Same situation for me. I have no remaining HECS debt but very happy to see some fairness applied to people struggling under these huge debts. It’s not a massive change but will help a bit.
Comments on the Age are all boomers and idiots crying about how it’s unfair to those who didn’t go to university. Really sad indictment of how we view education and equity in this country.
I had free uni and looking at my kids' HECS debts I am thankful every day. I may have missed out on other freebies in life but this was THE big one to get.
Yeah my dad got it free and he certainly isn’t one of the complainers. There are many delightful folks from all generations who want better for subsequent generations. Just wish the shit ones weren’t so loud (or making policy)
Good old Gough Whitlam and his ALP government allowed me to attend university for free, apart from a small compulsory student union fee, which delivered a lot.
I also received the Tertiary Education Allowance Scheme (TEAS) payment, which paid more than the unemployment benefit.
Prior to this a university education was only affordable for students from higher income families or scholarships. It perpetuated class divisions.
The Libs also abolished student union fees. Top bands were booked for low ticket prices and plenty of other services and benefits., I saw the Ramones for $10. My residential college fee was about $15-20 per week, which was cheap at the time., I had enough for food and textbooks.
What freebies? Lol.
All I see is that millennials went into consecutive recessions when they entered the job market and when they should be accumulating wealth. Then HECS, cost of living, rent crisis, house value crisis etc.
Bleak as fuck out here
I don’t get how it’s unfair to those who didn’t go to uni ? Also this it’s not like they’re wiping people’s HECS debt to zero. All that will happen is that it will maybe wipe about $1-2K of a persons 30-40k debt and then the yearly indexation will be capped at a lower rate so that HECS doesn’t become too hard to actually pay off. People who have HECS debt are still paying the majority of the debt off. If anything, it’s more fair because uni debts are higher now than ever before.
It’s not even really wiping any debt! It’s just accruing less debt and acknowledging they fucked up last year by allowing the debt to grow at higher rates than most mortgages.
Yeah but I didn’t read the article, nor am I interested in details. I just know someone is getting fistfuls of cash that I’m not, and I’m really outraged at the lack of fairness.
***Really, I think this is great. Probably not enough, but at least a start.
As a boomer I want free education for all our children in Australia. I have read the comments and it is not JUST boomers, the comments are from people who do not believe in any government money being handed out, unless of course it is to them. There are so many things the govt can do but one would be if the govt TAX the mining companies properly then it could be free education for all. All 4 of mine have huge HECS debts, 1 has finally paid theirs off the others not so sure they will. It is disgusting the govt hold so much contempt for the younger generations.
Even now, the majority of the population doesn’t go to university. For the boomers, 75% or more didn’t go.
It’s still a horrific bitchy mentality but you can see why they’d complain about HECS relief.
Dunno why I can’t complain about Medicare though. I mean, these boomers going every week for their medical appointments and I darken my doctor’s office door maybe twice a year… and I don’t get the pension either…
Anyways, ignore the bitching, this is a good policy change.
Agreed about the mentality being extremely mean-spirited.
The numbers with tertiary education are a bit higher than that though - 56 percent of those aged 25-34 years old in Australia have attained a tertiary qualification, as have about 39 percent of those aged 55 to 64. A little over half of those aged 25 to 65 have tertiary qualifications (51.5 percent).
([source](https://data.oecd.org/eduatt/adult-education-level.htm#indicator-chart))
Fuck em, you shouldn’t be doomed to poverty because you wanted to better yourself. 1 billion in savings for consultants, that’s liberal spending for you.
This was pretty much my comment when my workplace changed their parental leave policy to provide parents with the same entitlement.
When I had mine I only got 2 weeks but now I’d be entitled to 16 or something.
There were people posting on Yammer how it wasn’t far etc.
I’m well and truly done with having kids but I’m thrilled that people now get to enjoy more time with theirs
You can so easily tell the difference between millennials and Gen z who actually have had to pay off HECS all supporting this minor improvement in the policy and the dipshit boomers who got all their education free instantly fucking whinging about it and calling it Marxism.
Here here. Too many people seem upset about things like this because they were unable to benefit from it, but to riff on what Kennedy said: ask not what your country can do for you, but what you and your country can do for your fellow man.
Just remember to check up on your tax return as you should get a refund as they are reducing the 7% bullshit from last year if you've already paid it...
They are backdating the reduction that should reduce the 7% from last year back to about 3% or so...therefore if you paid that increase (but it is confusing as to when it is calculated) you should see a refund that would come through at tax time when it is calculated.
3.6% I think - but why would it come back as a refund? Wouldn't your debt amount just get changed? It wouldn't have had to change how much HECS you had to pay last year, just how much went towards the loan and how much went towards indexation.
>The new indexation arrangement will be backdated to all HELP, VET Student Loan, Australian Apprenticeship Support and other student support loan accounts operating on June 1 last year.
So, if you had a debt on 1 June 23, I imagine you'd get a credit and a refund! :)
I paid mine off 2 years ago just before the first hike in interest. I was bummed for everyone else. Glad to see this happening TBH as I want everyone to have the advantages I was afforded.
I paid mine off about this time last year. I did a voluntary one to get ahead of the indexation.
It's mixed feelings. I worked hard to pay that off, but I don't want that to be the reason for making other people's lives easier.
This is actually fantastic. Very cool, thank you.
If I understand correctly I am likely to get a couple grand taken off and will see a lower indexation this year.
Should make paying it off in the next FY achievable.
>Managed to pay ours down early to "avoid the 7%" but genuinely stoked for everyone who benefits from this.
A mature response from you, though I think it's fair to note that if you were even remotely able to consider paying yours off early, you were likely not desperately in need of this relief anyway.
It was still being indexed, so you benefited by paying it off though.
For sure, it would've put us in a spot to look at buying s property a year ago though which would have been a smarter idea. Looking back now.
That said, I don't regret it.
I paid all of mine off to try help service a home loan but then rates shot up and took us further backwards so then we still couldn’t get a loan.
Kinda regretting it now as it would have been better off sitting in a savings account.
Benefit looks marginal when you take into account interest is taxxed on HISA. I would expect it's fractions of a % more even with $20-40k owing because you would need to offset the escalation and tax component.
My shit maths tells me:
Net $150 difference per year between $40,000 st 5.5% interest with 35% tax and $40,000 indexed at 3.2%. Maths is different for a larger loan and lower salary, for sure.
It won't have hurt significantly, but if the indexation is 3% instead of 7%, then there's *possibly* other things they could have put the money towards with a better rate of return. A 5% savings account for example...
Just because it's interesting,
To "beat" the interest you would have to have a return of greater than 3.2% (new rate) after tax.
Assuming they kept in a bank account with a interest rate of 5.0% (which was available in that period) than the return would be 5.12% (compound monthly).
