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

Thank you, Minister. I accept that a lot of stuff has been put into future reviews and future pieces of work. I still don't understand how there's any justification to charge indexation on amounts that have already been repaid to the ATO.

My other big question is about the government's approach to student debt and why there hasn't been a reform of the Job-ready Graduates Package. When you were in opposition, before I was in the Senate, I heard so much from the Labor Party about how bad Job-ready Graduates was and how it was going to saddle students with extra debt. Indeed, the PBO says that an additional $10.2 billion worth of debt has been added to Australians by having this program. I just don't understand why there's no urgency to actually deal with the root cause. Yes, the 20 per cent wiping of student debt is very welcome for people who have a HECS debt, but, if you are starting in the humanities next semester or have started in even the last little while, this doesn't really help at all. So when will the government move from going for the headline to going for some serious, hard reform, which is so overdue in the university sector?

If you speak to almost any vice-chancellor across the country, one of the first things they raise is Job-ready Graduates. It's not working. Your government knew that while you were in opposition and you've known that for the last three years. Rather than getting on with redesigning that program, you've punted it to another body and said that that piece of work can happen down the track. When will the Labor government get serious about reform in this area, when it comes to Job-ready Graduates and saddling students with more debt?