Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Minister Watt, representing the Minister for Education. Every week I hear heartbreaking stories about students struggling to put food on the table, pay for medicine, afford a train or bus ticket, pay bills or pay rent. One 19-year-old Queensland University of Technology student said that she has not eaten fresh fruit and vegetables for at least a month and relies on instant noodles. She struggles to afford period products. At UNSW, hundreds of students are lining up in queues for free food. This is causing intolerable financial stress and mental health impacts for students. Can you look these students in the eye and tell them that you can spare $254 billion for the wealthy and $368 billion for war machines but nothing for them?

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Faruqi. I reject the suggestion that our government is doing nothing to assist students or low-income earners generally. In fact, it wasn't that long ago that, for instance, we brought the parliament back to support legislation to support price caps on coal and gas prices and provide energy price relief for low-income earners, including for the very students we're talking about. Of course we, the Albanese government, also delivered cheaper medicines, which started on 1 January this year, which students and many others, including pensioners, would benefit from. As I recall, it was the first reduction in PBS prices, if not ever in Australian history then certainly for a very long time. That is in addition to a much broader range of cost-of-living relief that the government is providing.

One of the things that you pointed out, Senator Faruqi, was that many of these students are renters. I certainly remember my renting days as a student, when you don't have a lot of money. As I've pointed out on a number of occasions this week to the Greens, there's a very simple thing that the Greens could do to assist us to meet the need for more social and affordable housing in Australia, and that is to back the Housing Australia Future Fund that our government is putting forward. The hypocrisy of the Greens is yet again on display when it comes to housing. On one hand, they're out there claiming that we need more social and affordable housing, that we need support for renters and that we need more housing for renters, and then, on the other hand, when there's a government that's actually prepared to do something on this topic, what do the Greens do? They say, 'No, it's not good enough.' They vote against it again. It is actually within your power to do something about this—about support for affordable housing—to bring down the cost for students. But, instead, you'd rather have a protest out the front and yell at people. That's not the way to help people.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Faruqi, a first supplementary?

Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

enator FARUQI () (): Students are rushing from job to job but still barely making ends meet. Nearly a third of students work more than 20 hours a week. They are telling us that it is impossible to just be a student and enjoy uni life, because they can barely afford to live. Too many students are living in poverty. Will the Labor government assure people there has actually been a change of government and raise the rate of income support payments to at least $88 a day?

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you again, Senator Faruqi. I've already listed a range of ways the Albanese government is providing cost-of-living support to support a range of lower-income earners, including students. Some of the fundamental issues that cause student poverty, which is a real issue and has been for a very long time in this country—one of the key causes of that is the extra cost that students are having to pay for accommodation. It is within the Greens' power to do something about this. Maybe, just for once, the Greens could think about being part of the solution to deliver on the things they're complaining about, rather than thinking much more about having a protest out the front where they yell at people and ask for things that can never be delivered by any government in Australian history.

We recognise lower-income earners need support—more support than they ever got under the coalition government—and that is exactly what we are doing. In the meantime the Greens should reverse their position and back our Housing Australia Future Fund to deliver the housing that is needed. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Faruqi, second supplementary?

Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 1 June, millions of Australians will be hit with more debt. Average student debt will balloon by almost $1,700. For others it will soar by $3,000 and even $5,000. This means many more will be going backwards. They can't keep up because student debts are now going up faster than they can be paid off. Will the government intervene urgently to ensure people are not hit with an obscene increase in their student debts on 1 June?

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Faruqi. As Senator Faruqi may be aware, Minister Clare, the education minister, has asked his universities and higher education accord team to look at the issue of student debt. It's also important to explain the way that HECS and HELP works. It's not like a home loan or personal loan from a bank, where if interest rates go up your payments go up; it's built on an important principle that people pay what they can afford, and people don't pay more unless they earn more. That is the way the system has always worked. I remember Senator McAllister and I having debates about this when we were university students, about the right way to charge student fees. It's been an issue for a very long time. I'm not sure we were on the same side necessarily, Senator McAllister, on that! But we all grow and change our minds—even people like you and me!

These are serious issues. The Greens should help, and the Greens should provide more social and affordable housing, which is what this Labor government is doing. (Time expired)