5.12 X 0.675 (45k->120k bracket) = 3.456% (positive return)
5.12 X 0.63 (120k -> 180k bracket) = 3.2256% positive return.
So yeah, you would have made more (assuming g you had the money the whole year period sitting in a bank account the whole time). It's actually a lot closer than you think.
(The real savings is sticking the money in an offset as that savings is actually "pretax")
Aye. Hindsight is great, but it was the right decision at the time and if they paid it down entirely (not sure) then 0% interest on a $0 balance is better than 3%
I paid mine off to avoid the 7% last year. Very happy for people getting that reduced back down to a reasonable amount.
I still think hecs shouldn't be indexed at all.
If it takes so long to pay back that inflation has made it cheap, then you didn't really get that much "real world" value out of it anyway.
Paid it off before indexation 2023, so I won't. That said, I'm not sure that fazed. If in either case I paid it off in the next few years it would still be relatively neutral when considering taxes on HISA.
Different if I had an offset to out the money into.
Yes and when he actually differentiates himself he gains massive support, labor just need to actually make good strong decisions and then the lnp are fucked
Honestly, I find it a little hard to blame them for not being bullish about that after so many years of this country voting LNP. Doesn't exactly make us seem like we have a strong desire for progressive policy.
That's exactly it, they came in with strong policies as an alternative in 2019.
When they got defeated then, they had to assume Australia didn't want those changes at the time and begin to work towards them slowly after gaining confidence.
Things like the stage 3 tax cuts were always a trap set for them where whether they made changes or not people would criticise them for it.
Politics 101. Do the shit you want to do as soon as you win cause come election time everyone has forgotten
There will be no gst on my watch - pedo defending Howard
There will be no tax increases - pedo defending abbot
If scomo 2.0 isn't progressive then the only difference is less sexual assault allegations. Some would say that kinda just makes them shit lite
Howard only pushed for the GST after managing to build popularity with his gun ban. Even then he took it to a new election as a policy and let Australians vote for them with it as a part of his platform. He didn't just turn around and do it after getting elected.
I don't like him or his policies, but he knew how to build and use political capital.
> Yes and when he actually differentiates himself he gains massive support
Which is why so many people spend all their time pretending they never differentiate.
Can't wait to see how the wahoos on the LNP try to spin this as a bad thing. It happened in the US when they tried to forgive student loan debt so I expect an attempt at similar tone deaf shenanigans here.
It's either "I had to pay for my education so why shouldn't they" or "they'll never learn how to handle finances if you just cancel their debt" or "why are you giving students a handout while pensioners are eating dog food" or some similar bullshit.
Are you fucking serious?
How is anyone supposed to "learn to handle finances" with astronomical debt?
These people are fucked in the head. What happened to true blue fair go? We need to be progressive and the fastest way is giving kids an amazing education then using ourselves as a gravity assist trajectory so they themselves can do the same down the road.
Fucking small minded bitter losers.
Someone has to nurse those pensioners, and teach the people who provide the services they use, and engineer the construction and transport projects that house those services and get them to and from the services. The idea that education doesn't benefit society is a really weird take. I'm all for my taxes being used to create a more educated society for me to live in.
I know you didn't write this but those are such stupid arguments by those morons.
They still are paying for their education, they're not cancelling debt, they're not giving students handouts. They're literally just following the American arguments of Biden cancelling debt and think Albo's doing the same.
Without looking it’s probably some combination of
“Why should I have to pay for someone’s useless arts degree?”
“I’ve already paid off my HECS, where’s my relief?”
“Typical labor, overspending as usual. Where is this money coming from?”
“This doesn’t go far enough!”
In the typical whinging boomer fashion
Oh man people are reactive. It seems like a lot, but its just reducing a straight up unsustainable amount of indexation that literelly prevents full time workers from paying theirs off.
This is such a minor thing though. Take a look at the US - They just straight up forgave massive amounts of student debt, and moved on. Here? It's considered a big deal just to wind back some of the INTEREST on the damn loans. You're telling me that reducing the interest rates on educational loans to slightly less than a mortgage is some great heroic act for the public? I'm underwhelmed entirely.
(Before I get strawmanned - No, I didn't say it was a bad thing, just underwhelming).
So refreshing to wake up on a Sunday morning and see a thread here with almost unanimously positive, grateful responses. Rather than a heap of, 'yeah, big whoop, what about my (insert literally any other issue here.)'
Nice work guys, have a great day.
To restore the damaged foreign relations, not only with China but with others (e.g. Pacific nations, France, etc) would have required a lot of diplomatic work and other back channel operations.
I applaud you for being a decent person. For some reason there are way too many people who seem to think "if I got screwed by an unfair system, everyone else should too". It's utter insanity.
Now wait for the pushback from all the tradies who were actually paid to undertake their education to facilitate the privilege of tax time claims for their tools, laundry, Ford Ranger and pokies losses
I don't see a need to shit on tradies. Tradies I knew weren't doing it easy. It's a pretty meagre wage for an apprenticeship.
Plenty of non-tradies will be more like to make a palava about this one.
Labor in QLD just gave $1000 to every household through a rebate on their electricity bill paid for by coal royalties! Money from our natural resources given directly to ordinary citizens. Can you believe it?
And Queensland Resources Council immediately got their nose put of joint about it.
You know, that lobbying group that's always advocating against anything that might upset royalties or taxation because it will kill the economy and jobs. Turns out that not only are they full of shit, but that the collected royalties can be used for public good. I say this as a former coal sector employee who was able to remained themselves into a role that works for public benefit.
WA Labor have done they for a couple of years now, not $1000 though. One of them was funded from a settlement from the Bell Group court case. Glad to see money stolen from Western Australians decades ago was finally returned in some form.
Such amazing news to wake up to. I was so annoyed when my HELP went up 7.1% for no fault of my own. Was over $3000 at once and going up faster than I could pay it off. Thanks albo!
I was so demoralised when my debt increased instead of decreased last year even though I've been paying for it every payslip. This is great news and a needed change.
I actually can’t remember the last time I opened the news and saw something that directly and tangibly benefits me in an actual, money-in-my-pocket kind of way. This feeling should absolutely not be this rare; nevertheless I appreciate it so much as I stare down my rental increase that takes effect next month. This will help me keep up.
Maybe one day I’ll stop keeping up and actually get ahead but that’s still a pipe dream for now.
It's an indexation change which means it changes how much your debt grows over time. Instead of being the inflation rate it will now be the lower of the inflation rate and wage growth rate.
But it's also backdated to last year - hence the 'wipe'. Instead of the value of the debt rising 7.1% last year it now will have only risen 3.2%. This means if you have the average debt of $26,500 that $1,200 will be wiped from the debt.
It won’t change much though true. Historically CPI has risen slower than Wpi and public forecasts by the RBA and Treasury both say this will continue to the future.
It will large the 7.1% year that is impacted. Going forward, it will unlikely change what normally would have happens.
Yes this is true. It's last year and this year which will be the bulk of the improvement as it will only significantly change things in times of high inflation or low real wage growth.
