Latest news with #Jason Clare
The Independent
31-07-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Three million Australians have their student debt cut
Australia 's parliament has passed a law to cut student loans by 20 per cent, fulfilling a key election promise. This legislation will wipe more than A$16 billion in debt for three million Australians. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated that the measure aims to ease the rising cost of living and ensure education does not lead to a lifetime of debt. Education Minister Jason Clare highlighted that the law would 'take a weight' off young people, acknowledging the significant support from millennials and Generation Z. The changes, backdated from June 1, 2025, also include raising the minimum repayment threshold for student loans from an income of A$54,435 to A$67,000
ABC News
31-07-2025
- Business
- ABC News
HECS cuts have passed the Senate. Will they make university fairer?
Labor's pre-election pledge to cut student and apprentice loans by 20 per cent has now passed parliament, becoming the first piece of legislation enacted by the newly re-elected Albanese government. "We promised it and we've delivered," federal Education Minister Jason Clare told reporters on Thursday morning. The bill passed on Thursday also contains an increase in the repayment threshold, meaning a debtor can now earn up to $67,000 a year before the minimum repayment kicks in. Mr Clare said raising the threshold makes the system "fairer". The pledge to cut debts was evidently popular with many voters during the 2025 election campaign, and comes at a cost of about $16 billion. Student organisations, industry groups and independent politicians say there are other ways of spending that money to fix the tertiary sector. Here's what they're calling on the government to do. In 2021, the Morrison government changed the way university fees were structured through a program called Job-ready Graduates. The scheme aimed to use price signals to drive enrolment in courses in areas of skills shortages like nursing, mathematics and agriculture. Course fees for those subjects fell, while the cost of courses in history, law and media increased. Analysis from the University of Melbourne in 2023 found that the program was having a minimal impact on student enrolments, with less than 2 per cent of students choosing to enrol in a course they otherwise wouldn't have because of the scheme. "The Job-ready Graduates package is holding Australia back. It's time to replace it with a system that actually supports our future workforce," head of Universities Australia Luke Sheehy told triple j hack. Even the Coalition's spokesperson for education, Jonno Duniam, acknowledged that it should be scrapped. "The point has been made that the program isn't working. If a program isn't working, whether it be ideology or otherwise, there's no point sticking to it," Mr Duniam told triple j hack. The Greens and independent MP Monique Ryan wanted amendments to the bill to cut HECS and HELP loans that would immediately end the "unfair" Job-ready Graduate program. "Labor should have dumped Morrison's Job-ready Graduates fee hikes the second they came into power. The scheme is a cruel, punitive mess that does nothing except punish students with high fees," Greens education spokesperson Mehreen Faruqi said. The government would need to legislate to change the existing fee structure, but any such bill would have the support of the Greens and other key crossbenchers, like independent ACT senator David Pocock. The Universities Accord, a broad-ranging review of the higher education system, found that Australia would need 80 per cent of its workforce to have a tertiary qualification by 2050 to be globally competitive. To achieve that goal, the proportion of disadvantaged students with a qualification will need to drastically increase. Of the entire student population in 2023, just 2.2 per cent were First Nations, 12 per cent had a disability, 15 per cent were from low socio-economic backgrounds, and 18 per cent were from rural and regional areas, according to figures from Universities Australia. The Accord recommended implementing a needs-based funding model for universities like the Gonski funding model used in schools, which allocates more funding to schools with a greater number of students who have higher needs. The government has set up the interim Australian Tertiary Education Commission to work out the new funding model, and has pointed to the work underway by this body as a reason why it won't immediately scrap the Job-ready Graduate program. But Ms Ryan said the government shouldn't wait for the new funding model to scrap Job-ready Graduates. "The Australian Tertiary Education Commission won't be functional till 2026, and is not going to be able to change university fees till 2027. We have young people studying arts and law degrees this year, spending more than $22,000 a year on those courses," she said. "They should have