Three million Australians have a HECS debt and for the first time ever, the government is promising to wipe 20% of all debts if elected. The Coalition has labelled the policy ‘profoundly unfair’, saying it will give some of the country’s highest earners a boost and penalise those who swiftly paid what they owed.
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00:00They started the game and then they rigged it.
00:05Brisbane mother Helen Spurgeon and her son Alex Chambers feel the board is stacked against
00:10today's university students.
00:13Helen completed her Masters in Accounting for just $20,000 while Alex is $50,000 in
00:19debt for his undergraduate arts degree.
00:22It scared most of my mates away who could do university.
00:25That is a lot of money for someone who is only 21 to have and that is before you take into
00:32account the cost of them even going on to ever buying their own property.
00:37Alex Chambers will be graduating just after the election.
00:41That big debt is always going to be following so there's definitely a pressure to try and
00:48find a high paying job.
00:50It's just not clear to me the educational benefit.
00:53Fresh analysis from Victoria University's Dr Melinda Hildebrandt backs up those concerns.
00:59It shows the time it takes to pay off a hex debt has increased from 7.3 years in 2006
01:05to 9.9 years in 2024, while the earning premium enjoyed by new university graduates has roughly
01:13halved over a similar period.
01:15The idea of, you know, get your degree, get the great job, get the house is just not on
01:20the cards for the current generation.
01:22The government's big election offering is a $16 billion plan to erase 20% of all student
01:28debt.
01:29It says the average borrower will save $5,000.
01:32The coalition is fiercely opposed, calling it economically reckless, unfair and elitist.
01:38It also says it will do nothing for the 24 million Australians without a student loan.
01:44With tens of thousands of debtors in marginal seats, university students are being courted like
01:49never before.