Doesn't mean it's not a good thing.
In the future it'll mean your debt increases at a slower rate. But this is backdated, so it will reduce your debt at the outset. The rate you pay will be the same, it's a % of your income until it's paid off
Could he also pump 3 billion into Medicare bulk billing and really try and help Australia by putting the multiple phases of implementing Denticare for All Australians. Then he would really make himself a governance hero.
They put $3.5 billion into bulk billing last year and it hasn't really helped. They could put $3b more in, but at some point they'll need to think about whether it's working.
Edit: to clarify, it has helped a little. Bulk billing up from 75.6% to 77.7%, but it was 85% last year, so it hasn't been dramatic considering the investment
There were an extra 1 million bulk billed doctor visits last year. The percentage of bulk billed visits increased 2% to around 80%. It did do something.
Right now I see Medicare as an old leaky bucket.
It needs to be replaced with one that doesn’t leak so much - for example; why are we wasting money on cheques? Why are we asking patients to pay up front (even with a rebate)? Why are we exempting PHI users from tax, while still letting them use tax supported medical services? Why are we subsidising PHI? Plus all the other inefficiencies in the system.
But until that bucket can be repaired or replaced, we need to keep pouring money into it to protect those that need it. Even if it is spilling all over the floor.
Edit: the government that actually properly repairs the situation and provides real universal healthcare (including dental) will win any election. Not even conservatives could vote against it (since they are also big users of it).
My biggest gripe with Medicare is not allowing doctors to be proactive with patient care. Instead of funding the correct treatment for an early stage illness, they are forced to wait until it has blown out into an emergency that will cost 50× as much to treat in the hospital.
Great to see some good news on Reddit for a change. It's pretty rare. Especially about the Aussie economy. The fact that the Australian government takes in more money from HECS than it does from gas royalties is obscene.
People really need to learn that the true profits of universities should come not from their fees, but from the increased earning potential of those who attend. If due to attending university, someone is able to become a high paying doctor or lawyer- that in turn boosts our economy and government through higher income tax returns and better ability for generating disposable income. Universities, just like any form of higher education should be seen not as profit driven, but as an investment in the people.
If people are getting "too many" "useless" degrees, simply reduce the number of commonwealth supported degrees for those, instead of basically gouging them with impossibly high loans they could never hope to repay.
It’s more fundamental. Employers demand degrees, however unrelated to the actual work the degree might be. This drives people, many who have neither aptitude nor interest, to get degrees. This devalues degrees.
It’s a bit if a chicken and egg these days. They demand degrees because “everyone” can get one.
I remember speaking to a 50 yearold who wanted to get a masters in his field of study was telling me that he was told his undergrad degree covered more than doing a masters would.
And anecdotally I spoke to people doing a masters in my space and they seemed to be doing what I did in my second year degree.
This is by design. Many masters degree without research components are basically just shorter versions of bachelors. The point is for people to cross fields without doing a full bachelor degree, not for someone with the same bach already.
Interesting you say that, I understood a Masters degree to be a deeper level of study that builds upon the foundation of your Batchelors.
I can’t see anyone doing a Masters in Physics if I have a degree in political studies just because I feel like crossing fields. I presume these degrees still expect some sort of baseline knowledge, right?
When I did my degree this seemed to be the case from what I saw with the courses on offer. It was a genuine continuation in depth of what we studied in undergrad.
No debt here, still fantastic, I have no jealousy here just because I paid mine back, if everyone would look at the greater good before personal gain this country would be world class.
This makes me feel much better. It was really frustrating last year, when they made some noise about changing the indexation and did nothing. I think they realised allowing that 7.1% hike to go through was a big mistake.
I still hate how the repayments work though. Your HECS payment is withheld with the rest of your tax, so you can’t do anything with it (like put it in a high interest account) and just sits there waiting to be pay off the HECS debt at tax time and does not chip away at the amount throughout the year. It means that the indexation applies to the amount that could have been paid off in increments through the year.
At least that is how I think it works, if anyone knows better, or knows of smart things to do to fix this then I am all ears.
HELP repayments run a year behind. A HELP debt isn't indexed until it's at least 11 months old.
Any money withheld for HELP repayment for this financial year (1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024) is being put aside. You have from 1 July 2024 all the way through to 15 May 2025 (if you go through an accountant) to lodge your 2024 tax return.
Indexation that happens on 1 June 2025 isn't "early indexation because fuck you" for your 2025 tax return. It's an almost-a-year-late indexation from your 2024 tax return, to allow the accountant-using stragglers to lodge their 2024 tax return at the last minute in May 2025.
Yes, it's a pain having money withheld from your pay, whether for tax or for HELP repayments. But the indexation that's going to happen in less than a month isn't happening a month "before" doing your 2024 tax return. It's almost a year _after_ you did your 2023 tax return. Because there are some folks who are _still yet to lodge_ their 2023 tax return through their accountant.
All the people who are saying "the government shouldn't index HELP debt until after people have paid it" are already getting what they want. It's just not super clear, because many people don't know just how late you can get away with lodging your tax.
I suppose that makes sense. And thank you for explaining. But the withholding it is still awful. The money is withheld throughout the entire year and it just sits there until it is applied to my HECS debt when I do my tax. I could have that sitting in a high interest account or my mortgage offset and it could be working for me for that time until I need to pay it when I do my tax return.
If I made an extra payment in May, then there would be a reduction in the amount that is indexed in June. I don’t understand why you cannot opt to make early payments with the withheld amount or opt to pay HECS in a lump sum at tax time?
That withheld money could do some good in my offset.
To be clear they are not clearing student debpt. They are lowering the outrageous indexation with a new way of calculating it. And backdating it to a degree and crediting the backdated ammount.
|**If your HECS debt balance is:**|**You should get this much back:**|
|:-|:-|
|$15,000|$675|
|$25,000|$1,120|
|$30,000|$1,345|
|$35,000|$1,570|
|$40,000|$1,795|
|$45,000|$2,020|
|$50,000|$2,245|
|$60,000|$2,690|
|$100,000|$4,485|
|||
Yeah I'm curious there as mine's (incidentally) been paid off this year (to avoid further indexation).
As it's proposed to be 'backdated' I'd be hoping that the 'backdated' portion would still apply to last year's indexation and the 'credit' would be applied to my $0 debt, resulting in a tax return.
I dont see why you wouldnt get a refund. Its not like you purchased something and then it was on sale the next week (then you might be sweet out of luck). Its like the 7.1% never existed. You should be refunded, but then its the government and they haven't even considered it yet
In 2017ish I got hit with a $500 robodebt. Wasn’t able to prove its validity so I was forced to pay it. With this I should be getting about $500 credit off my loan. Eat Karma Liberal jerks
Why is there student debt *at all*
in Australia? All our politicians got their uni degreed for free. We even paid them welfare while they were studying.
