Jason Clare
Blaxland · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“I thank the member for Kooyong for her question and for her passion in this area of higher education. Like me—like all members of parliament, I think—she understands the power of education to change lives.”
“I've said work on fixing it is unfinished business, and I have said—and you all know—that the Australian Tertiary Education Commission has also pointed out the work they're doing on the cost of teaching and learning that they will finalise next year. They are the facts.”
“I thank my friend the big-hearted member for Blair for his question. As he knows, tomorrow, every Australian worker will get a tax cut and three million Australians will get a pay rise, and that includes hundreds of thousands of childcare workers right across the country.”
“It's good for the workers because they get paid more, but it's also good for parents because the centres have got to cap their fees to get the money. For the average family with a child in child care, it'll save them about $1,500 over the next two years.”
“The reforms also include the legislation that we passed through this parliament last year, which means that if you don't meet the standards, you can have your funding cut. That wasn't an idle threat. I can tell the House that we've now issued notices against 115 centres.”
“These are the schools that do a lot of the heavy lifting, that play an outsized role in educating the most disadvantaged children in this country, the children who are the most likely to start behind or fall behind. The children who need our help the most.”
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“That involves issuing a formal notice to the provider requiring a response within 28 days. If the provider doesn't give a good explanation in that period, the secretary of my department will be able to cancel or suspend their approval. It's a process that permits providers an opportunity to engage with my department where they have a genuine commitment to improve. These powers will be used in close collaboration with states and territories, backing in their core role and responsibility in regulating quality and safety. It means the Commonwealth can use the power of the childcare subsidy funding to lift the standards of providers not doing the right thing—and ensure those that aren't up to scratch don't get access to Commonwealth funding.”
“Under these changes, the secretary of my department will be able to impose conditions on a provider's approval or to move immediately to a process to suspend or cancel that approval on the basis of safety and quality concerns. Where conditions are imposed, a provider must meet those conditions within a specified timeframe if they want to maintain their approval. This could include a condition that the provider comply with directions from their state regulator. It might require them to follow a quality improvement plan or hire a quality and safety expert to help them lift their standards. As I said a moment ago, the secretary of my department can also move immediately to a process to suspend or cancel a provider on the basis of quality and safety concerns.”
“It will give the secretary of my department the power to take into account a provider's quality, safety and compliance history when considering whether a provider should be approved to administer the childcare subsidy or whether they should continue to be approved, or if they should be approved to operate a new service. That has never been part of the childcare subsidy system since it started in 2018. It will be now. This change will tie a centre's eligibility to administer the childcare subsidy directly to their record on quality, safety and compliance. And it will allow the secretary of my department to cut off access to the childcare subsidy where standards are not being met. That might mean cutting funding to an existing provider or service or denying a provider the ability to expand until they have met the required standards.”
“Most centres meet the standards now, but not all. If state regulators think there is a real and imminent threat to safety they can shut a centre on the spot. And they do. Sometimes, though, they will identify problems in centres that can and need to be fixed. And sometimes those problems remain unfixed. This is where this legislation comes in. The real purpose of this legislation isn't to shut centres down but to raise standards up—to make sure that the safety and quality in childcare centres is what parents expect and what our children deserve. This is how it will work.”
“Funding is the big weapon that the Australian government has to wield here. Australian taxpayers are the biggest funders of childcare centres. We do that through the childcare subsidy—$16 billion a year. Centres can't operate without it. It covers about 70 per cent of the average cost of running a centre. It pays for things like wages and rent and electricity. This legislation gives us the power to suspend or cancel that funding if a centre is not meeting the quality, safety and other compliance requirements that are put in place by our national system of early childhood regulation. This is how that system works. The Education and Care Services National Law sets the standards we expect childcare centres to meet. State government regulators are responsible for rating centres and enforcing standards.”
