates to hold onto more of what they earn at the beginning of their career, and that is definitely a welcome reform.

As with so many government bills that come before this chamber, it is a good start. The government has got good intentions, but we could be doing much, much more. Australians are calling for structural reform, not tokenistic gestures or one-off policies. That means fixing the timing of HECS indexation so students aren't charged interest on money they have already paid. It means scrapping the failed Job-ready Graduates Package that has only driven up debt without delivering outcomes. It means properly funding and expanding paid placements across all critical professions, not just a select few. Above all, it means ending the treatment of students as cash cows and restoring education as the public good it's meant to be. We've had the reviews, we've had the reports. It's time for action, so let's get on with it.