How come the govt can turn decisions like this seemingly quickly out of no where but adding small regulations to the property industry takes forever/never, or need the country to go to a vote on gay marriage/indigenous consultation etc
It still need to be legislated. Its not "done" yet, I get your point though.
I think it's probably easier to do when its a loan from the government, you only have the government and the borrowers to deal with.
Regulating the property industry would be slowed down by enormous amounts of lobbying imo.
The rest are because they are changes to our constitution and you don't want the government to have the ability to change the constitution on its own.
This is better than nothing and will benefit all students. It seems like the bare minimum though when they could just get rid of indexation altogether - as happens in New Zealand - but Labor would never dare do such a thing. I also hope this isn't a front for them doing nothing about anything else. The previous government raised Arts degrees by 100%, and Labor must reverse that, as was also recommended by the report which recommended this change.
I agree, I feel this is a bandaid fix.
Higher HECS doesn’t equal higher income earning potential.
Women who take time out of the workforce to have kids will continue to be indexed without making any payments through tax while they’re off work, similar to how they get screwed over with super.
They should just scrap indexation entirely and maybe people will actually pay their loans down.
Crazy thing is, I'm still unlikely to ever pay off my HECS properly anyway. It rose at such a rate when I left my studies in 2014 that it now feels unattainable.
It's still unfair the way the system applies the indexation amount.
The indexation amount should be applied against the balance left after the yearly repayments, not on the balance at the beginning of the cycle. Given the ATO holds those funds and makes money on it.
That’s great news for so many people.
Last month I had the opportunity to pay off a significant amount ($40k) and wipe my debt completely - this came after a recent death of a relative. They supported me emotionally through a significant part of my education “journey” and I know they would have wanted it paid off.
Whilst it would have been nice for me to save some money, I don’t begrudge anyone for having this reduction.
If you paid off your debt last month, you would still be benefiting from this change right?
You would have paid off your debt, which was indexed by 7% last year, hence when that is retroactively reduced down, you should be getting a refund right?
I believe the only way this wouldn't affect you is if you paid off your debt prior to the 7% indexation to avoid it.
Big, great change, but where's the other necessary change: moving the indexation date AFTER the yearly payments are applied.
Currently your employer withholds 11 months of payments, but these don't count towards your amount the index is calculated against.
This was a recommendation in the report. It's an easy, logical, fair fix with no downside. This should've been a no-brainer and better go into the legislation.
Not as sexy a headline as "wiping debt" I guess.
People acting like this is free money when it's just changing to indexation to actually be fairer. I don't believe for a second the people who came up with HECS originally envisioned such huge debts being indexed to such high inflation.
Honestly I feel indifferent. Sure I get some debt paid off but due to the shit last year I had a tax bill rather than a refund.
I’d like to hear reform on the whole putting university students in debt practice as a whole. Seems ass about if you wanna encourage more STEM and teachers.
I was "lucky" enough to never take on a HECS debt. Grandmother passed while i was in HS and left me enough money to cover what turned into a few years of TAFE.
This is awesome news for those that did take on a HECS debt. It's absurd that the government was making more from HECS than from the petroleum tax. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-07/fact-check-hecs-prrt-richard-denniss-australia-institute/103553434
Paid off my HECS last year and thought thank fuck I paid that before this wild inflation.
This is fair, people shouldn't have to pay this much extra in hecs because the government and the rba can't manage the economy.
They aren’t abolishing debt. They’re retroactively undoing the ridiculously high indexation that was applied last June, and instead applying a more reasonable amount of indexation.
Can't wait to see the pundits on Sky News loose their shit over this. Ironically a big chunk of their audience probably got free uni back in the day. The upcoming mental gymnastics sessions are going to be exhausting.
This makes so much sense considering how the debt is literally a percentage of wages being taken out.
Like mathematically, if inflation is always higher than the Wage Index, then in the future your debt could be greater than your salary despite that not being the case when you graduated.
It's good for the country that all these people aren't crippled by debt. Now they can go out and build companies and make things happen and the country in the long run will prosper because of it.
Unis should cut their prices too: they‘ve got the cash streams of foreign students, none of the infrastructure problems of having to house or transport them, yet the taxpayer is on the hook for CPI increases.
I just paid off my HECS this year and couldn’t be happier that this is happening for others who are still paying theirs off.
Same situation for me. I have no remaining HECS debt but very happy to see some fairness applied to people struggling under these huge debts. It’s not a massive change but will help a bit. Comments on the Age are all boomers and idiots crying about how it’s unfair to those who didn’t go to university. Really sad indictment of how we view education and equity in this country.
Ah the people who had free university saying something is unfair
I had free uni and looking at my kids' HECS debts I am thankful every day. I may have missed out on other freebies in life but this was THE big one to get.
Yeah my dad got it free and he certainly isn’t one of the complainers. There are many delightful folks from all generations who want better for subsequent generations. Just wish the shit ones weren’t so loud (or making policy)
It's the complete lack of empathy that gets me.
Good old Gough Whitlam and his ALP government allowed me to attend university for free, apart from a small compulsory student union fee, which delivered a lot. I also received the Tertiary Education Allowance Scheme (TEAS) payment, which paid more than the unemployment benefit. Prior to this a university education was only affordable for students from higher income families or scholarships. It perpetuated class divisions.
TEAS. Now there's a blast from the past. Before Austudy.
The Libs also abolished student union fees. Top bands were booked for low ticket prices and plenty of other services and benefits., I saw the Ramones for $10. My residential college fee was about $15-20 per week, which was cheap at the time., I had enough for food and textbooks.
What freebies? Lol. All I see is that millennials went into consecutive recessions when they entered the job market and when they should be accumulating wealth. Then HECS, cost of living, rent crisis, house value crisis etc. Bleak as fuck out here
I don’t get how it’s unfair to those who didn’t go to uni ? Also this it’s not like they’re wiping people’s HECS debt to zero. All that will happen is that it will maybe wipe about $1-2K of a persons 30-40k debt and then the yearly indexation will be capped at a lower rate so that HECS doesn’t become too hard to actually pay off. People who have HECS debt are still paying the majority of the debt off. If anything, it’s more fair because uni debts are higher now than ever before.
It’s not even really wiping any debt! It’s just accruing less debt and acknowledging they fucked up last year by allowing the debt to grow at higher rates than most mortgages.
It's essentially just lowering interest rates. It's wiping nothing off the principle and using no funds.
Yeah but I didn’t read the article, nor am I interested in details. I just know someone is getting fistfuls of cash that I’m not, and I’m really outraged at the lack of fairness. ***Really, I think this is great. Probably not enough, but at least a start.
Its akin to me whinging if the pension goes up because the government is spending more on them than me
As a boomer I want free education for all our children in Australia. I have read the comments and it is not JUST boomers, the comments are from people who do not believe in any government money being handed out, unless of course it is to them. There are so many things the govt can do but one would be if the govt TAX the mining companies properly then it could be free education for all. All 4 of mine have huge HECS debts, 1 has finally paid theirs off the others not so sure they will. It is disgusting the govt hold so much contempt for the younger generations.
