2022-03-24
The Greens have today announced that in the balance of power after the next election they will push the next government to abolish all student debt and make TAFE and university fee-free for students. Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Australian Greens Education spokesperson, will launch the policy with SA Greens Senate candidate Barbara Pocock in Adelaide.
This announcement makes the Greens the first and only party to commit to wiping all student debt. Enormous study debts are holding young people back and contributing to social inequality. Student debt would be fully wiped under the Greens plan. No further debt would be accrued as the Greens policy is to abolish university fees. The Greens plan would reduce the fiscal balance by $33 billion over the forward estimates.
Analysis prepared by the Parliamentary Budget Office finds that in 2024-25, the benefit of the Government’s proposed Stage 3 Tax Cuts will overwhelmingly flow to higher income earners, men, and older people, while the benefit of the Greens’ plan to wipe student debt will flow to low and middle income earners, young people, and women.
Additionally, the Greens will invest in universities and reverse the Liberals’ cruel education cuts. We will boost university funding by 10 per cent, increase job security on campuses, and democratise our universities as part of our all-encompassing plan for higher education.
The Greens will:
- Abolish all student debt
- Fund lifelong free education for all
- Guarantee every student has a liveable income
- Reverse the Liberals’ cuts and boost university funding by 10% to enable quality teaching, learning and research
- Increase job security and slash casualisation at TAFE and university
- Invest in world class research
- Democratise our universities by giving power back to staff and students on campuses
- Make our public universities and TAFEs sustainable and accessible through the Green Education Infrastructure Fund.
Quotes attributable to Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Greens spokesperson for Education:
“Abolishing all student debt will have enormous positive impacts for millions of people who will be able to afford to live a better life.
“Young people and women have borne the economic brunt of the pandemic. With the cost of living and housing skyrocketing, it's time to provide relief by wiping their student debt.
“Fee-free university and TAFE for all means no student will be saddled with a debt sentence as they start a new phase of their lives.
“Our universities have been smashed by the Liberals’ austerity agenda and their ideological attacks on higher education.
“Government after government has failed to invest in higher education bringing it to the state of crisis we are in now. This lack of support and broken state of funding for teaching and research is just unacceptable.
“The Greens will reverse the Liberals’ cuts and boost university funding by 10% to ensure universities have the federal support they need to deliver excellent education and research.
“Our plan will put power back in the hands of staff and students as we tackle the casualisation crisis and democratise our campuses to provide secure jobs, transparent governance and fund student unionism.
“Higher education needs to be rebuilt from the ground up based on principles of democracy and equity where staff and students have the best teaching and learning conditions. Nothing less will suffice.
“The Greens will ensure free education for everyone, whether you are leaving school, changing careers, retraining later in life or looking to gain new skills and knowledge. Education is a right, not a privilege reserved for just those who can afford to pay for it.”
Quotes attributable to SA Greens Senate candidate Barbara Pocock:
“Higher education is critical to employment in South Australia where twice as many people work in our universities as in mining. We must invest in our people and take the debt out of gaining skills and knowledge.
“In South Australia, skilled, educated people are our future. It’s time to make vocational and university education free for all.
“High levels of student debt stand in the way of secure housing for many young people. It means they start their working lives in the red. My generation did not begin this way. The past three decades of continuous economic growth mean they should not either.
“All our big problems need strong research solutions, but our universities are increasingly starved of funding. This is not the way to face our future. We must end the Liberal attack on universities and reverse the cuts to research and teaching.”
Read our full plan: