Labor promises fee-free TAFE and slashed HECS debts in re-election pitch

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The government has started making re-election promises, saying it will slash student debt and introduce more fee-free TAFE as it attempts to steer conversation away from the QANTAS upgrade controversy.

Transcript

00:00It's promising to slash HECS debt by 20%. So, the example they've given is if your HECS

00:08debt is about $27,000, you would have about $5,500 taken off that if the Albanese government

00:16is re-elected and they can put this into practice. They've also made some commitments around

00:22when you'll pay back your HECS debt. So, for example, when you start earning $67,000 a

00:28year, which is a bit more than what the current rule is. This is at a cost of $500 million

00:34to the budget. The government also held a rally in Adelaide on the weekend where it

00:38announced that it would be putting in place 100,000 fee-free TAFE places each year. This

00:45is a policy the government is continuing, but it's basically committing to the next

00:50three years for 100,000 fee-free TAFE places each year. But again, only if it is re-elected,

00:58it is an election promise. Now, the policy has come under a bit of criticism from the

01:03Coalition saying that it will end up having taxpayers pay for university degrees for people

01:09who end up actually earning more money. But the Health Minister and senior Labor figure

01:14Mark Butler was talking this morning and he said that that's not what this is about.

01:20Student debt's never been higher. The contribution that students make as a share of their university

01:25or TAFE costs has never been higher as well. And I think we all know young Australians

01:30are under real financial pressure. So, this is a meaningful contribution to their financial

01:36future. It's something we can afford as a country because we know there's no better

01:40investment we can make than in the skills and the education of our young citizens.

01:46So, even though there's probably four or five months to go until an election, starting to

01:51make cash splashes and promises for after the election, it sure sounds like the government

01:57is preparing at least to be in campaign mode. The Prime Minister is likely to get more questions

02:02on the floor of Parliament about whether or not he solicited in any way upgrades for his

02:08personal travel from Qantas. After a few days last week, he ended up denying that he did

02:14ever contact Alan Joyce directly. He denied that he ever contacted them by any other means

02:19or any other person. And then there were questions about whether anyone in the Prime Minister's

02:24office made that contact with Qantas. Other ministers have said they're not sure if that

02:29sort of thing happens or that it possibly happens. But the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese,

02:34was on the AM program on ABC Radio this morning and he was asked directly, did anyone in your

02:40office seek upgrades?

02:43Not to my knowledge, no.

02:45Not to your knowledge. Again, that's...

02:48Upgrades, these upgrades. You're talking about a 30-year period, Sabra. A 30-year period...

02:53So, someone might have on your behalf.

02:56In which one a year, the only discussions, I've been upfront about this, everything has

03:06been declared and I've had no upgrades as Prime Minister.

03:13The Prime Minister's argument there that he's declared everything, that there's nothing

03:16he's hiding. But the Coalition's argument here is that whether there has been any undue

03:22influence on the Prime Minister or any other government minister because of these flight

03:28perks.

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