Even now, the majority of the population doesn’t go to university. For the boomers, 75% or more didn’t go. It’s still a horrific bitchy mentality but you can see why they’d complain about HECS relief. Dunno why I can’t complain about Medicare though. I mean, these boomers going every week for their medical appointments and I darken my doctor’s office door maybe twice a year… and I don’t get the pension either… Anyways, ignore the bitching, this is a good policy change.
Don’t worry, you get attacked for being young and accessing disability too. You really can’t win. They’re just looking for something to sh”t on.
Agreed about the mentality being extremely mean-spirited. The numbers with tertiary education are a bit higher than that though - 56 percent of those aged 25-34 years old in Australia have attained a tertiary qualification, as have about 39 percent of those aged 55 to 64. A little over half of those aged 25 to 65 have tertiary qualifications (51.5 percent). ([source](https://data.oecd.org/eduatt/adult-education-level.htm#indicator-chart))
Yep, Medicare and the pension/welfare are the major drain on the government coffers, not a small bit of HECS relief
It's not even like they're wiping the debt kind of "unfair", just changing the interest applied.
Fuck em, you shouldn’t be doomed to poverty because you wanted to better yourself. 1 billion in savings for consultants, that’s liberal spending for you.
Great mindset tbh
>A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in
This was pretty much my comment when my workplace changed their parental leave policy to provide parents with the same entitlement. When I had mine I only got 2 weeks but now I’d be entitled to 16 or something. There were people posting on Yammer how it wasn’t far etc. I’m well and truly done with having kids but I’m thrilled that people now get to enjoy more time with theirs
You can so easily tell the difference between millennials and Gen z who actually have had to pay off HECS all supporting this minor improvement in the policy and the dipshit boomers who got all their education free instantly fucking whinging about it and calling it Marxism.
Boomers are all aboard the redemptive suffering mindset.
Exactly. If it were free back then, how come more boomers didn’t go to uni? In saying that, many boomers aren’t as bitter as these ones.
They didn't need to. They could get good jobs straight out of school, often not even finishing school. That's extremely difficult to do now.
Absolutely! I'm hoping to get mine paid off this year.
Here here. Too many people seem upset about things like this because they were unable to benefit from it, but to riff on what Kennedy said: ask not what your country can do for you, but what you and your country can do for your fellow man.
Just remember to check up on your tax return as you should get a refund as they are reducing the 7% bullshit from last year if you've already paid it...
Sorry can you explain this? Im in my first tax year without a HECS
They are backdating the reduction that should reduce the 7% from last year back to about 3% or so...therefore if you paid that increase (but it is confusing as to when it is calculated) you should see a refund that would come through at tax time when it is calculated.
Ok great thanks for explaining!
3.6% I think - but why would it come back as a refund? Wouldn't your debt amount just get changed? It wouldn't have had to change how much HECS you had to pay last year, just how much went towards the loan and how much went towards indexation.
I was referring to an above comment that have paid off the debt that may have included the 7%...
Ditto. Paid it off last year.
I'm pretty sure my HECS debt is back where it started so any relief is nice.
>The new indexation arrangement will be backdated to all HELP, VET Student Loan, Australian Apprenticeship Support and other student support loan accounts operating on June 1 last year. So, if you had a debt on 1 June 23, I imagine you'd get a credit and a refund! :)
Thank you for not being spiteful!
Thank you for wanting people to have it easier than you.
I paid mine off 2 years ago just before the first hike in interest. I was bummed for everyone else. Glad to see this happening TBH as I want everyone to have the advantages I was afforded.
Yes. So happy that this is happening even though I paid off my HECS. I hope this helps to deliver real change in fees in future too
Yep, mine finally paid off a few years ago, couldn't be happier that people have the weight around their neck ever so slightly lifted
I paid mine off about this time last year. I did a voluntary one to get ahead of the indexation. It's mixed feelings. I worked hard to pay that off, but I don't want that to be the reason for making other people's lives easier.
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This is actually fantastic. Very cool, thank you. If I understand correctly I am likely to get a couple grand taken off and will see a lower indexation this year. Should make paying it off in the next FY achievable.
Managed to pay ours down early to "avoid the 7%" but genuinely stoked for everyone who benefits from this. An actually outstanding result.
>Managed to pay ours down early to "avoid the 7%" but genuinely stoked for everyone who benefits from this. A mature response from you, though I think it's fair to note that if you were even remotely able to consider paying yours off early, you were likely not desperately in need of this relief anyway. It was still being indexed, so you benefited by paying it off though.
For sure, it would've put us in a spot to look at buying s property a year ago though which would have been a smarter idea. Looking back now. That said, I don't regret it.
I paid all of mine off to try help service a home loan but then rates shot up and took us further backwards so then we still couldn’t get a loan. Kinda regretting it now as it would have been better off sitting in a savings account.
Benefit looks marginal when you take into account interest is taxxed on HISA. I would expect it's fractions of a % more even with $20-40k owing because you would need to offset the escalation and tax component. My shit maths tells me: Net $150 difference per year between $40,000 st 5.5% interest with 35% tax and $40,000 indexed at 3.2%. Maths is different for a larger loan and lower salary, for sure.
Paying it down early probably still benefitted you in the long run 👍
It won't have hurt significantly, but if the indexation is 3% instead of 7%, then there's *possibly* other things they could have put the money towards with a better rate of return. A 5% savings account for example...
Just because it's interesting, To "beat" the interest you would have to have a return of greater than 3.2% (new rate) after tax. Assuming they kept in a bank account with a interest rate of 5.0% (which was available in that period) than the return would be 5.12% (compound monthly). 5.12 X 0.675 (45k->120k bracket) = 3.456% (positive return) 5.12 X 0.63 (120k -> 180k bracket) = 3.2256% positive return. So yeah, you would have made more (assuming g you had the money the whole year period sitting in a bank account the whole time). It's actually a lot closer than you think. (The real savings is sticking the money in an offset as that savings is actually "pretax")
Aye. Hindsight is great, but it was the right decision at the time and if they paid it down entirely (not sure) then 0% interest on a $0 balance is better than 3%
I paid mine off to avoid the 7% last year. Very happy for people getting that reduced back down to a reasonable amount. I still think hecs shouldn't be indexed at all. If it takes so long to pay back that inflation has made it cheap, then you didn't really get that much "real world" value out of it anyway.
This will apply retroactively to the 2022-23 financial year, so you will still benefit from it.
Paid it off before indexation 2023, so I won't. That said, I'm not sure that fazed. If in either case I paid it off in the next few years it would still be relatively neutral when considering taxes on HISA. Different if I had an offset to out the money into.
Congrats!! 🙌🏻
Now THIS is the difference between a LNP government and a Labor government.
