Doorstop - Parliament House

JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: This morning at 9am I'll introduce this legislation which will wipe $3 billion of student debt for more than 3 million Australians. 
Last year when there was a big spike in inflation and a big spike in HECS indexation that hit a lot of Australian students and a lot of Australians with student debt really hard. They felt it. They thought it was unfair and so did we. So, we've responded. We announced in the Budget that we would wipe more than $3 billion of student debt for more than 3 million Australians. And this is the legislation that will do the job. 

What it will do is mean that the indexation rates from last year based on CPI will be replaced with the Wage Price Index. It means that somebody with a student debt of, say, $26,000 will see their student debt drop by about $1,200 and somebody with a student debt of, say, $45,000 will see their student debt drop by about $2,000. 

That's one of the key recommendations in the Universities Accord. And this bill that I'll introduce at 9 this morning implements a number of other recommendations of the Universities Accord. One of those is paid prac. 

For the first time ever, the Commonwealth Government will provide financial support for teaching students, for nursing students, for midwifery students, and for social work students while they do their prac. It's been made clear to me by a lot of students that when you do your prac, it can often be very, very hard to pay the bills to do your part time job. Sometimes it means that you have to move out of home to another place to do that prac. It means that a number of students either have to delay their degree or never finish it at all. And this bill implements paid prac. 

The bill also does another thing. It will uncap funding for FEE-FREE university ready courses, those bridging courses between school and university that help people who aren't ready to start a university degree just yet to get the foundation skills that they need to start a degree and to succeed when they get there. The advice from my department is by doing this, we could potentially double the number of students doing these FEE-FREE courses over the course of the next 15 years. So, this is about building a better and a fairer education system. 

Two weeks ago, I announced an agreement with the Northern Territory Government to fully fund Northern Territory public schools. It'll mean the most underfunded public schools in the country will now be the best funded public schools in the country. 

Last week, with the Prime Minister, I announced a 15 per cent pay rise for our early educators to help make sure that we build the workforce we need to build a truly universal early education system. 

And today I'm introducing this legislation that'll help with the cost of degrees, with the cost of living and the cost of a lot of kids missing out on going to university altogether. And that's just the first step. There's more to come. Thanks very much.

JOURNALIST: There's bits of reluctance from the government to issue some legislation or bills when they haven't got bipartisan approval. Do you know if you'll have coalition support for this [indistinct]?

CLARE: Look, I would hope so, but you never know.

JOURNALIST: Peter Dutton's doubled down on his comments from yesterday, saying that the current ASIO checks aren't strong enough. Do you think there is a gap in Australia's national security when it comes to who's being let in and go?

CLARE: These are the same checks that existed under him when he was Home Affairs Minister. So, if he's saying that, he's saying that he thinks that the system that he was responsible for wasn't right, that's at the heart of that. 

Now, just remember what yesterday was all about. Yesterday was the day that our Olympic champions came home. It should have been about them, and he made it about him. 
This was a day where the whole country should have been able to come together to cheer on and thank our gold medallists, our silver medallists, our bronze medallists, everybody who put on the green and gold, and he made it about him. 

That shows you something about what lies in the heart of Peter Dutton. A prerequisite to be Prime Minister needs to be a desire to want to bring the country together at times like that, and every day. And what was exposed yesterday was a calculation by Peter Dutton that he could use that as an opportunity to try and divide the country at a time where we should be together. Every instinct in this bloke’s body, every calculation, is about how we can divide the country. It shows this bloke's not fit to run a bath, let alone Australia.

JOURNALIST: Is it the distinction without difference as well, if the gate is closed and there aren't any Gazans coming in from Gaza at this moment anyway?

CLARE: I made that point yesterday.

JOURNALIST: Just on this one about their support. [Indistinct] have you been in touch with the cross bench about their support for the legislation?

CLARE: We briefed the cross bench on the legislation this week, as we do every bill that we introduce into the Parliament. There have been a number of members of the crossbench that have campaigned for this reform, amongst them, Monique Ryan. And I'm confident that we'll have their support for this legislation.

JOURNALIST: So, confident even if you don't get support from the opposition, it’ll go through without a problem?

CLARE: This should be the sort of legislation that's supported by everyone in this building.

JOURNALIST: And just on university funding. Are you looking to do anything to repeal changes by the previous government that saw courses, especially like Arts courses, balloon in their fees?

CLARE: There's a recommendation on that in the Universities Accord. What I've said is that when we establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, that's something we would ask them to look at. As part of the first stage of our response to the Universities Accord, we've agreed to implement in full or in part 29 of the 47 recommendations in that report. This implements some of them. But there are other recommendations we're working on right now that includes the establishment of that tertiary education commission. We'll ask them to look at that.

JOURNALIST: Do you expect Peter Dutton will visit any of the people in electorates like yours that might have fled from Gaza?

CLARE: There is zero chance of that. Okay, thanks very much.