been doing the work to get a new model in place over the last three years. What have they been doing on Job-ready Graduates for the last three years? There's urgency here," Senator Pocock said. Last year, the government introduced changes to the way student loans were indexed. Indexation refers to the way existing debts are calculated to consider fluctuations in inflation, year on year. The changes would see indexation based on either the consumer price index, which calculates inflation, or the wage price index, whichever is lower. But student groups, the Greens, independents and the Coalition say that shouldn't be the end of it. They want more change in this space. Independents like Ms Ryan and Senator Pocock want the government to change the timing at which indexation is applied. Currently, HECS-HELP debts are deducted from a debtor's pay cheque, but the overall amount owed doesn't decrease until after the debtor has filed their tax return. Debts are indexed annually on June 1, before tax returns are lodged, which means the amount indexed and added to the debt does not reflect the amount owed. Former shadow education minister Sarah Henderson said the government should cap indexation at 3 per cent. "Australians with a student loan or those planning to undertake tertiary studies should not be blindsided by high indexation driven by high inflation, as has occurred under Labor over the past three years," Senator Henderson said. The National Union of Students wants debts to be frozen during periods of high inflation. "It is outrageous that during a cost-of-living crisis, the Australian government would profit billions of dollars off of student debt," former NUS president Bailey Riley told a Senate inquiry. The Greens also want to scrap indexation altogether. "Unless indexation is removed, students will be in this hamster wheel, always chasing their debts, which keep getting bigger and bigger," Senator Faruqi said. From July this year, students undertaking compulsory work placements as part of a nursing, teaching, social work or midwifery course will be paid to undertake those placements. But the government is under increasing pressure to extend the payments beyond the four existing courses to other allied health and medical courses. "It really is odd to exclude our medical students from the same financial help other students receive while expecting them to undertake practical placements, often in rural, regional and remote areas," the president of the Australian Medical Association, Danielle McMullen, said. "Psychologists are only meeting 35 per cent of the federal government's psychology workforce goal, and exclusion from the paid placement scheme will entrench this shortage," head of the Australian Association of Psychologists Tegan Carrison said. Occupational therapy student Arabella Hely told triple j hack that allied health students are dropping out because they can't afford to live without income during their compulsory placements. "I know I've had to drop down to part-time study to be able to support myself. So many people are dropping to part-time study or deferring completely."
ABC News
28-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Migration program numbers yet to be announced
JACOB GREBER, POLITICAL EDITOR: It's just a week into the new parliament but every sitting day it becomes more apparent how much has changed. The government struggling to keep a lid on its hubris - at times failing. JASON CLARE, EDUCATION MINISTER: Thank you for your focus on education and your focus on fairness and also thank-you for your support for the legislation to cut student debt by 20 per cent. 20 per cent is a big cut. It's not as big as 33 per cent, that's how much the Australian people cut the number of Liberal MPs in the chamber at the election. JACOB GREBER: And the opposition is still stuck in the last war. With old stagers like Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack attempting to seize the limelight - leading the Coalition onto slippery ground with demands to end net zero. MICHAEL MCCORMACK, NATIONALS MP: I know we're not in government. Chris Bowen might have a mandate to govern Australia along with Labor, but they don't have a mandate to ruin regional Australia. MATT KEAN, CHAIR, CLIMATE CHANGE AUTHORITY: Political stunts are no substitute for real policies and what you are seeing today is a political stunt. JACOB GREBER: The former NSW treasurer and Liberal Matt Kean voicing the views of moderate Coalition MPs unwilling to give up on strong climate policy. MATT KEAN: Those arguing against this transition are actually arguing for higher electricity prices for the mums and dads and businesses of Australia. They're arguing for less investment in this country, they're arguing for less jobs and a less prosperous future. JACOB GREBER: Labor is having no end of fun over the Coalition's troubled union. CHRIS BOWEN, CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY MINISTER: Appointing Senator Canavan to review net zero is a bit like putting Coldplay in control of kiss cam. It doesn't necessarily lead to a happy marriage. JACOB GREBER: Bad gags aside, the Coalition's impotence is a double-edged sword giving the government enormous latitude but it also risks triggering over-confidence. Such as in immigration, which was one of the biggest fights of the election. PATRICIA KARVELAS: Do you concede they got a bit too high? ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: I'll make this point, there were only two times that more than nine million visas were issued in any one year in Australia. Both times Peter Dutton was the minister. JACOB GREBER: Largely lost in that political debate is the fact that the government still hasn't announced a skilled migration quota for this financial year. ABUL RIZVI, FMR DEPUTY SECRETARY, DEPT OF IMMIGRATION: The migration program numbers are usually announced with the budget, because the immigration program affects both the revenue side of the budget, as well as the expenses side of the budget. This year, in the March budget, they weren't announced. JACOB GREBER: While the budget was early this year, the lack of detail since from the government is highly unusual. ABUL RIZVI: I cannot remember a year when the government did not announce the migration program before the migration program year started. JACOB GREBER: Abul Rizvi is a former senior immigration department official. He says the wave of students and working holidaymakers that have flooded in after the pandemic are now applying for permanent migration leaving Labor with difficult choices between raising overall immigration or capping partner visa numbers, including for Australian citizens who marry foreigners. ABUL RIZVI: If they did manage the partner visas on a demand driven basis and left the skill stream more or less as it is at the moment, they would be looking at a migration program over around 230,000, 240,000 for the next couple of years. That would be the highest migration program in our history, by a long, long way. JACOB GREBER: Another option is to cannibalise the skilled migration program to make way for the backlog which business fears would worsen workforce shortages across government priorities like housing, healthcare and clean energy. INNES WILLOX, AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP: If the government were to do that, it would be a disaster. It would be a disaster for the economy as a whole. It would be a disaster for business. JACOB GREBER: A spokesman for Immigration Minister Tony Burke told 7:30 the government is 'managing applications in line with the level from the previous year and will have more to announce'. INNES WILLOX: We would hope that the government is able to provide some clarity sooner rather than later around how the program will work this year. JACOB GREBER: Labor's obfuscation has consequences for states as well who are still awaiting their annual migration quotas. Next month the Productivity Commission will release a report on workforce skills in time for Jim Chalmers' reform roundtable including questions about how employers access talent overseas. INNES WILLOX: You'd have to expect that we will need to bring in some labour if we're to achieve the targets of the government set of building 1.2 million houses. We're not on track to do that. JACOB GREBER: Whether it's on challenging issues of housing, immigration or the budget, Labor is benefiting from a lack of heavy scrutiny. With a few notable exceptions such as the government's campaign claim that visits to GPs will be free for most people by the end of the decade. MELISSA MCINTOSH, LIBERAL MP: Isn't it the case that Australians both need both their Medicare card and their credit card to get the healthcare they need under Labor JACOB GREBER: The fact is, the toughest political pressure is not coming from the opposition but from within Labor and the crossbench particularly on Gaza. SOPHIE SCAMPS, INDEPENDENT MP: When will Australia be prepared to recognise Palestine as a state? ANTHONY ALBANESE: I share the distress that people around the world would feel when they look at young Mohammed, one-year old. He is not a threat to the state of Israel nor is he someone who can be seen to be a fighter for Hamas. JACOB GREBER: Despite increasing pressure, the Prime Minister is not yet willing to recognise Palestine. ANTHONY ALBANESE: The timing of a decision to recognise the state of Palestine will be determined by whether that decision advances the realisation of that objective. It must be more than a gesture. JACOB GREBER: With France moving towards recognition and other leaders like Keir Starmer in the UK facing internal pressure to act, the Prime Minister may just be waiting for the right time. With an opposition struggling to put the political heat on the government, the only real political pressure the Prime Minister is facing is from the crossbench and within his own side especially on Gaza. Political editor Jacob Greber with more.
