Jacqui Lambie

by leave—At the request of Senator Pocock, I move amendments (1) to (6) on sheet 3137 together:

(1) Clause 2, page 2 (after table item 6), insert:

(2) Schedule 1, page 4 (after line 6), after item 1, insert:

1A Paragraph 140-5(1)(b)

Omit "1 June", substitute "1 December".

1B Subsection 140-5(1) (method statement)

Omit "1 June" (wherever occurring), substitute "1 December".

1C Subsection 140-10(1)

Omit "for 1 June in a financial year", substitute "for 1 December in a financial year".

(3) Schedule 1, page 6 (before line 1), before item 6, insert:

5A Section 140-20

Omit "before 1 June", substitute "before 1 December".

(4) Schedule 1, page 6 (after line 3), after item 6, insert:

6A Section 140-20

Omit "that 1 June", substitute "that 1 December".

(5) Schedule 1, page 7 (after line 26), after item 17, insert:

17A Application of amendments

The amendments made by this Part apply on and from 1 December 2025.

(6) Page 28 (after line 10), after Schedule 1, insert:

Schedule 1A — Maximum student contribution amounts for places

Part 1 — Main amendments

Higher Education Support Act 2003

1 Section 93-10

Omit "The maximum student contribution amount for a place", substitute "(1) Subject to subsection (2), the maximum student contribution amount for a place".

2 At the end of section 93-10

Add:

(2) The table in subsection (1) has effect in relation to a place in a unit of study included in the Society and Culture *funding cluster as if the amount specified for the cluster was instead the amount specified immediately before the amendments made by Schedule 2 to the Higher Education Support Amendment (Job-Ready Graduates and Supporting Regional and Remote Students) Act 2020 commenced.

Part 2 — Application provisions

3 Application provision

The amendments made by Part 1 of this Schedule apply in relation to a unit of study that has a *census date that is on or after the commencement of that Part (whether the unit of study is part of a course of study commenced before, on or after that day).

Mehreen Faruqi

The Greens will be supporting Senator Pocock's amendments to change the time of indexation, to start off with. We have to be clear that student debt, firstly, cannot be fixed, because student debt really shouldn't exist. Similarly, indexation cannot be fixed, because indexation shouldn't exist either. Nevertheless, there are ways in which the current system can be made fairer, and Senator David Pocock's amendments do try to make the system fairer. It makes no sense to charge indexation on a debt that has already been paid off. All repayments should be taken into account before a debt is subject to indexation. This amendment represents a change that can make some difference to the burden of student debt, and I really urge the government to support this amendment.

Similarly, the Greens support the undoing of the punitive fee hikes and funding cuts that the coalition brought in under the rightly much-maligned Job-ready Graduates scheme. These fee hikes were brought in by the Morrison government as part of this disastrous job-ready program. The Universities Accord has unequivocally called this program a failure and has called for its immediate remediation.

Labor should have undone and reversed these fee hikes that have now led to $50,000 arts degrees and are, again, piling more and more debt onto students and are actually making people rethink whether they should go to university or not. Labor should have done it immediately, as soon as they got into government, but they have waited for 2½ years, and they're still not doing it, so we need to support this amendment today.

I've said it before and I'll say again: this bill is such a missed opportunity when it comes to this urgently needed reversal of the Job-ready Graduates fee hikes, which really have drastically shifted the cost of delivering university education away from government, whose responsibility it is, and onto students. This amendment does represent a small step in the right direction, and the Greens will support it.

Anthony Chisholm

Thank you, Senator Lambie and Senator Faruqi, for your contributions. The government will not be supporting this amendment today. The Albanese government is taking action to provide significant relief to Australian students and workers with student debt. In this bill we're taking action to cut the cost of degrees through our changes to indexation. We've also announced that we'll cut 20 per cent off all student debts and that we'll raise the minimum repayment threshold so that repayments are lower and will kick in when you earn more. All up, this means that the Albanese Labor government will cut close to $20 billion from student loan debt for more than three million students.