“We have to do everything we can to ensure the safety of our children when they walk—or are carried—through the doors of an early childhood education and care service at centres across the country, big and small, but not just there, in family day care too, and in-home care and at outside school hours care. And this bill is part of that. In short, it will give us the power to cut off funding to childcare centres that aren't up to scratch when it comes to safety and to quality, services that don't meet the standard when it comes to safety and quality or where they are in breach of the law or are acting in a way that puts the safety of children at risk. This power will apply to all forms of early education and care that are eligible for the childcare subsidy: centre based care, family day care, in-home care and outside-school-hours care too.”
“I move: That this bill be now read a second time. In the last few weeks Australians right across the country have been shocked and sickened by the news in Victoria. A person arrested and charged with multiple heinous offences against children. Offences allegedly committed in childcare centres. The mums and dads of thousands of children are now dealing with the fear that their children could be hurt or are sick, and the trauma of getting them tested. This is a live investigation, and the matter remains before the courts. But I've been pretty blunt in the last few weeks. People have been arrested and convicted for offences like those alleged before. And governments of different colours, state and federal have taken action but not enough and not fast enough. That's the truth.”
“It's also what the agreements that we've signed with every state and territory to fix the funding of our public schools are all about and tying that funding to real reform to help kids who start behind or fall behind to catch up and keep up, and help more kids finish school and then go on to TAFE or to university. It also means making our childcare centres safer. And I'll introduce legislation to help do that in a few moments time. Once again, it is my privilege to make good on a promise that we made last year and that we repeated every single day of the election campaign in every seat across the country: to cut student debt by 20 per cent, to cut the debt of 3 million Australians, to take a weight off their back, to help with the cost of living and to help build Australia's future. I commend the bill to the House. Debate adjourned.”
“This is a chance for the opposition to admit that they got it wrong and that the Australian people got it right. Education is the most powerful cause for good. A good education changes lives. A good education system changes countries. It's changed ours. We have got a good education system in Australia today. But the truth is it can be better and it can be fairer. This bill is part of that, so is paid prac that started this month for teaching and nursing students, for midwifery students and social work students, so are the university study hubs that will open up in our outer suburbs and in our regions over the next few months, and so is the new needs based funding system for our universities that starts next year.”
“Like everything else, their immediate reaction was to attack this. I suspect they now rue that decision. They called it 'terrible'. They called it 'unfair'. In the electorates they represented, people saw something different. In electorates right across the country, where one in four voters have a student debt, they saw an opportunity to get a load off their back to make their life a bit easier. And they voted for it. As one anonymous National Party MP told the Daily Telegraph after the election, 'My kids are paying off a university debt and I reckon they voted Labor.' When even your own family won't vote for you, you know you've got it wrong. Now the opposition have a chance to get this right, not just by voting for it but by actually speaking in support of it.”
“It's a marginal collection, it's much gentler and much fairer than previously—we should have done it years ago. These are important reforms, that will help millions of Australians, now and into the future. It's why it is the first bill that we have introduced into the new parliament. As the Prime Minister said when he announced that we would cut student debt by 20 per cent and make these structural changes back in November of last year: It will help everyone with student debt now and deliver a better deal for students in the year ahead. Permanent structural reform to boost take-home pay for young Australians, putting more money back into pockets. It's good for cost of living, good for intergenerational equity and good for building Australia's future. Not surprisingly, the coalition immediately said that they would oppose this bill.”
“In other words, if you earn $70,000 a year, you'll have to repay $1,300 less a year than you currently have to. If you earn $80,000 a year, you'll have to repay $850 less a year than you currently have to. And if you earn $110,000 a year, you'll have to repay $700 less a year than you currently have to. You can still pay off more if you want to. But what this does is make the system fairer. It means you start paying off your uni degree when uni starts to pay off for you. It's a recommendation of the Universities Accord. And it's a recommendation of the architect of HECS, Professor Bruce Chapman. When we announced this reform to create a marginal repayment system, Professor Chapman said: This is the most important thing that's happened to the system in 35 years.”
