Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Hansard source

This is a commitment that the government took to the Australian people. It is funded through the budget. There are a range of revenues for the budget. The government took this commitment to the election. The Australian people supported it. We have a bill in front of the chamber. This is a bill that will reduce student debt by 20 per cent. It will wipe $16 billion of debt from people's HECS accounts, VET accounts and apprenticeship accounts. We think it's really important that we do exactly what we said we were going to do. That's why it's the first bill that we introduced to the parliament. It will provide significant assistance to three million Australians.