Labor to introduce student debt-slashing bill into parliament
The proposed relief, a key election policy, would cut HECS by 20 per cent for some 3 million graduates, or take about $5500 off the average student debt.
Total savings would amount to $16bn, according to Labor.
It would also raise the repayment threshold for student loans from $54,000 to $67,000.
While Labor commands a massive 94-seat majority in the House of Representatives, the Senate is another matter.
With the Greens holding the balance of power, they can effectively pump the brakes on key legislation – something members of the minor party have already said they would do to negotiate their own agenda.
'While every bit of student debt relief is good, what the government is doing by wiping some student debt doesn't even touch the sides of the issue,' Greens education spokeswoman Mehreen Faruqi said on Tuesday.
'The core of the problem is indexation.
'Unless indexation is removed, students will be in this hamster wheel always chasing their debts, which keep getting bigger and bigger.'
While Senator Faruqi said her party would push for amendments, NewsWire understands the government is confident the opposition will support it.
Speaking to Sky News, Coalition education spokesman Jono Duniam said he also expected his side to back the bill.
'It was an issue, one of the centrepieces of the government's agenda at the last election and obviously we had a view that was not supported by Australians, so we'll work with them,' he said.
'We have our concerns, they remain. We'll talk about those, but I expect them to pass parliament.'
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9 News
11 minutes ago
- 9 News
'A drop in the ocean': HECS debt relief welcomed but some say it won't go far enough
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here Young Australians say they are still facing decades of repayments for their student loans, despite Labor introducing a bill to slash HECS debts by 20 percent. Education Minister Jason Clare tabled the bill on Wednesday as the re-elected Albanese government's first act in parliament. Clare said the legislation would cut the debt of three million Australians, with the average HECS debt of $27,600 being reduced by around $5500. Julia Wilding says she will still be saddled with an enormous debt, even after a 20 percent reduction. (Supplied: Julia Wilding) The reform will also raise the minimum amount before people have to start making HECS repayments from $54,435 to $67,000 and reduce minimum repayments. "This is a big deal for three million Australians, in particular, a lot of young Australians," Clare said. "Just out of uni, just getting started, this will take a weight off their back." Western Australian Julia Wilding graduated from six years of study to become an optometrist in 2023. The 25-year-old was left with a HECS debt of $130,000, and also paid $34,000 for her final six months of study upfront as she had reached the cap on the amount she could borrow from the government. Wilding said while she welcomed the $26,000 reduction in her HECS debt, it still felt like "a drop in the ocean". Wilding calculated it would take her about 30 years to pay off her HECS debt, and that was before the annual indexation applied to her loan was taken into account. "At this rate, I'll still probably be in my 50s when I finally pay it off - and I was 17 when I started uni. It's quite depressing." Wilding said she loved her job and did not regret going to university to study in her chosen field, however, the cost of her education was onerous. "The financial road is very difficult. When I think about it, it's just such an inordinate amount of money, that you just have to laugh about it sometimes," she said. Sydney woman Katie, who asked for her surname to be withheld, has a HECS debt of around $110,000 after graduating with three degrees - one in the arts, another in classical music and a third in publishing. She now works in the not-for-profit sector and estimates that she will be in her 80s by the time she pays off her HECS debt, assuming she continues to work full-time. "I appreciate any reductions," Katie said. "However, I do think that all HECS debts should be erased. It's a little bit difficult to take seriously the argument for not doing that when most of the people making those arguments got their education for free, but any relief is good relief." Students are seen walking through the Sydney University's campus. (Flavio Brancaleone) Katie said there were a number of ways the government could make things easier for students struggling with growing HECS debts, including bringing back government co-payments for voluntary contributions, or making extra contributions tax deductible. A common complaint of the current HECS system is its yearly indexation schedule. While HECS repayments are taken out of a person's salary throughout the year, these payments are kept aside by the ATO and not deducted from the total amount owing until after indexation is applied on June 1. Katie said this process seemed particularly unfair and should be changed. "They take your money out of our paycheck each pay cycle, but they don't actually pay it off until they've added the indexation, which kind of feels a bit like a slap in the face." It's a call echoed by Senator David Pocock, who told parliament he wanted to see the date of indexation altered. "It is outrageous that people with HECS debts are being charged indexation, effectively interest, on money they've already repaid to the ATO," he says. Pocock said the federal government needed to "stop going for the headline" and "embrace hard reform" when came to higher education. A wide-ranging review of the entire university system, called the Universities Accord, was commissioned by the federal government, and its findings were released in February, 2024. Clare said the government had already taken steps to address some of the recommendations included in the report, including introducing payments for students completing practical work placements as part of their studies. "There's a lot of work to do to make our higher education system better and fairer," Clare said, adding the next move would be to look at changing the funding system to be more "needs-based" and follow individual students, a reform which would benefit disadvantaged backgrounds and students from regional Australia. education university national Australia federal politics CONTACT US Auto news: Why Australians are still driving around without insurance.
