STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Dr RYAN (Kooyong) (13:36): If you're one of the three million Australians with a HECS debt, the amount that you owe the government went up this week. Log into myGov and check. Every year, HECS debts increase with indexation on 1 June.

Here's the problem. Over the last 12 months, your employer withheld money from your salary to repay your HECS, but those repayments weren't deducted from your HECS balance before this year's indexation was applied. Actually, they won't be credited against your HECS balance until much later in the year.

When you pay off your mortgage or your credit card, the bank cannot charge you interest on repayments that you have already made; that would be illegal. But when the government does it, it's fine and normal. Parliamentary Budget Office analysis shows that moving the indexation date for HECS from 1 June to 1 November would save Australian graduates more than $3.2 billion over the next 10 years.

That is $3.2 billion in stealth tax that the government should not be charging you. That's why, later this month, I will introduce a private member's bill to correct unfair HECS debt indexation. If you, like me, want to fix HECS, go to my website and sign the petition.