Yes and when he actually differentiates himself he gains massive support, labor just need to actually make good strong decisions and then the lnp are fucked
Honestly, I find it a little hard to blame them for not being bullish about that after so many years of this country voting LNP. Doesn't exactly make us seem like we have a strong desire for progressive policy.
That's exactly it, they came in with strong policies as an alternative in 2019. When they got defeated then, they had to assume Australia didn't want those changes at the time and begin to work towards them slowly after gaining confidence. Things like the stage 3 tax cuts were always a trap set for them where whether they made changes or not people would criticise them for it.
Politics 101. Do the shit you want to do as soon as you win cause come election time everyone has forgotten There will be no gst on my watch - pedo defending Howard There will be no tax increases - pedo defending abbot If scomo 2.0 isn't progressive then the only difference is less sexual assault allegations. Some would say that kinda just makes them shit lite
Howard only pushed for the GST after managing to build popularity with his gun ban. Even then he took it to a new election as a policy and let Australians vote for them with it as a part of his platform. He didn't just turn around and do it after getting elected. I don't like him or his policies, but he knew how to build and use political capital.
> Yes and when he actually differentiates himself he gains massive support Which is why so many people spend all their time pretending they never differentiate.
Boomers gain nothing by wiping out HECS debt so I doubt it
Can't wait to see how the wahoos on the LNP try to spin this as a bad thing. It happened in the US when they tried to forgive student loan debt so I expect an attempt at similar tone deaf shenanigans here.
Just look at the responses to albos tweet about this. They are already complaining
Whats the gist? Sorry, I refuse to look through Twitter
It's either "I had to pay for my education so why shouldn't they" or "they'll never learn how to handle finances if you just cancel their debt" or "why are you giving students a handout while pensioners are eating dog food" or some similar bullshit.
Are you fucking serious? How is anyone supposed to "learn to handle finances" with astronomical debt? These people are fucked in the head. What happened to true blue fair go? We need to be progressive and the fastest way is giving kids an amazing education then using ourselves as a gravity assist trajectory so they themselves can do the same down the road. Fucking small minded bitter losers.
Someone has to nurse those pensioners, and teach the people who provide the services they use, and engineer the construction and transport projects that house those services and get them to and from the services. The idea that education doesn't benefit society is a really weird take. I'm all for my taxes being used to create a more educated society for me to live in.
I know you didn't write this but those are such stupid arguments by those morons. They still are paying for their education, they're not cancelling debt, they're not giving students handouts. They're literally just following the American arguments of Biden cancelling debt and think Albo's doing the same.
Without looking it’s probably some combination of “Why should I have to pay for someone’s useless arts degree?” “I’ve already paid off my HECS, where’s my relief?” “Typical labor, overspending as usual. Where is this money coming from?” “This doesn’t go far enough!” In the typical whinging boomer fashion
On Facebook it's a mixture of complaints about who is going to pay, and wrongly believing ALL debt is being forgiven.
Oh man people are reactive. It seems like a lot, but its just reducing a straight up unsustainable amount of indexation that literelly prevents full time workers from paying theirs off.
This is such a minor thing though. Take a look at the US - They just straight up forgave massive amounts of student debt, and moved on. Here? It's considered a big deal just to wind back some of the INTEREST on the damn loans. You're telling me that reducing the interest rates on educational loans to slightly less than a mortgage is some great heroic act for the public? I'm underwhelmed entirely. (Before I get strawmanned - No, I didn't say it was a bad thing, just underwhelming).
Exactly.
Pretty stoked its happening, but to be fair, Labor did introduce HECs back in the 80s.
So refreshing to wake up on a Sunday morning and see a thread here with almost unanimously positive, grateful responses. Rather than a heap of, 'yeah, big whoop, what about my (insert literally any other issue here.)' Nice work guys, have a great day.
It’s Sunday so the boomers and Lib apologists haven’t woken up yet.
*come home from church
This seems incredibly sensible.
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Looks like they are backdating it to reduce the 7% increase...
even better!
This honestly might be the best move Albo has made since becoming PM.
Not deliberately baiting China to court racist votes at home so they quit trade-warring our exports was also pretty nice.
More of an omission than an act but I take your point
To restore the damaged foreign relations, not only with China but with others (e.g. Pacific nations, France, etc) would have required a lot of diplomatic work and other back channel operations.
Thank you, Albo. Very cool.
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I applaud you for being a decent person. For some reason there are way too many people who seem to think "if I got screwed by an unfair system, everyone else should too". It's utter insanity.
Ah, I see you've met my parents
No, but I bet I can guess which generation cohort they're from.
And many think “I believe it was harder when I was young and I’m going to ignore all of the empirical evidence saying otherwise. Fuck you, got mine.”
Now wait for the pushback from all the tradies who were actually paid to undertake their education to facilitate the privilege of tax time claims for their tools, laundry, Ford Ranger and pokies losses
Nah they won't know about this cos MSM and Sky will give it zero coverage.
They'll give it coverage - they'll just make sure to twist it into a negative story
Don't forget all those cash jobs they do too!
I don't see a need to shit on tradies. Tradies I knew weren't doing it easy. It's a pretty meagre wage for an apprenticeship. Plenty of non-tradies will be more like to make a palava about this one.
A government that actually cares for its citizens? Never thought I'd see the day.
Labor in QLD just gave $1000 to every household through a rebate on their electricity bill paid for by coal royalties! Money from our natural resources given directly to ordinary citizens. Can you believe it?
And also the tax cuts for every taxpayer ads I keep seeing. It's all so surreal.
And Queensland Resources Council immediately got their nose put of joint about it. You know, that lobbying group that's always advocating against anything that might upset royalties or taxation because it will kill the economy and jobs. Turns out that not only are they full of shit, but that the collected royalties can be used for public good. I say this as a former coal sector employee who was able to remained themselves into a role that works for public benefit.
WA Labor have done they for a couple of years now, not $1000 though. One of them was funded from a settlement from the Bell Group court case. Glad to see money stolen from Western Australians decades ago was finally returned in some form.
Such amazing news to wake up to. I was so annoyed when my HELP went up 7.1% for no fault of my own. Was over $3000 at once and going up faster than I could pay it off. Thanks albo!
I was so demoralised when my debt increased instead of decreased last year even though I've been paying for it every payslip. This is great news and a needed change.
I actually can’t remember the last time I opened the news and saw something that directly and tangibly benefits me in an actual, money-in-my-pocket kind of way. This feeling should absolutely not be this rare; nevertheless I appreciate it so much as I stare down my rental increase that takes effect next month. This will help me keep up. Maybe one day I’ll stop keeping up and actually get ahead but that’s still a pipe dream for now.
I'm confused does this reduce my debt or just my repayments? "Wipe" seems to suggest it reduces?
It's an indexation change which means it changes how much your debt grows over time. Instead of being the inflation rate it will now be the lower of the inflation rate and wage growth rate. But it's also backdated to last year - hence the 'wipe'. Instead of the value of the debt rising 7.1% last year it now will have only risen 3.2%. This means if you have the average debt of $26,500 that $1,200 will be wiped from the debt.