SBS Australia
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Capital comeback: Australia's four-year house price trend comes to an end
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ABC News
14 minutes ago
- ABC News
Macquarie Group-backed ATM provider begins removing machines from suspected illegal tobacco stores
One of Australia's largest private ATM suppliers, Macquarie Group-backed Next Payments, is removing more than 40 of its machines from suspected illegal tobacco stores. Next Payments chief executive Tim Wildash announced the move after an ABC investigation found ATM companies were cutting deals with tobacco criminals and installing their machines in high turnover illegal cigarette shops. Mr Wildash said he had not been aware of the extent of the issue until the ABC's reporting, and he was insisting the company remove ATMs from the outlets. 'If they [the shops] are not legal, we're not going to provide services,'' Mr Wildash told the ABC. The ABC found in some cases Next Payments had deals with criminals or associated businesses to host its machines, even after the men had been caught by police for breaches of tobacco offences or for handling of proceeds of crime offences. The removal of the Next Payments machines came as financial payment processing company EFTEX took action to slash ties with private ATMs in illegal tobacco shops in response to the ABC's revelations. EFTEX,which provides transaction services for over 5000 ATMs, last week told clients it would stop payment processing for machines located in tobacco outlets and other high-risk environments because of the increased regulatory focus generated by the media reports. The illicit tobacco trade has ballooned amid increasing government taxes on tobacco – packs of 20 illegal cigarettes can sell for as little as $8 while Commonwealth duties alone should cost almost $28. The ABC found ATMs were fuelling the at-times violent trade because illegal tobacco outlets would often push customers to pay in cash for the contraband cigarettes, directing people to use in-store ATMs if they didn't have money to hand. The cash transactions made it difficult for authorities like the Australian Tax Office and law enforcement agencies to track the illegal trades and subsequent massive profits. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission told the ABC: 'The scale of cash turnover through private ATMs in certain industries make these an ideal target for serious and organised crime groups who thrive off the money made from criminal activities.' In some cases, private ATM providers and the individual or business hosting the machines receive a commission on every withdrawal – and machines at tobacco stores linked to criminals were recording up to three times the normal transaction rates of standard bank ATMs. Some illicit tobacco shops were doing so many transactions they hosted two machines on site, the ABC found. The ATMs also provide opportunities for money laundering when merchants have deals to load their own cash into the machines, experts said. Private ATMs are not captured under anti-money laundering laws. Proceeds of crime cash could be loaded into the machines and when an innocent customer withdrew this money, that customer's bank would then ultimately credit the merchant's account with the same amount. The money's original source does not come under the same level of scrutiny that occurs if criminals try depositing certain amounts of cash in various ways at a bank counter. In one case uncovered by the ABC, a convicted cannabis kingpin operated his own fleet of ATMs sourced from Queensland-based business atm2go and sought to load drug money into the ATMs. Atm2go, which has multiple machines installed in illicit tobacco shops, has declined to comment. Melbourne-based Next Payments' biggest shareholder, with a 47 per cent stake, is Macquarie Group. Mr Wildash has maintained that tobacco was only 1 per cent of business for his organisation and that his company had been cooperating with authorities. He rejected concerns the machines pose money-laundering risks, claiming you would have to be the dumbest criminal in the world to think you could launder cash through a private ATM. Transactions on Next Payment machines are processed by Cuscal, which told the ABC it did 'not have any direct relationship' with Next Payment's clients. Cuscal said Next Payments had provided assurances it was removing ATMs 'from locations that may be linked to the illegal tobacco industry'. Industry sources have told the ABC that atm2go terminals used Eftex to process transactions.
