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

Senator WALSH (Victoria—Minister for Early Childhood Education and Minister for Youth) (12:13): Thanks, Senator Faruqi. The government will not be supporting this amendment. As I've said, the Labor government is currently responding to recommendations in the universities accord.

We're implementing 31 of the 47 recommendations in full or in part. This includes making the indexation of HELP debts fairer, providing cost-of-living relief for students, supporting people in the outer suburbs and regions to go to university and making structural reforms to our tertiary education system. The universities accord made a number of recommendations in relation to the HELP system, including changing the date that indexation is applied.

As the minister has said, the accord 'is not a plan for one budget but a blueprint for the next decade', to help us build a better and fairer education system. This bill wipes $16 billion from student debt and delivers important structural reforms to repayments which will benefit generations to come. The minister has said we'll keep working through the accord's recommendations and we'll take advice from the Australian Tertiary Education Commission.

The CHAIR: The question is that amendment (1) on sheet 3371 be agreed to.