She might be an over-prolix pain in the bum, but former minor Australian radio celebrity Helen Razer was at least honest in a student debate over university fees. ‘I’ve got a degree in women’s studies,’ she whined. ‘There’s no way I’m paying for that.’ It’s probably the only unalloyed truth a leftist has ever said in the whole argument over student fees.
No wonder the student left are so keen to abolish university fees. Who’d want to pay for such rubbish degrees as they favour?
It’s no wonder, too, that Anthony Albanese is so keen to try and buy the votes of one of the few voting blocs Labor can still rely on.
Over the weekend, the Albanese government announced radical changes to student loans, which would kick in after the next federal election.
Three million Australians with student debt could see their balances cut by 20%. The remaining debt would be repaid under a new system, with no compulsory repayments for people earning less than A$67,000 a year. Both changes require parliamentary approval.
Which sounds an awful lot like old-fashioned pork-barrelling. Like Whitlam’s ‘free’ university, it’s pork-barrelling aimed squarely at the middle-class left. The biggest beneficiaries of the changes will not be vocational students, or ‘grievance studies’ graduates (because those bottom-of-the-barrel degrees are relatively cheap).
The most expensive degrees (nudging $100k) are also the most lucrative: law and architecture engineering, for example. So, do the math: 20 per cent off a $16k degree: a $3,200 reduction. The law degree, though: a $20,000 saving. So, the richest graduates are being handed the biggest payback.
Courtesy of the taxpayer, of course.
And how much will this desperate vote-buying cost the taxpayer?
As of June 30 this year, Australia’s higher education student debt totalled about $75.1 billion – although this is soon set to drop by about $3 billion. Legislation to partially reverse recent indexation to debts will go to the Senate later this month.
However, staying with the $75 billion, a 20 per cent cut would be about $15 billion.
As invariably happens with such programs, people who miss out on the ‘free money’ will demand their ‘fair share’.
While people who currently hold debt will see their repayment times reduced after the 20% cut to their balance, future borrowers won’t have this benefit.
Given the pattern of recent announcements, it would not be surprising if the government also announced reduced student contributions for future borrowers.
And so it goes.
Did someone say ‘NDIS’?
