Mrs PHILLIPS (Gilmore) (14:23): My question is to the Minister for Education. How is the Albanese Labor government helping students and easing cost-of-living pressures for early educators?
Mr CLARE (Blaxland—Minister for Education) (14:24): I thank my friend, the greatest member for Gilmore that we have ever had. Last night we delivered an education trifecta: a 15 per cent pay rise for our early educators, increased funding for public schools and $3 billion in student debt wiped for more than three million Australians. And that 15 per cent pay rise for early educators will start to roll out from this weekend. The extra funding for our public schools will start to roll out in just over a month, and the $3 billion we have wiped from student debt will be done by the ATO over the next few weeks.
Our early educators are some of the most underpaid workers in this country. They don't just change nappies; they change lives, and this pay rise will help to change their lives. This is what it will mean: an extra hundred bucks in their pocket from next week and an extra $5,000 over the next year. We hope it'll encourage more people to want to be early educators. Here's a good sign: Goodstart, the biggest childcare provider in the country, have told us that in the week after they signed up for this pay agreement they've seen an eight per cent increase in the number of job applications, so that's a good start.
The extra funding for public schools will also change lives. It will help us to turn around that decline in the number of people finishing school by tying this funding to real and practical reforms like phonics checks, numeracy checks, evidence based teaching and catch-up tutoring. Wiping $3 billion of HECS debt will change lives too, and it's just the start. If we win the next election, we will cut student debt by a further 20 per cent. To give you an idea about what that means, the change that we made last night will wipe about $1,200 off the average HECS debt, and, if we win the next election, we'll wipe a further $5,500 off the average HECS debt. That'll make a world of difference for a lot of young people just out of uni or just out of TAFE, just out of home and just getting started. This is what only Labor governments do: cut your debt; lift your wages; fund our schools properly; open the door of opportunity; help more young Australians to finish school and then go to TAFE or university; and build a better and fairer education system where no-one is held back and no-one is left behind.
