Australian Greens Senators' additional comments

1.1The Greens welcome the opportunity to contribute additional comments to the committee report and thank the witness and authors of submissions for the time and expertise contributed to the inquiry process.

1.2The growing burden of student debt, placement poverty, and the cost of living is crushing students and graduates. The federal government has taken small steps to address the crisis after years of campaigning by the Greens, Students Against Placement Poverty and the National Union of Students (NUS), among others.

1.3This bill, however, is a tepid response to the nature and extent of the problem of ballooning student debt and placement poverty. This bill does not provide any substantive cost of living relief for students, and offers band aid solutions that do not match the scale of the crisis students and graduates are facing.

The Student Debt Crisis

1.4More than 3 million people owe around $80 billion in student debt, which keeps increasing due to indexation and fees. Shaving some indexation off the top is just trimming around the edges and is not a cost of living relief measure. It does not put money in the pockets of the vast majority of people with student debt who are struggling to make ends meet.

1.5During the Inquiry, Mr Alec Webb from the Regional Universities Network, MrFelix Pirie from the Independent Tertiary Education Council of Australia (ITECA), and Mr Kieran McCarron from the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) all confirmed that the changes to indexation do not provide any immediate cost of living relief.[1] Government attempts to market these changes as such are misleading.

1.6Labor's tokenistic plan for student debt still means that debts will rise by 11.5 per cent by the end of their first term of government. Indexation should be scrapped altogether.

1.7Larger debts take much longer to pay off, and more and more graduates will spend their entire lives repaying their student debt. Soaring student debt is locking people out of the housing market, making it harder to obtain loans and crushing dreams of further study. Young people, women and those on low incomes are being hit hardest by this debt spiral, especially as unrestrained rents rise, and the cost of living is raging.

1.8People shouldn't be shackled with lifelong debt simply for choosing to pursue higher education.

1.9The root cause of mounting student debt needs to be tackled. That means wiping all student debt and making university and TAFE fee-free. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was a beneficiary of free university but has abandoned young people to a lifetime of debt.

Job-Ready Graduates Scheme

1.10By refusing to address the punitive fee hikes and funding cuts of the Morrison‑era Coalition government's Job-Ready Graduates (JRG) scheme, Labor has ignored the recommendation of their own Universities Accord which found this scheme to be a failure which requires 'urgent remediation'.[2]

1.11The JRG scheme drastically shifted the cost of delivering a university education away from the government and onto students, by hiking fees and cutting university funding. Under this scheme, course fees for law and commerce degrees increased by 28 per cent and by 113 per cent for arts and humanities degrees.

1.12The intention of the JRG scheme was objectionable in the first place and it was a furphy that this scheme would encourage students into the so-called priority degrees. Students should be able to study what they want, not what the government of the day wants, and four years on there is proof that this scheme has failed.

1.13There was unanimous opposition to this disastrous scheme from universities, students and their unions. We now know the full extent of damage this is causing. It is becoming increasingly common for students to amass debts of more than $50 000 and the number of graduates with student loans exceeding $100 000 has more than doubled in five years.[3] Economics professor, Bruce Chapman, a founder of HECS, has said that the high fees for primarily humanities degrees is the single biggest issue facing higher education.[4]

1.14Universities have been calling for an end to JRG for years. At the hearing, Universities Australia stated that the package 'ought to be scrapped and replaced'.[5] Innovative Research Universities, the Group of Eight, and the NTEU described reforming JRG as an immediate priority,[6] and the NUS stated that scrapping JRG should be 'the No. 1 focus' if the government wants to get to the root cause of student poverty.[7]

1.15The JRG has condemned generations of people to decades of debt and pushed universities into further strife. If the government is serious about student debt relief it should reverse JRG fee hikes and funding cuts immediately.

Unpaid Placements

1.16While the recognition of the hours spent by students in unpaid placements and the government's decision to establish Commonwealth Prac Payments for students studying nursing, teaching and social work is a move in the right direction, it does reflect a lack of understanding of the severity of placement poverty and its impacts on students. The proposal in this bill is woefully inadequate.

1.17The government had the opportunity to deliver genuine relief to students and graduates; instead, the measures in this bill merely scratch the surface. This view was supported by many of the witnesses who appeared at the hearing into this bill. The Australian Youth Affairs Coalition (AYAC) and the NUS gave damning evidence into the dire circumstances many young people are facing.

1.18Ms Ngaire Bogemann, NUS President, gave evidence to the inquiry that students 'are struggling as [they] shoulder the burden of unprecedented housing and cost-of-living crises', noting the increasingly common stories of young people skipping meals, sleeping in cars, and going without necessities to make it through their studies.[8]

1.19Unpaid placements are unfair and unjust, and exacerbate existing inequalities.Students have to cut back on paid work, give up paid work, or work around the clock to make ends meet. They have had to take up loans to survive, or receive financial assistance from friends and family to cover living expenses. Placements should benefit student learning, not exploit unpaid labour.

