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representatives vote 2021-05-25#8
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2021-10-22 13:52:53
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Title
Bills — Higher Education Support Amendment (Extending the Student Loan Fee Exemption) Bill 2021; Second Reading- Higher Education Support Amendment (Extending the Student Loan Fee Exemption) Bill 2021 - Second Reading - Keep wording unchanged
Description
<p class="speaker">Graham Perrett</p><p>I speak today on the Higher Education Support Amendment (Extending the Student Loan Fee Exemption) Bill 2021, and I move:</p>-
- The majority voted in favour of a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/debates/?id=2021-05-25.118.1) to keep the usual second reading motion unchanged. The usual second reading motion is "*that the bill be [read a second time](https://peo.gov.au/understand-our-parliament/how-parliament-works/bills-and-laws/making-a-law-in-the-australian-parliament/)*," which is parliamentary jargon for agreeing with the main idea of the bill. Moreton MP [Graham Perrett](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/representatives/moreton/graham_perrett) (Labor) proposed to change it with the amendment below.
- ### Amendment text
- > *That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:*
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- > *"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes that the bill does nothing to address the crisis Australia's world-class universities are facing after the Government abandoned universities during the pandemic, resulting in:*
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- > *(1) thousands of jobs lost;*
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- > *(2) hundreds of courses cut; and*
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- > *(3) Australian students being loaded up with a lifetime of debt".*
<p class="italic">That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:</p><p class="italic">"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes that the bill does nothing to address the crisis Australia's world-class universities are facing after the Government abandoned universities during the pandemic, resulting in:</p><p class="italic">(1) thousands of jobs lost;</p><p class="italic">(2) hundreds of courses cut; and</p><p class="italic">(3) Australian students being loaded up with a lifetime of debt".</p><p>Labor supports this legislation before the House. This legislation extends the FEE-HELP loan fee exemption that was announced as part of the Higher Education Relief Package in April 2020. Students studying full-fee degrees at table A public universities and private higher education providers are currently able to access FEE-HELP loans to pay all or part of their tuition fees, but these loans come at a cost to students. Until recently, if you took out a FEE-HELP loan to pay for your undergraduate course, you had to pay a 25 per cent loan fee. The Job-Ready Graduates Package reduced the loan fee from 25 per cent to 20 per cent from 1 July this year. The Higher Education Relief Package included an exemption from the loan fee for units of study, with the census date between 1 April and 30 September. In September 2020 the loan fee exemption was extended through to 30 June this year. The legislation before the House extends the exemption again by a further six months, to New Year's Eve this year. Domestic undergraduate students studying at non-university higher education providers will benefit from this exemption by it reducing their financial burden. It is intended that this exemption will provide an incentive for those students who have been financially affected by COVID-19 to continue or commence studies in 2021, in turn supporting higher education providers. It is appropriate to continue exempting students from having to pay the 20 per cent loan fee to access a FEE-HELP loan at this time.</p><p>Labor supports this bill because it will reduce student debt levels. Of course it's good to reduce the amount of debt that students are accumulating. That will encourage more people to improve their skills through study and hence boost productivity—which, as we saw from the budget, has some serious issues—and more students studying will also assist higher education providers, who are struggling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this is just another in the laundry list of examples where this government has given private higher education providers much needed support throughout the pandemic while abandoning our wonderful public universities. This bill only reduces the debt for students studying with a private provider, while tens of thousands of students starting university this semester had their fees hiked. Many students have had to take on fees and debt at double the level they would have taken on prior to the government's job-ready graduates legislation.</p><p>This is a familiar pattern when it comes to the Morrison government. At the peak of the COVID pandemic, when universities were crying out for assistance, the Morrison government gave JobKeeper to private providers but changed the rules, three times, to exclude public universities. This has led to more than 17,000 jobs being lost and hundreds of courses being cut. We're talking about academics, tutors, admin staff, scientific assistants, lab assistants—everybody who keeps a university up and running. Seventeen thousand are now without jobs, all with families and bills to pay. Why is the Prime Minister not concerned that thousands of livelihoods have been destroyed and households bludgeoned because of his decisions, when he could have prevented this? If the Prime Minister really cared about jobs, he would be helping universities, not hurting them. If the Prime Minister really cared about families, he would have supported those families who were relying on universities to earn a living, instead of systematically targeting them—his very own culture-wars whipping boy.</p><p>Australian universities have really struggled during this pandemic. Last year they lost an estimated $3 billion, yet the budget had nothing meaningful for public universities. In fact, there was a 10 per cent real funding cut over the coming years, and emergency funding to keep researchers in their jobs was cut off, even though, as we all know, this health crisis is far from over. Instead, the Morrison government announced another $53 million for private providers for fee relief and short courses. We've had eight long years of this cruel, out-of-touch government—those opposite think a university education is good enough for their own kids but not for most Australians, and they're happy to sign students in every electorate across the country up to a lifetime of debt.</p><p>During the last parliamentary sitting period, the budget papers confirmed for the first time what the Morrison government has refused to admit—that the Liberals are saving money by jacking up uni fees. I don't want Australia to become like the United States of America, where kids have to take on a lifetime of debt merely to obtain an education. We're talking about our kids graduating from university with debts of around $60,000 for a basic degree, at the same time as they're trying to find work, maybe saving for a deposit for a house or thinking about starting a family. Late last year, I took the shadow education minister, the member for Sydney, to meet some graduating year 12 students in my electorate. We caught up with these students and had a good yarn. These students were very aware of the costs associated with their courses and what the increases would mean. Many of them were anxious. One of the students we met with talked about the fact that she had dreamed of pursuing a particular career but, sadly, had to change to a different course because she was worried about paying the increased fees. Her dreams were crushed by the Morrison government's policy.</p><p>People should never forget that government decisions have real-life consequences. I'm sure the aim of the coalition's policy was not to crush any student's dreams, but in this case that is exactly what was achieved and what I saw. The Morrison government's huge uni fees and huge uni debts will rob more Australian kids of the job of their dreams. The Morrison government is not setting Australian kids up for success. Instead, they're being loaded down with a lifetime of debt.</p><p>Labor will support this legislation before the chamber because it will reduce the amount of debt being accumulated for some students. But it is time for the Morrison government to stop the harm they're inflicting on people's lives and on our economy by abandoning the universities and research during this time of crisis and making it harder and more expensive for many students to go to university.</p> <p class="speaker">Trent Zimmerman</p><p>Is the amendment seconded?</p> <p class="speaker">Anne Aly</p><p>I second the amendment and reserve my right to speak.</p> <p class="speaker">Anne Webster</p><p>With the Higher Education Support Amendment (Extending the Student Loan Fee Exemption) Bill 2021, the government is extending the FEE-HELP loan fee exemption already in place by a further six months. The extension to the FEE-HELP loan fee exemption provides an incentive to students to commence and continue their study throughout 2021. The Australian government originally introduced a temporary exemption from the FEE-HELP loan fee due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This extension continues the government's support of students in higher education.</p><p>Higher education leads to increased skills, greater job opportunities, economic output and growth and a better quality of life. Higher education is something I engaged in later in life—actually beginning two degrees and a PhD when I turned 49.</p> <p class="speaker">Government Member</p><p>A government member interjecting—</p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>-
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