There are many who remember carefree, post-uni days.
Study and exams done. The degree secured. Thinking about your career options and all the money you were about to make – after a well-earned holiday, of course.
We may have even had a ‘brat’ summer – if we’d known what it was. Between you and me, I’m still not completely sure, despite the Collins English dictionary naming it word of the year. I do know it is probably cringe of me to even write about it. (Apologies to my children who probably now think I have brainrot from being too online.)
I admit, I was one of the lucky ones with my education
Between 1985 and 1992 I attended Monash University on a full time and part time basis. For the first four years there was no HECS, and for the last four years there was HECS. So I saw both sides of the education cost coin.
I realise the absolute privilege of getting that first part of my study paid for by the Australian Government. I will never take that for granted and I totally understand that some younger people bear some resentment towards the generation that had ‘a free ride’.
We see the impact of the HECS debts that so many Gen Z and Millennials carry.
They are the generations trying to start their adult lives, start their families, buy houses and kick their careers off or kick them up a notch.
But they do it against the backdrop of cost-of-living pressures, climate change, and a tumultuous geopolitical environment.
The Albanese Government is addressing the cost-of-living crisis on a number of fronts – energy bill relief, measures to stop the supermarket giants from price gouging, tax cuts for all Australians, lifting the maximum child care subsidy to name a few.
And now, we are addressing student debt.
Around three million Australians will benefit from a further 20 per cent cut to all student loans and a cut to student loan debt repayment rates.
For someone with the average HELP debt of $27,600, around $5,520 will be wiped from their outstanding HELP loans next year.
We will also reduce the amount Australians with a student debt have to repay per year and raise the threshold of when they need to start repaying it.
For someone on an income of $70,000 this will mean around $1,300 less per year in repayments.
So, the people who need more money to help with the cost of living will have it in their pocket and not the government’s.
These measures build on changes to how indexation is calculated, to make sure student debts don’t grow faster than average wages.
All up we are wiping close to $20 billion in student debt.
I know some might wonder why the Government doesn’t just wipe all student debt.
Well, put simply, it would break the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) system.
HELP plays an important role in making sure our higher education system is sustainable. If we keep it strong, more people get the opportunity to go to university.
I congratulate my colleague, the Minister for Education, Jason Clare, on the energy he has put in to developing these reforms.
Through his efforts, the Minister has struck a responsible balance between providing relief to students while protecting the system.
And as the old infomercial catch cry used to go ‘but wait, there’s more.’
And it’s better than a set of steak knives. It’s Fee-Free TAFE!
The Government will introduce legislation to establish Fee-Free TAFE as an enduring feature of the national vocational education and training system.
That will result in funding 100,000 TAFE places every year from 2027 for which students will be charged zero fees.
We already offered 180,000 Fee-Free TAFE places in 2023; 300,000 places over three years from 2024; and we’re finalising agreements for a further 20,000 construction and housing places.
These places will support key industries that are experiencing skills shortages or areas of emerging growth.
And if our priorities change over time, then we will respond to national need and local demand.
This is a really big change in Australia’s education landscape.
I’m excited about it because I have always held education close to my heart.
Education can never be taken away from you.
It can take a person from disadvantage to advantage in a way nothing else in society can do.
Further education – tertiary or vocational – plays a critical role here.
The hopes and dreams of Australians lift when given the opportunity to fulfil individual potential.
Never is that more evident in the achievements of those who are first in their family to graduate.
That was my mother’s story.
It will be the story of many more Australians with the important reforms this Government is introducing.
Originally published in The West Australian Monday 11 November 2024.
This opinion piece was edited on Thursday 14 November 2024 to reflect that Minister Shorten received part fee-free university education, part paid.