“For someone earning 70 grand, it will reduce the minimum repayments they have to make by about $1,300 a year. That's real cost-of-living help—more money in your pocket, not the government's, when you really need it. This is an important structural reform. We're replacing the current repayment system with a new marginal repayment system. At the moment the amount that you pay off every year is based on your entire wage. That means once you earn above the current minimum repayment threshold of $54,435, you pay a percentage of your entire wage as a repayment. Under the changes in this bill, you will only pay a percentage of your wage above the minimum repayment threshold. So, for example, if you earn 70 grand at the moment you currently have to repay $1,750 each year. Under these changes you'll only have to pay about $450 a year.”
“This will make sure that you get the maximum benefit possible and that we honour our promise in full. And it will all happen automatically. The Australia Tax Office will process changes at their end. You won't have to do a thing. It'll take a bit of time for the Tax Office to do this work. But once this bill is passed the cut is guaranteed. This is a big deal for everyone with a student debt today—three million Australians. But it's not the only thing this bill does. It also makes important structural changes to the way the repayment system works to make it fairer and to help with the cost of living. This bill raises the minimum amount you have to earn before you have to start making repayments from about $54,000 today to $67,000. And it reduces the minimum repayments you have to make.”
“Most of those are young Australians just out of uni, just out of TAFE, just out of home and just getting started. They're trying to save to buy a home and thinking about starting a family. They're nurses, teachers, tradies, doctors, paramedics, engineers, architects, IT workers and AI experts. These are the Australians who will build Australia's future, who are already building it, and this will take a weight off their back. The average HELP debt today is about $27,600. When this legislation passes it will cut that debt by about $5,500. If you have got a debt of $50,000 today it will cut it by $10,000. All up it will cut student debt by over $16 billion. When this legislation passes your debt will be cut by 20 per cent, based on what it was on 1 June this year, before this year's indexation occurred.”
“I move: That this bill be now read a second time. It is a privilege to introduce the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill. As promised, this is the very first bill to be introduced to the Parliament after the election. And as promised, it cuts the student debt of three million Australians by 20 per cent. On 3 May Australians made their voices heard. They voted for the tax cuts that we are delivering. They voted for free TAFE that we are making permanent. They voted for us to build more homes. They voted for us to roll out more Medicare urgent care clinics. They voted for cheaper medicine. They voted for the biggest investment in Medicare ever, to make it easier to see a doctor for free than ever before. And they voted for this: cutting the student debt of three million Australians by 20 per cent.”
“Almost 26,000 people there will save, on average, $6,127. The Liberal Party are opposed to all of that. In fact, when we announced this policy, the shadow Treasurer said, 'There are no free lunches in economics.' Remember that? It turns out now that they are going to jack up your taxes to pay for free lunches for bosses. You have to think to yourself, 'How ordinary is that?' I know the opposition leader spent a lot of time checking out the All Ordinaries during the GFC. If he wants to see the All Ordinaries now, he just has to look behind him—because they are all ordinary!”
“The average saving there will be about $6,000. The member for Wentworth, I know, will be pleased to know that in her electorate 23,600 people will benefit. The average saving there will be about $6,600. In the member for Fowler's electorate, next door to mine, there are 23,000 people that will see their HECS debt cut. The saving there will be about $6,000. In the member for Curtin's electorate in WA, more than 22,000 people will benefit. The saving there will be around $5,800 on average. So, from Western Sydney to Western Australia, there are millions of Aussies who are going to save thousands of bucks. In fact, according to the Australian newspaper, in analysis not provided by me, the electorate with the highest ratio of HECS to average salary is Blaxland in Western Sydney—with a good local member!”
“I thank my friend the brilliant member for Bennelong for his question. The first thing that the Liberals will do if they win the next election is raise taxes for every Australian worker, and the first thing that Labor will do is cut student debt by 20 per cent for three million Australians. They want to jack up taxes; we want to lighten your load. For the average Australian with a student debt, this will lighten the load by more than $5,000. In the member for Brisbane's electorate, for example, there are 34,000 people who will benefit and save money. The average person there will save about $6,500. In the member for Griffith's electorate, there are 31,000 people who will benefit. The average person there will save $6,400. In the member for Ryan's electorate, there are 27,000 people who will benefit.”
