QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr CLARE (Blaxland—Minister for Education) (14:49): I thank my friend the magnificent member for Macnamara for his question. I know his mum and dad, Leanne and Phil, are up there in the gallery today, and they must be so very proud of him, as we all are. My mum and dad, Pam and Bob, are up there too.

I'm not sure if they're just as proud! On 3 May Australians made their voices heard. They voted for tax cuts, they voted for free TAFE, they voted for us to build more homes, they voted for us to roll out more urgent care clinics, they voted for cheaper medicine, they voted for us to freeze the excise on beer, and they voted for this: to cut student debt by 20 per cent.

They voted for it, and in just over a month they'll start to see it and to feel it. As I told the House the other day, next month the tax office will start to cut HECS debts right across the country. It will start in the middle of November.

More debts will be cut in December, and by Christmas most of the three million Australians who have a HECS debt will have it cut by 20 per cent. That's a time of year when a bit of good news goes a long way. And there is one person in this place that they can thank for that, and that is this prime minister.

He's not Santa Claus, but he's delivering—big time—for three million Australians. The average cut is about $5½ thousand. And it's not the only thing we're doing.

We're also cutting the amount of HECS that you have to repay every year. If you earn about 70 grand a year, we have reduced the amount you have to repay every year by about $1,300. That's about a hundred bucks a month.

That's real cost-of-living help, and it's already started; it started a couple of weeks ago. All this is going to help a lot of young Australians—just out of TAFE, just out of uni, just out of home, just getting started. It's why they voted for it in their millions.

As one National Party MP told the Daily Telegraph a few months ago, 'My kids are paying off a university debt, and I reckon they voted Labor.' They voted Labor, but there are still a lot opposite who think that this is 'grossly unfair'— Mr Chaffey: Who's paying for it? Mr Small: The Grinch! Mr CLARE: Well, like the grinch just opposite!

There are a few grinches opposite who are opposed to this— The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will pause. I don't want us to use that sort of language.

Mr CLARE: I withdraw. There are members opposite who are opposed to this, but the Australian people voted for it, and we are delivering it.