Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025

Senator WALSH (Victoria—Minister for Early Childhood Education and Minister for Youth) (11:51): Thank you, Senator Hanson. Your question goes to people with significant HECS debts, and it's important to know that those sorts of HECS debts that you've referred to can no longer be accrued. There are measures in place to stop that sort of debt from accruing.

In terms of the benefit of the bill to cut student debt by 20 per cent, it does apply across the board to the amount of debt that was in student accounts, or in those HECS accounts, on 1 June 2025, and 70 per cent of the benefit goes to people on really modest incomes of around $70,000 a year.