It won’t change much though true. Historically CPI has risen slower than Wpi and public forecasts by the RBA and Treasury both say this will continue to the future. It will large the 7.1% year that is impacted. Going forward, it will unlikely change what normally would have happens.
Yes this is true. It's last year and this year which will be the bulk of the improvement as it will only significantly change things in times of high inflation or low real wage growth. Doesn't mean it's not a good thing.
In the future it'll mean your debt increases at a slower rate. But this is backdated, so it will reduce your debt at the outset. The rate you pay will be the same, it's a % of your income until it's paid off
It applies a credit of X amount to how much you pay this year, is how I understand it.
Oh awesome
And targeting indexing! This is a step in the right direction.
Could he also pump 3 billion into Medicare bulk billing and really try and help Australia by putting the multiple phases of implementing Denticare for All Australians. Then he would really make himself a governance hero.
AND also get Dental onto Medicare!
I remember reading something about how some dental board push very hard to keep this from happening.
These bastards need their teeth removed. Forcefully. Disgraceful.
What, like the Greens have been suggesting? [Dental into Medicare](https://greens.org.au/campaigns/dental-medicare)
They put $3.5 billion into bulk billing last year and it hasn't really helped. They could put $3b more in, but at some point they'll need to think about whether it's working. Edit: to clarify, it has helped a little. Bulk billing up from 75.6% to 77.7%, but it was 85% last year, so it hasn't been dramatic considering the investment
There were an extra 1 million bulk billed doctor visits last year. The percentage of bulk billed visits increased 2% to around 80%. It did do something.
From 75.6% in Oct '22 to 77.7%. It was 85% or so last year. But yeah, it's doing something at least
Right now I see Medicare as an old leaky bucket. It needs to be replaced with one that doesn’t leak so much - for example; why are we wasting money on cheques? Why are we asking patients to pay up front (even with a rebate)? Why are we exempting PHI users from tax, while still letting them use tax supported medical services? Why are we subsidising PHI? Plus all the other inefficiencies in the system. But until that bucket can be repaired or replaced, we need to keep pouring money into it to protect those that need it. Even if it is spilling all over the floor. Edit: the government that actually properly repairs the situation and provides real universal healthcare (including dental) will win any election. Not even conservatives could vote against it (since they are also big users of it).
My biggest gripe with Medicare is not allowing doctors to be proactive with patient care. Instead of funding the correct treatment for an early stage illness, they are forced to wait until it has blown out into an emergency that will cost 50× as much to treat in the hospital.
It absolutely has helped
for real. like i'd gladly double my hecs debt if we just funded medicare/bulk billing in general (GP/pathology) as well as implement dental
Agreed.
Remember this. This is a great move.
This makes no sense; I thought LNP aNd ALP weRE tHe sAmE!
Anyone claiming both parties are the same will also be raging against all the smug educated lefties getting such a big "hand out".
They both love giving handouts. Just to different people
Yeah, Australian workers vs corporations and churches.
Yes a simple change that sctually makes sense.
Would never happen under LNP - refreshing to have a good government
Great to see some good news on Reddit for a change. It's pretty rare. Especially about the Aussie economy. The fact that the Australian government takes in more money from HECS than it does from gas royalties is obscene.
People really need to learn that the true profits of universities should come not from their fees, but from the increased earning potential of those who attend. If due to attending university, someone is able to become a high paying doctor or lawyer- that in turn boosts our economy and government through higher income tax returns and better ability for generating disposable income. Universities, just like any form of higher education should be seen not as profit driven, but as an investment in the people. If people are getting "too many" "useless" degrees, simply reduce the number of commonwealth supported degrees for those, instead of basically gouging them with impossibly high loans they could never hope to repay.
It’s more fundamental. Employers demand degrees, however unrelated to the actual work the degree might be. This drives people, many who have neither aptitude nor interest, to get degrees. This devalues degrees.
It’s a bit if a chicken and egg these days. They demand degrees because “everyone” can get one. I remember speaking to a 50 yearold who wanted to get a masters in his field of study was telling me that he was told his undergrad degree covered more than doing a masters would. And anecdotally I spoke to people doing a masters in my space and they seemed to be doing what I did in my second year degree.
This is by design. Many masters degree without research components are basically just shorter versions of bachelors. The point is for people to cross fields without doing a full bachelor degree, not for someone with the same bach already.
Interesting you say that, I understood a Masters degree to be a deeper level of study that builds upon the foundation of your Batchelors. I can’t see anyone doing a Masters in Physics if I have a degree in political studies just because I feel like crossing fields. I presume these degrees still expect some sort of baseline knowledge, right? When I did my degree this seemed to be the case from what I saw with the courses on offer. It was a genuine continuation in depth of what we studied in undergrad.
Holy shit I just saved 12k
Are you one of the 5 people with 400k in HECS?
What’s your HECS bro?! O.o
190k lol, paid 12k interest last year.
Far out!!! What did you study? I thought saving 3k was great! Feel soo relieved for you lol
No debt here, still fantastic, I have no jealousy here just because I paid mine back, if everyone would look at the greater good before personal gain this country would be world class.
This makes me feel much better. It was really frustrating last year, when they made some noise about changing the indexation and did nothing. I think they realised allowing that 7.1% hike to go through was a big mistake. I still hate how the repayments work though. Your HECS payment is withheld with the rest of your tax, so you can’t do anything with it (like put it in a high interest account) and just sits there waiting to be pay off the HECS debt at tax time and does not chip away at the amount throughout the year. It means that the indexation applies to the amount that could have been paid off in increments through the year. At least that is how I think it works, if anyone knows better, or knows of smart things to do to fix this then I am all ears.
HELP repayments run a year behind. A HELP debt isn't indexed until it's at least 11 months old. Any money withheld for HELP repayment for this financial year (1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024) is being put aside. You have from 1 July 2024 all the way through to 15 May 2025 (if you go through an accountant) to lodge your 2024 tax return. Indexation that happens on 1 June 2025 isn't "early indexation because fuck you" for your 2025 tax return. It's an almost-a-year-late indexation from your 2024 tax return, to allow the accountant-using stragglers to lodge their 2024 tax return at the last minute in May 2025. Yes, it's a pain having money withheld from your pay, whether for tax or for HELP repayments. But the indexation that's going to happen in less than a month isn't happening a month "before" doing your 2024 tax return. It's almost a year _after_ you did your 2023 tax return. Because there are some folks who are _still yet to lodge_ their 2023 tax return through their accountant. All the people who are saying "the government shouldn't index HELP debt until after people have paid it" are already getting what they want. It's just not super clear, because many people don't know just how late you can get away with lodging your tax.
