STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Dr RYAN (Kooyong) (13:33): Next year, an arts degree will cost $54,000 and a double degree over $90,000. For five years, the Job-ready Graduates scheme has doubled the cost of arts, law, business and commerce degrees, and in those five years students have also found themselves paying 40 per cent more for rent, 27 per cent more for groceries and 43 per cent more for fuel.

Behind those figures are real people from Kooyong. One constituent works part time as a social worker while studying for a master's degree. She was unexpectedly hit with a $5,000 bill for her HECS repayment and had to spend hours negotiating with the ATO.

She described it as one of the most deflating experiences that she has experienced as a low-income single parent. There's another Kooyong constituent who had repaid about half of his $11,000 HECS debt when he found himself with a serious illness. He was unable to make loan contributions and his debt ballooned to $22,600.

He says the HECS system is clearly broken. Australia's cost-of-living crisis is already hard enough, and we're giving young people a cost-of-learning crisis on top of it. We have to end the harmful Job-ready Graduates scheme and make education affordable again so that Australians have a shot at getting ahead instead of being punished for choosing to invest in their education.