QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr CLARE (Blaxland—Minister for Education) (15:07): Can I thank the member for Griffith for her question. She asked about student debt. This is an issue I know is dear to her heart.

There are 31,877 people in her electorate who have a student debt—I think that's almost the highest in the country—so the promise that we made at the election to cut student debt by 20 per cent means a lot to those 31,000 people in the electorate of Griffith but, more than that, to the three million Australians across the country. It was the first piece of legislation that we introduced and that we passed in this new parliament.

The average student debt today is about 27 grand. That means that, when this cut takes place, it will cut about $5½ thousand off that average student debt. But, for those 31,000-odd people in Griffith, it's even more.

The average student debt there is about 6½ grand, so that's a massive weight off their back. I can advise the House that the tax office tells us that they will start to do this from next month. The tax office will start cutting student debt from the second half of November, and it will continue in December.

You won't have to do anything to get it; you will simply get a text message from the ATO when it's done. We're doing that. We're also rolling out paid pracs.

This is, for the very first time, the Commonwealth government providing financial support for teaching students, for nursing students, for midwifery students and for social work students. We promised it, and we're delivering it. It's real cost-of-living help—real, practical help with the practical part of your university degree.

It started on 1 July, and already more than 50,000 people have applied to get it. We also promised to double the number of university study hubs right across the country—in the bush, in the regions and, for the very first time, in the outer suburbs, bringing university closer to where people live. Again, we promised it and we're delivering it.

I opened one in Strathpine in the member for Dickson's electorate in May; in June I opened one in Ellenbrook in the northern suburbs of Perth; in July a hub on King Island opened; a hub in Warwick, in the Leader of the National Party's electorate, opened in August, as did ones in Macquarie Fields, in Mount Druitt and in Broadmeadows; in September one opened in Moranbah; and in the next few months more will open on Kangaroo Island, in Kununurra, in Sorell in Tassie, and in Elizabeth in South Australia—and, Mr Speaker, also in the great suburb of Inala, a suburb that I know you know well, in the south-western suburbs of Brisbane.

So, whether it's cutting student debt, whether it's paid prac or whether it's more university study hubs, we promised it and we're delivering it. Mr Albanese: I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.