“There's all the evidence you need that he'll cut and you'll lose—that he'll cut funding from our public schools and it's parents who will pay, it's children that will pay and it's every Australian that will have to pay—all for $600 billion worth of nuclear reactors.”
“If we're going to build Australia's future, if we're going to build the country of our imagination, then we need people to build it. This is about helping more young people finish high school and then go on to TAFE or to university to build the skills that they need for the jobs that exist today and will exist tomorrow. That's what this is about. This is what Labor governments do, and it's what Liberal governments always try to undo. Labor builds, and the Liberals cut. It's what they did last time; it's what they'll do again. The Leader of the Opposition said as much himself the other day when he said, 'You should look at what politicians do as much, or probably more, than what they say.' Well, there it is.”
“And it's bigger than that, because, as we all know, a good education can change lives but a good education system can change countries. It's changed ours. Under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating the number of children finishing high school jumped from 40 per cent to almost 80 per cent. That was nation changing. It created jobs and businesses that otherwise wouldn't have existed. When the Liberals were last in government, they ripped the guts out of public school funding—$30 billion worth—and we're still reaping the consequences of that today because since then the number of kids in public schools finishing high school has dropped from 83 per cent down to 73 per cent. This is what we have to turn around. It's what these agreements fundamentally are all about. This is real microeconomic reform.”
“I thank my friend, the best member for Bennelong we've ever had. Yesterday the Prime Minister signed an agreement with Premier Crisafulli to fully fund all public schools in Queensland. This is the last piece in the puzzle. This agreement means that now every public school in the country will be fully funded. No government has ever done this before. This is the biggest new investment in public education by an Australian government ever. It's worth an additional $16.5 billion over the next decade. It's not a blank cheque. This is tied to the biggest reforms to school education in decades—real and practical reforms designed to help children who fall behind when they're little to catch up and keep up and to help more young people finish high school.”
“If those opposite win, that won't happen either because they're opposed to that too. Here's the press release from the shadow Treasurer on 3 November, on the day that they said they're opposed to cutting student debt by 20 per cent. I promise you I'm not making this up. Their argument for opposing it is this: 'There are no free lunches in economics.' It turns out there are, but only for the bosses—a bit of vichyssoise on the taxpayer Visa card, a bit of taxpayer funded turducken. If you don't know what that is, that's a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey, which is the perfect analogy for this policy because I think most Australians will think it's stuffed.”
“And here's the kicker: the argument that they use is that we can't afford it. But apparently we can afford billions of dollars for bosses to have lunch on the taxpayer. There's the difference: a three-day guarantee for our kids under Labor, or a three-course guarantee for bosses under the Liberal Party. And this is not the only place where the difference is clear. We're fixing the funding of our schools, and we're tying that funding to the sorts of things that will help children who fall behind at school to catch up through things like free tutoring. If those opposite win, that all goes. Free tutoring will be replaced by free lunches—again leaving our kids worse off. If we win the election, we will also do something else. We will cut student debts of three million Australians by 20 per cent.”
“I thank my friend the brilliant member for Parramatta for his question. Just over an hour ago we passed laws through this place that will help more kids get a great start in life, that will help more kids get ready to start school. It will guarantee their mums and dads get access to three days a week of government supported early education and care. If you ever need an example of the difference between us and them, between the Labor Party and the Liberal Party, then this is it, because they voted against it. They voted against legislation to help some of the most disadvantaged kids in this country get the early education that they need to start school ready to learn. It's a real-life example of opening the doors of opportunity for our kids, and they voted to slam it shut.”
“It helps parents get back to work, but, even more importantly than that, it helps the next generation of Australians to prepare for school, to prepare for their life ahead. That's what makes this reform so important, and I am so happy to commend it to the House.”