As we've said before, the Universities Accord made a number of recommendations in relation to the HELP system, including changing the date on which indexation is applied. It also said that the former government's Job-ready Graduates scheme's changes had failed. We understand that there is more to do in regard to higher education. We've said from the beginning that we wouldn't be able to implement all parts of the accord's recommendations in one go, but we're making substantial progress with this bill tonight.

Sarah Henderson

I want to very briefly respond to the minister on those very politicised comments that he made. If he's saying that the Job-ready Graduates program failed, then he's basically deserting all the students studying teaching, nursing, maths, languages and engineering who had the cost of their degrees dramatically lowered as a result of the coalition's initiatives. In contrast to this government, which, of course, has now fuelled a national teacher workforce crisis, we took really strong action to encourage more students into these vital degrees. The fact that the minister is suggesting that this has failed is very concerning. I think that bells the cat, indicating that the government is planning to increase the cost of teaching, nursing, maths, engineering and the other degrees that we dramatically lowered.

I'm very suspicious, Minister, because, if you were serious about changing the Job-ready Graduates program, you would have done so by now. If the Australian people have the misfortune of seeing the government re-elected, I think the government will push this off till after the election. It's a very deceptive plan, and I am deeply concerned that the government's plan is to increase the cost of these degrees, which are so vital for so many thousands of young Australians.

Jacqui Lambie

I have to remind the government side over here that, when these guys on the coalition side put up the cost of those arts degrees, you went off like pork chops. As a matter of fact, I remember sitting here and hearing you say, 'Yes. We're going to take them back to where they were.' Quite frankly, you've done nothing. Maybe they're not doing the Job-ready Graduates stuff because they need to go into those arts programs to work out exactly what they want to do in their lives. So maybe you should lower them back down, instead of carrying on like pork chops, like you did before the last election, when this other side did it. You've had 2½ years to change that and reduce those arts degrees back to where they used to be. Then those kids can go and do those arts degrees at that age and work out exactly what they want to study. At least it would give them a touch of everything, and then they can determine where they want to go.

Quite frankly, carrying on like pork chops—and, God, you guys carried on! They were fried, those chops. Fair dinkum! Seriously! Goodness me!

Reduce those arts degrees back down, because, quite frankly, I think that's what determines where these kids want to go in life. You may want to relook at that and go back to that instead of carrying on and doing nothing about it when you are in government.

Anthony Chisholm

Thanks, Senator Lambie—always entertaining. As a proud arts graduate, I certainly do value the importance of those arts degrees. In terms of what I said before, we always said that the reform agenda of Universities Accord process—and it is substantial—is going to set the path in higher education for decades to come. We were upfront at the start that we wouldn't be able to implement every part of it straightaway. It was going to take time. We're making substantial progress with this bill today.

In regard to Senator Henderson's comment about 'deceptive', I think the only person being deceptive here is Senator Henderson, with a fear campaign about something that is non-existent.

Mehreen Faruqi

I do appreciate what Senator Lambie has said, because all the two major parties are doing is calling each other 'deceptive' while the students are suffering every single day. Stop playing these games. Labor, you are in government. You can do this. You know the Universities Accord process—and it was a good process—said that this change needed to be done urgently. What is stopping you? If you support this amendment you'll put students out of their misery—or at least some of their misery. You can start here right now.

Andrew Bragg

The question is that amendments (1) to (6) on sheet 3137 from Senator David Pocock, moved by Senator Lambie, be agreed to.

Summary

Date and time: 7:26 PM on 2024-11-26
Senator Pocock's vote: Abstained
Total number of "aye" votes: 15
Total number of "no" votes: 19
Total number of abstentions: 42
Related bill: Universities Accord (Student Support and Other Measures) Bill 2024

Adapted from information made available by theyvoteforyou.org.au