‘We got schooled’: The vote winner Dutton rejected
It was the Labor election promise that was set to benefit millions of Australians. But a plan from the Coalition to do something similar was rejected.
NSW
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A proposal to cap student loan indexation, which would have benefited millions of young voters, was curiously knocked back by the Liberal Party’s senior leadership team.
It comes as Labor heralds the success of its $16 billion pledge to slash education HELP debts by 20 per cent, believing it played a role in Saturday’s election whitewash.
The Daily Telegraph understands the opposition’s policy had been suggested by Shadow Education Minister Sarah Henderson and Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor during the last term of government, but was rejected.
“Angus and Sarah took forward a policy to cap HELP indexation with an inflation guarantee, but it was not agreed to,” a senior Coalition source said.
A Nationals MP added: “We got schooled on education. My kids are paying off a university debt and I reckon they voted for Labor.”
Peter Dutton’s office declined to comment on Thursday.
The Albanese Government has vowed to cut every HELP debt in the country by 20 per cent. They have also worked with the banks to ensure a student loan does not impact someone’s borrowing power for a mortgage.
Almost three million Australians have a HELP debt from tertiary study, with the average outstanding amount being $27,000. Labor’s policy will cut $5000 from that figure.
The Coalition’s policy would have targeted the annual indexation, where an unpaid HELP debt increases by either the consumer price index wage price index, depending on which rate is lower.
Between 18 and 22 per cent of people in the seats of Grayndler, Sydney, Watson, Blaxland, Parramatta, Bennelong and Reid have a HELP debt.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare told this masthead that everywhere he had gone in the last few months, he “ran into people who told me they had a debt and told me they were going to vote Labor because we were going to cut it by 20 per cent”.
“As the Prime Minister said this week, this will be the first piece of legislation we will introduce when parliament sits,” Mr Clare said.
Originally published as ‘We got schooled’: The vote winner Dutton rejected
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