By Matt Wade
Sydney residents have racked up $14 billion in student debt, and more than half of those who owe the federal government money for their tertiary studies live in the western suburbs, where a swag of marginal seats will be tightly contested at this year’s federal election.
Nearly half a million Sydneysiders have a Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) liability, and the average debt hit $28,739 in 2021-22, analysis of the latest Tax Office data by the Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue shows.
The Albanese government has sought to woo young voters with student debt relief.
In July, all HELP (previously HECS) liabilities will be cut by 20 per cent and the income threshold at which student loans must be repaid will be lifted. In addition, Treasurer Jim Chalmers last week instructed lenders to ignore student debt when weighing up mortgage applications, making it easier for those with a HELP liability to get a home loan.
Sydney’s City and Inner South statistical district, which includes the CBD and adjacent suburbs to the west and south, had the highest average student debt at $33,019, followed by the Inner West with $31,585.
But the Sydney statistical districts with the most HELP debtors – Inner South West (56,122), South West (46,232) and Parramatta (44,552) – are all in western Sydney and overlap with key marginal electorates including Parramatta, Banks, Reid and Werriwa.
About 55 per cent of the 480,000 Sydney residents with a HELP debt lived in the city’s greater west, which is an important electoral battleground because of its big population and its concentration of seats with tight margins.
Maddy Foster, a school teacher at Granville Public School who recently finished her university studies, says her HELP debt is always at the back of her mind.
“With indexation on top of my debt every year, it scares me to look at it, really. It’s like, ‘how much do I owe now?’,” she said.
Foster recently took a loan to buy a home unit and says her HELP debt adds to her sense of financial stress.
Primary school teacher Maddy Foster says her student debt is always at the back of her mind. Credit: Steven Siewert
“I feel like I’m just swimming in debt at this point, and I don’t know when I won’t be swimming in debt, to be honest,” she said.
“It is frustrating just thinking about it. I love this career ... but with the cost of living and how much has been already added on to the HECS debt, I’m definitely not going to be able to pay it off as quickly as I was planning.”
Foster grew up in western Sydney and knows people who have decided against doing a degree because they were concerned about accruing debt.
“They just thought it wasn’t worth it in the end, which is pretty sad,” she said.
Foster says the plan to cut student debt is “a small step in the right direction”, but she believes more should be done to reduce financial pressure on young people.
For the past two decades, females have been undertaking higher education in larger numbers than males; as a result, far more women now have student debt than men. Nationally, 62 per cent of those aged 30 to 39 years with a HELP debt are women, federal government data shows.
Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue chief executive Adam Leto said the distribution of student debt across Sydney dispelled claims that cutting HELP debts would benefit only wealthy professionals.
“Some of the commentary saying this policy is just for the city’s rich kids, I think is a little out of touch,” he said.
The most recent census revealed the number of people gaining a bachelor’s degree in Greater Western Sydney jumped by 29 per cent in the five years to 2021. The biggest increase in tertiary educated workers across western Sydney in that period was in the healthcare and social assistance sector. Education was the third largest.
“I wouldn’t call carers, nurses and teachers wealthy professionals,” Leto said.
Blacktown, Parramatta and the Hills Shire councils added more adults with a degree than any other local government areas in NSW between 2016 and 2021.
“The young generation of western Sydney are increasingly educated, mobile and aspirational, and any policy which has the potential to open up more opportunities for higher learning and skills development should be encouraged,” Leto said.
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