“I also want to thank everyone who has called for this for years and years and years—groups like the Parenthood, whose CEO, Georgie Dent, called this 'a paradigm shift'; people like Ros Baxter, the CEO of Goodstart, who said, 'This will change lives'; Jay Weatherill at the Minderoo Foundation, who called this 'a momentous step'; the Centre for Policy Development, who said that this guarantee 'is a game-changer' and that it demonstrates 'a real dedication to delivering a universal system'; or the Business Council of Australia's Wendy Black, who said that they have 'long called for an early childhood education guarantee based on quality, universal access to give children a strong educational foundation'. This is important reform for an essential service for more than a million families across the country.”
“This is what Catherine said: This can be a game-changer for our babies. It will mean more children are developmentally ready for school, setting them up for a thriving future. It's just one part of the work we need do to close the gap, and I am so very proud that it's part of this bill. I want to thank the Prime Minister for his leadership in driving reform in this area, and I know how personally important it is to him to see these changes being made. I also want to thank my dear friend and colleague the Minister for Early Childhood Education, the awesome Anne Aly. I also want to thank our offices, and I want to thank our department for the work they have done in preparing this legislation. And I want to thank our early educators and our teachers, and I hope you see in this bill how this government values the important work you do.”
“As part of our commitment to closing the gap we are setting a target of ensuring that at least 55 per cent of Indigenous Australian children are developmentally on track. At the moment it's 34 per cent. That's a big gap. Not unsurprisingly, Indigenous children's attendance at early education and care is way below the national average, and the activity test is one of the reasons for this. That's why this bill increases the base entitlement to 100 hours for Indigenous children. It's a really important change—one that Indigenous families and communities have been calling for since the activity test was created. And we have listened. You only have to listen to the words of the CEO of SNAICC, Catherine Liddle, after the Prime Minister announced this policy to know how important this is.”
“As the Productivity Commission pointed out in its final report, at the moment it's children who need it most who are least likely to access early education and care. In 2021 only 54 per cent of children in the most disadvantaged areas were enrolled in early education and care, compared with 76 per cent of children in the highest socioeconomic areas. The most recent Early Development Census report found that only 42.7 per cent of children experiencing the highest level of socioeconomic disadvantage were on track when they started school, compared with 54.8 per cent of all children. That's what this is about: helping them, helping to make sure more children are ready to start school. This bill does something else, too.”
“Fundamentally this is about helping every child get a great start in life—what every parent wants for their children and what every child deserves—helping them to get ready to start school, helping to make sure they don't start school behind. That's what early education does. This is not babysitting; it's early education. The evidence is clear: children who get access to early education and care are more likely to start school ready to go, ready to learn. They're also more likely to finish school and then go on to more study. Former US president Joe Biden often made the point that a child who goes to preschool is 50 per cent more likely to go to college. At the moment, while lots of Australian children get the benefit of this life-changing opportunity, not all do.”
“It's still means tested, but it means that families will not be left out because parents are looking for work or preparing to go back to study. It means that over 100,000 families will be able to get more subsidised hours of early education and care. And it means real cost-of-living relief for 66,700 families in the first full financial year alone. Those families will save an average of $1,370 per year on their childcare costs. About half of those families earn less than $100,000 per year. Lower-income families will save even more: an average of $1,460 a year. This is going to make a real difference for a lot of young families. It will help with the cost of living but it will do more than that.”
“This is a real barrier that was purposefully put in place by the Liberal Party to limit access to early education for a lot of children—in particular, a lot of disadvantaged children and kids from poor families. It is deeply unfair. A test to determine if your child is worthy of accessing early education is one that no family should have to pass. The Productivity Commission report gives us a definition of what a universal early education and care system could and should look like. It says it's a system where every child can get access to affordable early education and care three days a week or 30 hours a week. This bill gets rid of the Liberals' activity test and replaces it with a guarantee of access to three days a week of government supported early education and care for every child who needs it.”