1.20The government's proposal leaves out hundreds of thousands of students who are required to undertake mandatory placements as part of their degrees. The decision to exclude students studying courses including medicine, veterinary studies, psychology, allied health, and youth work which require hundreds of hours of mandatory placement work is deeply disappointing and will continue to put these students under immense financial and mental health stress. Many of these professionals are desperately required in the workforce, including in regional and remote areas.

1.21All students required to undertake mandatory placement should be paid. That means every student should be paid for every hour of work they are required to do.

1.22On top of forgoing their income and not being paid for their work, students have to fork out cash for travel, parking and sometimes professional clothing, leaving them out of pocket. It is even tougher for students with parenting responsibilities, or those who are already marginalised in society.

1.23The weekly supplementary payment to the cohort of students under the government's proposal amounts to $8 an hour and will be means tested. For those who receive this payment, it will still be more than $16 an hour below the national minimum wage which is patently insufficient.

1.24The Commonwealth Prac Payment should be universal and students should be paid at least minimum wage for their work on placement, not a lesser supplementary amount.

1.25Many witnesses to the inquiry raised the matter that the Commonwealth Prac Payment should be a legal entitlement in the legislation rather than left to being stipulated in a disallowable instrument. Mr McCarron from the NTEU stated that 'it needs to be explicit that it's actually a legal entitlement'.[9] Mr Andrew Norton similarly stated that a better option would be for a 'legislated scheme … that would then create an entitlement to the student'.[10]

1.26Payments for mandatory practical placements should be enshrined in legislation as a legal entitlement.

1.27Placement poverty is taking a huge toll on students and is pushing them to the absolute brink. Yet Labor's limited policy won't even start till 1 July 2025. Payments for mandatory placements should be available to students by 1January 2025 at the latest.

Student Services and Amenities Fees (SSAF)

1.28The majority of SSAF revenue should be allocated to student-led organisations, so funds can be controlled and distributed democratically by students. The requirement in this bill that 40 per cent is allocated to student-led organisations is a start, and the Greens support further changes to increase this amount over time.

1.29That the government immediately reverse the Morrison-era Job-Ready Graduates scheme's fee hikes and funding cuts.

1.30That the government commit to wiping all student debt, including debts resulting from the Student Financial Supplement Scheme, and making university and TAFE fee-free.

1.31That payments for mandatory placements are implemented early and expanded significantly. The payments must be:

enshrined in legislation as a legal entitlement;

available to all students in all courses that require mandatory placements;

universal, and not means-tested;

paid at least at the national minimum wage; and

commence from 1 January 2025.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi

Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens

Senator for New South Wales

Footnotes

[1]Mr Alec Webb, Chief Executive Officer, Regional Universities Network, Proof Committee Hansard, 24 September 2024, p. 5; Mr Felix Pirie, Deputy Chief Executive, Policy & Research, Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia, Proof Committee Hansard, 24 September 2024, p. 44; Mr Kieran McCarron, Policy and Research Officer, National Tertiary Education Union, Proof Committee Hansard, 24 September 2024, p. 14.

[2]Australian Government, Australian Universities Accord Final Report, December 2023, p. 12.

[3]Daniella White, 'The number of Australians with student debts above $100,000 revealed', Sydney Morning Herald, 18 September 2024.

[4]Daniella White, 'The number of Australians with student debts above $100,000 revealed', Sydney Morning Herald, 18 September 2024.

[5]Mr Luke Sheehy, Chief Executive Officer, Universities Australia, Proof Committee Hansard, 24 September 2024, p. 5.

[6]Mr Paul Harris, Executive Director, Innovative Research Universities, Proof Committee Hansard, 24 September 2024, p. 5; Dr Matthew Brown, Deputy Chief Executive, Group of Eight, Proof Committee Hansard, 24 September 2024, pp. 4–5; Dr Terri MacDonald, Director, Public Policy and Strategic Research, National Tertiary Education Union, Proof Committee Hansard, 24 September 2024, p. 13.

[7]Ms Ngaire Bogemann, National President, National Union of Students, Proof Committee Hansard, 24 September 2024, p. 29.

[8]Ms Ngaire Bogemann, National President, National Union of Students, Proof Committee Hansard, 24 September 2024, p. 28.

[9]Mr Kieran McCarron, Policy and Research Officer, National Tertiary Education Union, Proof Committee Hansard, 24 September 2024, p. 12.

[10]Mr Andrew Norton, Proof Committee Hansard, 24 September 2024, p. 43.