Deputy Greens Leader and spokesperson for Higher Education, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has responded to Labor\u2019s bill that was introduced today claiming to wipe $3 billion of student debt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bill is nothing more than a mirage to give the impression that the Labor government is wiping student debt, when in fact it will have little impact. Around 3 million Australians have over $74 billion in student debt, so shaving off $3 billion in indexation just scratches the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Equally, the inclusion in the bill of a Commonwealth payment for students undertaking placements in nursing, teaching and social work is wholly inadequate and excludes hundreds of thousands of other students required to do unpaid placement work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senator Mehreen Faruqi:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLabor\u2019s student debt relief bill is nothing more than a PR stunt, not genuine cost-of-living relief. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLabor steals our lines about wiping student debt, because they know it’s what people want, but they are really just tinkering with indexation. The Greens are the only party with a genuine commitment to wipe student debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStudent debt is another cost for millions of people trying to make ends meet on top of so many other cost-of-living pressures. A cost that can and should be erased if Labor just wiped student debt entirely. It just goes to show that Labor doesn\u2019t really care about helping people cope in a cost-of-living crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat Labor is proposing is trimming around the edges, throwing around fancy numbers and pretending to help ordinary people when they\u2019re not. We can all see through the Labor mirage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll students required to do a placement must get paid. Not a lesser supplementary amount, but at the very least, minimum wage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOnce again, Labor\u2019s half-baked measures fall short of doing what\u2019s needed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Australian Medical Students\u2019 Association:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are deeply disappointed that medical students remain excluded from the Commonwealth Prac payment. The medical degree\u2019s structure and high demand results in over 2,000 hours of unpaid labour and study, which cannot be completed part time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWithout support measures like paid placements, we are cutting out most of society from joining the medical workforce, leaving it only for privileged people who can pay their way through the degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNobody should be forced to make the choice between paying the bills and contributing to our healthcare system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Students Against Placement Poverty:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe legislation passing through the parliament is labelled as financial support for placement students, but we know that most students will still be missing out entirely. The lucky few will get a few dollars an hour for their work, and will have to wait another year before receiving anything. Placement poverty continues despite what the Labor Party promises to students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStudents Against Placement Poverty rejects any suggestion that this legislation fixes the issue. We will not stop organising until all placement students are covered by a real payment of at least minimum wage, including international students and students in all the degrees currently ignored by the government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ngaire Bogemann, President of the National Union of Students:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Referring to the new HECS indexation system: \u201cThe reality is that even under this change, tertiary students will continue to get a raw deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe reality is placement poverty won\u2019t end until all students undertaking mandatory placements are paid at least minimum wage and the Fair Work Act is amended to make unpaid placements illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe NUS has advocated over many years for an end to placement poverty and is very pleased to see steps taken towards this\u2026 However, the promise of a measly $8 an hour is a slap in the face to the many nursing, teaching, midwifery and social work students across the country who are currently providing crucial labour in key skills shortage areas for free.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Deputy Greens Leader and spokesperson for Higher Education, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has responded to Labor\u2019s bill that was introduced today claiming to wipe $3 billion of student debt. The bill is nothing more than a mirage to give the impression that the Labor government is wiping student debt, when in fact it will have little … Continue reading “Labor\u2019s student debt relief bill is a PR stunt”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28480,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28479\/revisions\/28480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}