David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank Senator Henderson for her work on this amendment. It makes a lot of sense to me to have a ceiling on indexation, given what HECS is for. HECS is there to ensure that university education can be provided to more Australians. I also recognise that, for most people who go through university, that increases their earning potential. We want people to be able to go to university and have a HECS debt but then be able to repay that debt. Clearly, some certainty around the maximum level of indexation would be really helpful in this scheme, given what we've seen happen over the last few years.

I also want to acknowledge the government's work to reform indexation. We must acknowledge that they did good work in the last term around this, changing the way that it is set and calculated. But it's only half the job done. We are still charging Australians with a HECS debt indexation—effectively interest—on money they have already repaid to the ATO. I find it the most outrageous thing—that we have a system where you can repay for 11 months to the ATO and then get charged indexation on that amount. I got the PBO to look at this, and their calculation is that, over the next four years, Australians with HECS debts will pay to the ATO $700 million of indexation on amounts that they've already repaid to the ATO. Can you imagine the outrage if banks were charging interest on mortgage repayments that had already been paid back to those banks? We obviously don't allow it. Why do we allow this system, which penalises people with HECS debts? Minister, I'm interested to hear from you. Why aren't we changing the date of indexation? I acknowledge the work you've done, but there's still more to do when it comes to indexation.