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Billions slashed from student debt, HECS as Labor election promise passes parliament

Billions slashed from student debt, HECS as Labor election promise passes parliament

Herald Sun18 hours ago
Labor's key election promise to slash student debts by 20 per cent has passed parliament.
More than 3 million Australians are set to see their debt reduced, with the average debt of about $27,600 receiving about $5520 in relief.
The debts will be reduced automatically by the Australian Taxation Office over the coming months, with calculations backdated to the amount owed on June 1, 2025.
The Opposition benches were notably empty as the Bill passed parliament on Thursday morning, with Labor, Greens and crossbench senators, David Pocock, Tammy Tyrell, and Fatima Payman supporting the motion.
Education Minister Jason Clare said the promise was important to 'young Australians' who 'don't always see something for them on the ballot paper'.
However he urged patience with the ATO now required to 'write about 50,000 lines of code to implement' the policy and 'make sure that they get it right'.
'But this is now going to happen. It's guaranteed and it will be backdated to 1 June this year, before indexation happened,' he told reporters.
'We're doing that for a reason – to make sure that we honour the promise we made to the Australian people in full, that we would cut their student debt by 20 per cent and today the parliament has acted and I'm glad to see that they have.'
One Nation senators Malcolm Roberts, Warwick Stacey and Tyron Whitten opposed the Bill.
Standing up to speak after the Bill passed, Greens senator Sarah Hanson lashed the lack of Coalition presence in the Chamber, however was admonished by Senate president Sue Lines.
'I'd just like to draw attention to the state of the Opposition benches in the last 15 minutes. They seem to be invisible, missing,' said Senator Hanson-Young before she was cut off by Senator Lines.
In response, the President said: 'This is not a time for a statement. It's not appropriate for a quorum because there are senators in here and the practice in this place is that we don't comment on whether senators are in the chamber or not'.
Speaking broadly about Coalition co-operation, Mr Clare thanked Sussan Ley, and said 'this is a different Parliament and a different Opposition Leader'.
While the Coalition didn't directly support the legislation passing, they also didn't vote to overturn it, like it did on Labor's $5-a-week tax cut legislation, which passed just before Anthony Albanese called the May election.
'Australians, I think, want us to work together on the big things that matter to help Australians, and particularly on the childcare matter where it could have been very different,' he said.
'The decision of Susan and Jonno (Duniam), the Shadow Minister, to work constructively with us, I take my hat off to them. This is what Australians want of us.'
The Bill also contained measures which will increase the minimum income repayment threshold before Australians begin to pay back their student loans from $54,000 to $67,000.
Rates of repayments will also be lowered.
Originally published as Billions to be slashed from student debts, as Labor's key election promise passes parliament
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