{"id":33822,"date":"2025-07-22T15:50:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T05:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=33822"},"modified":"2025-07-22T15:50:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T05:50:29","slug":"labors-student-debt-reduction-amounts-to-only-7-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/07\/22\/labors-student-debt-reduction-amounts-to-only-7-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor\u2019s student debt reduction amounts to only 7.9%"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Analysis conducted by the Parliamentary Library shows that Labor\u2019s much-touted 20% student-debt cut collapses to a mere 7.9% once indexation since their election in 2022 is accounted for. In other words, the impact of the 20% student debt cut is severely diminished by indexation, even after the Government\u2019s changes to indexation by tying it to the lesser of WPI or CPI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For a student with a $30,000 student debt in 2022 when the Albanese government came to power, after Labor\u2019s indexation tweaks and the promised 20% debt cut, they will end up with a debt of $27,619 – only 7.9% below what they began with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greens have relentlessly pushed the Albanese Government to deliver desperately needed student debt relief since they came to power, and the pressure has worked in securing the changes to indexation as well as recent commitments to raise the minimum repayment income, introduce a marginal repayment system and cut student debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Labor\u2019s plans will mean nothing for young people starting a $50,000 arts degree today, whose debt will grow every year due to indexation and take a lifetime to pay off. And effectively only a 7.9% one-off reduction in debt doesn’t even touch the sides of this growing burden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens and spokesperson on Higher Education:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince the Labor government was elected, an increase in student debt because of indexation means that the promise of 20% reduction effectively shrinks to just 7.9%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLabor crowing about a small one-off debt reduction won\u2019t fix the enormous burden of uni fees or student debt that keeps growing every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course any student debt relief is better than none, but we are demanding all student debt be wiped and a return to free uni and TAFE, funded by taxing big corporations to pay their fair share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn opposition, Labor spoke a big game against the Morrison Government\u2019s fee hikes for degrees like arts, business and law. In Government, they\u2019ve shown their true colours, smashing students with $50,000 arts degrees that grow every year and take a lifetime to pay off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the Labor government is serious about providing relief to students, scrapping the fee hikes of the failed job-ready graduates scheme should be a matter of urgency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWiping all student debt and making Uni free is not radical, it\u2019s common sense. Other countries do it, Australia used to do it. Free university existed in this country and was dismantled by the very party which now expects applause for a paltry repair job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Analysis conducted by the Parliamentary Library shows that Labor\u2019s much-touted 20% student-debt cut collapses to a mere 7.9% once indexation since their election in 2022 is accounted for. In other words, the impact of the 20% student debt cut is severely diminished by indexation, even after the Government\u2019s changes to indexation by tying it to … Continue reading “Labor\u2019s student debt reduction amounts to only 7.9%”<\/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-33822","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\/33822","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=33822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33823,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33822\/revisions\/33823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}