“I want to thank GrainGrowers, who said that this is positive step and that this fund will help expand and build new childhood education and care centres in areas of need. I want to thank the National Farmers Federation too for imploring the Liberals and the Nationals to match what we're doing. They get it. Unfortunately, the Liberal Party and National Party haven't heard them, because they don't support this. They've spent 2½ years in this parliament talking about childcare deserts. They spent a decade in government doing nothing about it. Now there is a $1 billion fund on the table that they could support, but they choose not to. It's unbelievable. The Productivity Commission also recommended something else that we need to do next. That's to get rid of the Liberals' activity test.”
“In February 2023, we asked the Productivity Commission to comprehensively review our early education system. We asked them to help build a blueprint for reform and tell us how we can build a truly universal early education system. We got their final report in June of last year. One of the things it says that we have to do if we want to build that universal early education system is build more centres where they don't exist, what are sometimes referred to as 'childcare deserts'. We're doing that. In December, the Prime Minister announced that, if we win the next election, the government will create a $1 billion Building Early Education Fund. This will be the single biggest ever investment by an Australian government in new childcare services. It will build or expand over 160 early education and care centres where they're needed most.”
“At their centres, across the country, job applications have now jumped by 35 per cent. Expressions of interest have jumped by 50 to 60 per cent, and vacancy rates are down by a massive 28 per cent. We're seeing that right across the country. Vacancy rates right across the sector are now down by 22 per cent. It turns out that, if you pay people more, more want to do the job. Early educators are some of the most important workers in this country and some of the most underpaid. They were leaving the job that they love, the job that we need them to, not because they didn't want to do it but because they couldn't afford to keep doing it. That 15 per cent pay increase is fixing that. The next step in making our early education system better and fairer is making sure that more children who currently can't get access to it get that chance.”
“That's helped a lot of parents get back to work and put more money in their pockets, and it's meant more children are now getting the benefits of our early education system. The number of children in our early education system is now about 100,000 more than it was when we were elected 2½ years ago. That's a good thing. There are also 1,000 more centres and more services. That's good, too. When we came to office 2½ years ago, something else was happening. The people who educate and care for our children were leaving the sector in droves. They were leaving the job that they loved. The attrition rate was through the roof. That's now changed, too. The reason for that is the 15 per cent pay rise that we're now rolling out. The best example of that is what's happening at Goodstart Early Learning, the biggest childcare operator in the country.”
“Ask any parent, and they'll tell you early education and care is an essential service. It helps them get back to work and helps their children get ready for school. Under the Liberals the cost went through the roof and the rules were tightened to make it harder for some children to get the start in life they deserve. We're fixing that. Over 10 years the cost of child care exploded by more than 49 per cent—double the OECD average—under Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison. We said we'd cut the cost of child care and we have, for more than one million families right across the country. As a result of the changes we made and passed through this parliament two years ago, a family on a joint income of about $120,000 has saved $2,768 since July 2023.”
“They'll get to see a bit more of their grandad. They're the kids who have suffered enough over the years. So, Bruce, on behalf of our whole local community, thank you so much for everything that you've done for us.”
“But Bankstown RSL gave him that. They encouraged him to get involved, and he took on the role of sports officer. That really gave him something that he needed, a sense of belonging, and he gave back big time. Over the years he has been a director, vice-chairman and, for the last 15 years, chairman of Bankstown RSL. If you know Bruce, you will know that he's not one for the spotlight, and if he had his way he'd be telling me to shut up right now. He certainly wouldn't want me talking about him in the Australian parliament. But, when someone gives as much as Bruce has, you have to stop and say thank you. Bruce stepping down is a big loss for the club, but it is a big win for his family: for his wife, Lyn; his daughter, Ashleigh, and son-in-law, Dave, and his four grandkids, Roy, Mabel, Paddie, and Lennox.”
“As chairman, he made sure that those ashes were put into the foundations of the new club so that these four blokes could still be with their mates. That's the sort of bloke that Bruce Pawley is. For 56 years, he's been serving our returning service men and women, their families and the wider Bankstown community, making sure that the club's not just a building but that it really is a home. But in March of this year an era comes to an end. Bruce is stepping down as chairman. Bruce was born in a little town called Boggabri in 1947. When he was 20 years old, he was called up to serve in Vietnam, and he spent just over a year there, in the 1st Australian Reinforcement Unit and the 4th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment. As was the case for so many other Vietnam veterans, coming home wasn't easy. Finding his place again was hard.”
