Labor must provide HECS debt fairness

Shadow Minister for Education, Sarah Henderson, has called on the Albanese Government to repay Australians who are hit with indexation penalties on student loans they have already paid off.
 
In Senate Estimates today, Senator Henderson again called on the government to urgently reform the HECS payments system, which indexes debt without taking into account loan repayments made during the financial year.
 
“Fuelled by Labor’s sky-high inflation which has driven up HECS debts by 7.1 per cent, it is unjust that so many Australians are being gouged on HECS loans which have been paid off.  In one case raised with me, a young paramedic who paid off a 12,000 debt this year will still face an indexation penalty of $850 which is manifestly unfair.”
 
“I first raised my concerns with the ATO Commissioner in Estimates on Tuesday evening,” Senator Henderson said.
 
Senator Henderson said that after Education Minister, Jason Clare, declared he had no intention of changing the HECS payments system, he has been forced into reconsidering his position.
 
“Mr Clare and the Albanese Government knew this indexation hike was on the way, but are tone-deaf to the cost of living pressures so many Australians are facing,” Senator Henderson said.