Senate debates Motions

Higher Education


Mehreen Faruqi

Mehreen Faruqi NSW, Australian Greens

12:15 pm

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

  (i) everyone has a right to education, whether you are leaving school, changing careers, retraining later in life or looking to gain new skills and knowledge,

  (ii) more than a million students will commence at, or return to, public universities and TAFEs around Australia this month,

  (iii) access to a world-class education shouldn't require going into large debts, but the average graduate today is saddled with more than $22,000 in study debt, and

  (iv) a student graduating in 2020 will take a decade on average to repay their study loans just as they are starting out in life; and

(b) calls on the Federal Government to make TAFE and university free.

Scott Ryan

Scott Ryan President

The question is that motion No. 458, moved by Senator Faruqi, be agreed to.