“Bankstown RSL is almost 100 years old, and for more than half a century a bloke named Bruce Pawley has been at the heart of it, looking after veterans, their families and the local community. A few years ago, I was told a story about ashes under the flagpole at the old Bankstown RSL. It is a story that's stuck with me to this day. At the old club, under the flagpole near the bowling green, there were ashes of four veterans, blokes who loved the club so much that, when they passed away, they didn't want to be buried in a cemetery; they wanted to be buried at their club. They wanted to be where their mates had a drink. They wanted to be near their friends. When the new club was built a couple of years ago, Bruce made sure that they weren't left behind.”
“The only courses the Liberal Party care about are entree, main and dessert: a bit of gratis gravlax, a bit of subsidised spatchcock and maybe a bit of free flambe. That's their policy: taxpayers' money literally on fire—all courtesy of the Liberal Party of Australia.”
“As the Treasurer announced today, we're also working with regulators and the banks to help make sure that having a student debt doesn't stop you from buying a home, to make sure that you're treated fairly by the banks when you apply for a home loan. This is all part of building a better and fairer education system, to build Australia's future. That's what our education system does. It's what a good education does. It makes sure that no-one's held back and no-one's left behind. That's what Labor governments are all about. It's what we've always been about—helping to make sure that more kids finish school and can go on to TAFE or uni to do the course of their dreams. And there's the difference.”
“This year, if we win the election, we'll go further. If we win the election, Labor will cut another 20 per cent from all student debts. That means, for someone with an average debt today of 27 grand, they'll see $5,500 wiped off it. It will help them to pay it off faster, and that will help a lot of young people to be able to buy a home sooner. The Liberal Party want you to burn through your super to buy a house. They want you to cut into your retirement savings. We want to cut your debt. It's not the only thing we're doing. We're also reducing the amount of money that you have to repay in your student debt every year. That means more money in your pocket, not the government's, and helping people with the cost of living.”
“I thank my friend the phenomenal member for Fraser for his question. He knows that education is the most powerful cause for good in this country, that a good education can change lives and that a good education system can change countries. It's changed ours. But there's more to do to make our education system better and fairer than it is today. That's what the reforms that we're making are all about. Reforms to early education, to help more kids get ready for school; to school education, to help more kids finish school; and to TAFE and to university, to help more people get into the course that they want for the skills that they need to build the career of their dreams and to build the life of their dreams. As part of that, last year we cut $3 billion of student debt for more than three million Australians.”
“As the Treasurer said, it'll be Medicare, pensions, housing, veterans and this—cutting funding from our schools and cutting funding from our kids' futures. How cooked is that?”
“The difference here is that this is free, and it will save mums and dads a lot of money and provide their kids with the support they need to catch up, to keep up and to finish school—to help our children get the best possible start in life. It's what every mum and dad wants for their kids and what every child deserves. This is all about priorities—free tutoring for our kids under Labor, or free lunches for bosses under the Liberals—because if the Liberals win the next election all of this funding for free tutoring will be gone. They'll rip the money out just like they did last time. The Leader of the Opposition, old Tony Abbott 2.0 over there, says he'll cut, but he doesn't have the guts to say where he'll cut. You don't have to be Einstein to work it out. It'll be just like what they did last time.”
“That's what the agreements that we have now struck with Western Australia, with South Australia, with Victoria, with Tasmania, with the Northern Territory and with the ACT are all about, and we want to do the same with New South Wales and with Queensland. Together this is the biggest new investment in public education by an Australian government ever, and it's not a blank check. This is tied to real and practical reform—things like evidence based teaching; phonics checks and numeracy checks in year 1 to identify children who need additional help, and then making sure that they get that help through more individualised support like catch-up tutoring. A lot of parents spend a lot of money on tutoring.”