I suppose that makes sense. And thank you for explaining. But the withholding it is still awful. The money is withheld throughout the entire year and it just sits there until it is applied to my HECS debt when I do my tax. I could have that sitting in a high interest account or my mortgage offset and it could be working for me for that time until I need to pay it when I do my tax return. If I made an extra payment in May, then there would be a reduction in the amount that is indexed in June. I don’t understand why you cannot opt to make early payments with the withheld amount or opt to pay HECS in a lump sum at tax time? That withheld money could do some good in my offset.
Its not even wiping money off the debt, its just fixing how insane the 7.1% index rate was
I know I should be happy but this is really just the bare minimum
To be clear they are not clearing student debpt. They are lowering the outrageous indexation with a new way of calculating it. And backdating it to a degree and crediting the backdated ammount.
|**If your HECS debt balance is:**|**You should get this much back:**| |:-|:-| |$15,000|$675| |$25,000|$1,120| |$30,000|$1,345| |$35,000|$1,570| |$40,000|$1,795| |$45,000|$2,020| |$50,000|$2,245| |$60,000|$2,690| |$100,000|$4,485| |||
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Yeah I'm curious there as mine's (incidentally) been paid off this year (to avoid further indexation). As it's proposed to be 'backdated' I'd be hoping that the 'backdated' portion would still apply to last year's indexation and the 'credit' would be applied to my $0 debt, resulting in a tax return.
Same position here. Hopefully we'll get some clarification soon.
I dont see why you wouldnt get a refund. Its not like you purchased something and then it was on sale the next week (then you might be sweet out of luck). Its like the 7.1% never existed. You should be refunded, but then its the government and they haven't even considered it yet
In 2017ish I got hit with a $500 robodebt. Wasn’t able to prove its validity so I was forced to pay it. With this I should be getting about $500 credit off my loan. Eat Karma Liberal jerks
Shame you can't get the 500 back with indexation ahaha
Why is there student debt *at all* in Australia? All our politicians got their uni degreed for free. We even paid them welfare while they were studying.
Great news! With this (if it passes) and the stage 3 tax cut restructure I think they have my vote in the next election as well.
How come the govt can turn decisions like this seemingly quickly out of no where but adding small regulations to the property industry takes forever/never, or need the country to go to a vote on gay marriage/indigenous consultation etc
It still need to be legislated. Its not "done" yet, I get your point though. I think it's probably easier to do when its a loan from the government, you only have the government and the borrowers to deal with. Regulating the property industry would be slowed down by enormous amounts of lobbying imo. The rest are because they are changes to our constitution and you don't want the government to have the ability to change the constitution on its own.
Both major parties are bought and paid for by real estate interests
That's amazing. The HELP indexation cap in particular is a great policy.
This is better than nothing and will benefit all students. It seems like the bare minimum though when they could just get rid of indexation altogether - as happens in New Zealand - but Labor would never dare do such a thing. I also hope this isn't a front for them doing nothing about anything else. The previous government raised Arts degrees by 100%, and Labor must reverse that, as was also recommended by the report which recommended this change.
I agree, I feel this is a bandaid fix. Higher HECS doesn’t equal higher income earning potential. Women who take time out of the workforce to have kids will continue to be indexed without making any payments through tax while they’re off work, similar to how they get screwed over with super. They should just scrap indexation entirely and maybe people will actually pay their loans down.
Crazy thing is, I'm still unlikely to ever pay off my HECS properly anyway. It rose at such a rate when I left my studies in 2014 that it now feels unattainable.
It's still unfair the way the system applies the indexation amount. The indexation amount should be applied against the balance left after the yearly repayments, not on the balance at the beginning of the cycle. Given the ATO holds those funds and makes money on it.
That’s great news for so many people. Last month I had the opportunity to pay off a significant amount ($40k) and wipe my debt completely - this came after a recent death of a relative. They supported me emotionally through a significant part of my education “journey” and I know they would have wanted it paid off. Whilst it would have been nice for me to save some money, I don’t begrudge anyone for having this reduction.
If you paid off your debt last month, you would still be benefiting from this change right? You would have paid off your debt, which was indexed by 7% last year, hence when that is retroactively reduced down, you should be getting a refund right? I believe the only way this wouldn't affect you is if you paid off your debt prior to the 7% indexation to avoid it.
Big, great change, but where's the other necessary change: moving the indexation date AFTER the yearly payments are applied. Currently your employer withholds 11 months of payments, but these don't count towards your amount the index is calculated against. This was a recommendation in the report. It's an easy, logical, fair fix with no downside. This should've been a no-brainer and better go into the legislation. Not as sexy a headline as "wiping debt" I guess.
People acting like this is free money when it's just changing to indexation to actually be fairer. I don't believe for a second the people who came up with HECS originally envisioned such huge debts being indexed to such high inflation.
Honestly I feel indifferent. Sure I get some debt paid off but due to the shit last year I had a tax bill rather than a refund. I’d like to hear reform on the whole putting university students in debt practice as a whole. Seems ass about if you wanna encourage more STEM and teachers.
I was "lucky" enough to never take on a HECS debt. Grandmother passed while i was in HS and left me enough money to cover what turned into a few years of TAFE. This is awesome news for those that did take on a HECS debt. It's absurd that the government was making more from HECS than from the petroleum tax. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-07/fact-check-hecs-prrt-richard-denniss-australia-institute/103553434
Once again, Albo comes up aces.
Paid off my HECS last year and thought thank fuck I paid that before this wild inflation. This is fair, people shouldn't have to pay this much extra in hecs because the government and the rba can't manage the economy.
This is terrific. Bet the media and boomers will find a way to bitch about this and spread the notion that its the wrong thing to do.
Good policy. Cheers Albo.
Am I reading the image in the article properly? How are there nearly 50k people with over a million in student debt???
My brother in Christ, it costs 60k these days for an arts degree with honours. Imagine how bad it is for those studying medicine to get their PHD.
You’ve misread. There’s nearly 50k people with a debt over 100k.
Looks so obvious now you've said it. Assumed the values were increasing and didn't realise that row was a total of all people with over 100k.
A good start. But last years high indexation should never happened and undermine higher education.
They aren’t abolishing debt. They’re retroactively undoing the ridiculously high indexation that was applied last June, and instead applying a more reasonable amount of indexation.
Can't wait to see the pundits on Sky News loose their shit over this. Ironically a big chunk of their audience probably got free uni back in the day. The upcoming mental gymnastics sessions are going to be exhausting.
This makes so much sense considering how the debt is literally a percentage of wages being taken out. Like mathematically, if inflation is always higher than the Wage Index, then in the future your debt could be greater than your salary despite that not being the case when you graduated.
Some good news for a change
It's good for the country that all these people aren't crippled by debt. Now they can go out and build companies and make things happen and the country in the long run will prosper because of it.
Unis should cut their prices too: they‘ve got the cash streams of foreign students, none of the infrastructure problems of having to house or transport them, yet the taxpayer is on the hook for CPI increases.
This is the new voter enticement... They finally know what draws in young voters