Thank you. I rise in support of this bill which responds to some of the key recommendations in the Australian Universities Accord final report. The universities accord was a long awaited, important review into the way higher education is delivered in Australia. Over decades, the Australian university system has evolved and the way Australians access education has changed. I commend the government for commencing and committing to this review and for commissioning this report into how we improve the quality, accessibility, affordability and sustainability of higher education. The review looked at meeting Australia's current and future knowledge and skills needs, improving access to higher education, across teaching, learning and research, exploring better alignment between VET and universities, and supporting a system of university research that delivers for Australia. The resulting report made 47 recommendations. The bill being debated today introduces five of the 47 review recommendations and budget commitments. The two that are most significant to my constituents and about which I get the most emails and calls are changes to the HELP indexation scheme to make study more affordable and changes to funding arrangements for practical placements. These changes will go some of the way to improving access and opportunity for Australian students, and to ease the financial burden for a small group who are studying or will study in the future. I urge the government to do so much more to make education more accessible. I want to talk about these two changes, how they can be improved and the need for broader reform. When it was first introduced in 1989, the HECS system was the world's first national income contingent charging mechanism for higher education. In 1989, only 12 per cent of Australians had a university degree. At that time it was considered unfair to expect all taxpayers to fully fund the higher education of this 12 per cent as they would eventually earn more than an average full time worker. By 2021, about 39 per cent of people aged 25-34 had a bachelor or higher. This is good news for the country, a better educated workforce is able to make the most of evolving economic opportunities and higher paying jobs are theoretically available to more Australians but it means far more are students are saddled with a HECS debt. Over this time government has also reduced the proportion of higher education it subsidises with the expected student contribution increasing from about 20 per cent to about 48 per cent of student course costs. This means that HECS debts are burdening a generation of young people. Student now finish degrees with average debts of $50,000 to $60,000, taking on average 12 years to repay their debts. HECS debts are indexed by the rate of inflation, in recent years student debt has outgrown earnings. The outstanding HECS debts owed by graduates have ballooned from $22.5 billion in 2011 to $78 billion in 2023. Many young Australians had no idea what they were getting into when they signed up to university at the age of 17 or 18. Higher inflation means has resulted in indexation of 3.9 per cent and 7.1 per cent in the last two years. This is having a real impact on intergenerational inequity. Young people are facing higher HECS debt on top of unaffordable housing and a tax system that disproportionately taxes effort. In this context, it makes sense to reduce the burden on young people. HECS debts will be indexed from now at the lower of the consumer price index or the wage price index. This change will mean that your debt won't grow faster than prices or wages. This is a modest but common sense change to recognise the social benefit of higher education and stop penalising young people for investing in their future. I acknowledge and thank my colleague, the Member for Kooyong for her work in publicising this issue, mobilising the community and demanding a fairer approach to paying for education. I'm proud to sit with her on the crossbench that is driving positive change. But I think we need to do more. Federal funding for Australian universities has now decreased from 80 per cent in 1992 to around 35 per cent today. In 1996 student fees constituted about 10 per cent of universities' income. For some tertiary centres that figure is now 70 per cent. Our universities are relying on international student fees to fund research and domestic student fees to keep the lights on. We need to do better. Education is worth investing in. If we want a prosperous and forward looking society, we need to support easier pathways to higher education, whether at university or at a VET institute. That shouldn't be restricted to the wealthy. The prac payment for those in teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work is a welcome development. From July 2025, eligible students can access $319.50 per week while undertaking a placement, though a means test will apply. However, the Universities Accord recommended this form of support to students in the care and education sectors and the legislation applies it to only the approximately 6,000 students undertaking teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work studies. There is no clear or justifiable rationale for excluding students of medicine radiography, allied health and other health sector professionals. Students who are also required to undertake compulsory placements. A few months ago, I was emailed by Dave a third year vet science student living in Subiaco with his partner, Jen, a midwifery student and fulltime nurse. He wrote to me to describe the pressure felt by his peers who are required to complete a minimum of 52 weeks of placements over the course of a 5 year degree. He said, 'It's great the government decided to provide payments for placements to teaching, midwifery and social work, and nursing however veterinary students are also struggling, they're sleeping in cars and struggling to pay rent because of a course so demanding that paid work feels like a luxury. This is devastating for our students, devastating for agriculture and exports, devastating for our pets and wildlife, devastating for our regions and devastating for our country. I believe this measure needs to be extended to cover more prac students like Dave. Medical students and those studying to be psychologists will miss out and these are key industries in which we know we have major shortages. The details of how the prac payment will be calculated have been left to regulation and there is no detail in the bill. Because the details have been delegated to a legislative instrument it means this government or a future one could decide to change it substantially. At about $8 an hour it can't be compared to an acceptable wage but it is in line with Austudy. I won't go into why we're keeping students in poverty here, that is an issue for another day. This is a generation which, now in the face of a cost-of-living crisis and crisis of home accessibility and unaffordability is being burdened with unprecedented levels of personal debt arising from their attempts to equip themselves with the skillsets not just required for their adult lives, but also for the country's future prosperity. This is a generation which understands that Australian university students contribute more to government revenue than the oil and gas revenue pays in its super profits tax. I would also like to note the concerns from universities, that the government expects universities to administer the means test, a task they are not really equipped to carry out. The bill provides for grants to be made to universities with the intention that universities will undertake means testing and make payments on a weekly basis. As such, this legislation will result in considerable additional administrative costs to universities, and will require the Department of Education to establish a grant estimating and acquittal process. It will be essential the regulations set out a clear process, appropriate support to ensure universities can deliver this with minimal administrative burden. In conclusion, I will support this bill because it will make a small difference to some of the students that are studying some courses and reduce HECS repayments for some years but I do not think it anywhere near enough to overcome the many current challenges in the higher education sector. Our kids are struggling to buy a house, to pay for higher education, be financially secure and eventually have a family. I urge the government to do much much more to support university and VET students. Thank you.