Student incomes to receive further government boost as Labor goes after youth vote
Education Minister Jason Clare also warned any intimidation on university campuses was “intolerable”.
By Angus Thompson and Matthew Knott
Students training for critical occupations such as teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work will receive more than $300 a week to supplement their incomes while they finish their degree as the federal government makes easing the burden of higher education a centrepiece of next week’s budget.
As part of a bid to shore up support from young voters ahead of the next federal election, Labor is foreshadowing a suite of further announcements for tertiary students in the budget after pledging to wipe $3 billion nationally from university debts.
The budget focus on higher education comes as pro-Palestine encampments continue to grow at Australian universities, with Education Minister Jason Clare warning protesters and university administrators that any intimidation or hate speech on campus must be regarded as “intolerable”.
Education Minister Jason Clare said students should not be forced into poverty while they undertake practical training.Credit: Martin Ollman
Clare revealed that he called in university vice-chancellors to meet with Jewish community leaders and students last week to discuss the campus protests, which have not led to US-style significant outbreaks of violence or the occupation of university buildings.
The paid placements, to be announced by Clare on Monday, mean the government will foot up to $23.3 million a week for 73,000 university and TAFE students to supplement their living costs while they undertake vital clinical and professional placements.
“This will give people who have signed up to do some of the most important jobs in this country a bit of extra help to get the qualifications they need,” Clare said.
“Placement poverty is a real thing. I have met students who told me they can afford to go to uni, but they can’t afford to do the prac.”
The $319.50 payment, due to begin from July 2025, is benchmarked to the Austudy single weekly rate. It will be means-tested and paid in addition to any income support the student may already receive.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said teachers deserved a fair start to their careers: “We’re proud to be backing the hard work and aspiration of Australians looking to better themselves by studying at university.”
Clare’s announcement on Sunday to save the average student $1200 on their debt by reconfiguring the way the balance is annually indexed was also in response to one of several recommendations to overhaul the HECS-HELP system to make university more affordable.
In response to another of the recommendations, Clare said Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones had written to the Australian Banking Association asking for information on how banks took HECS debts into account when assessing applications for home loans.
Among other recommendations, the accord panel called for the date of indexation to be shifted so the amount paid down by the student could be considered before the debt was recalculated, as well as reversing some of the effects of the Coalition’s changes that hiked the fees of humanities degrees.
“In relation to all the other recommendations, you’ll see the first stage of our response in the budget,” Clare told a Sydney press conference on Sunday.
While teal independents who had campaigned on student debt relief, including Monique Ryan and Kylea Tink, praised Clare’s announcement on HECS indexation, independent senator David Pocock said only a fraction of the necessary reforms had been addressed.
“Changing the rate of Indexation is important but failing to act now on both the timing of indexation and scrapping Job Ready Graduates will see student debt continue to skyrocket,” he said.
As pro-Palestine protesters announced plans on Sunday to set up new tent cities at RMIT, Deakin University and La Trobe University in Melbourne, Clare declined to back Coalition calls for such encampments to be removed.
“In a free country like Australia, there is always the right to protest, but it must be done peacefully, it must be done responsibly,” he said.
“There is no place for fear and intimidation and hate... Any words that stoke fear in our community or make people not want to go to university are intolerable.”
Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said encampments should be forcibly broken up by police, with new laws introduced to fine universities that fail to ensure safety on campus.
Clare said he had told university vice chancellors that “nothing is more important than the safety of students at our universities”.
“Universities have codes of conduct. I’ve asked them to make sure that they implement their codes of conduct,” he said.
Clare said it was crucial for all Australians “to dial the rhetoric down, get the temperature to come down a little bit here and work together to try and bring the country together rather than letting it be torn apart”.
Alicia Griffiths, the social justice officer at the La Trobe Student Union, said: “Our encampment will be right in the centre of campus as a protest against the injustice faced by Palestinians.
“Encampments are spreading like wildfire across Australia because students are determined to disrupt the war machine.”
A group of 99 prominent Australian women – including accord panel member and former Labor minister Jenny Macklin, Chief Executive Women president Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, and economist Angela Jackson – are also calling on Albanese to lift JobSeeker and Youth Allowance to bolster women’s economic security, linking it to the recent $5000 leaving-violence payment.
“For First Nations women, for women from diverse backgrounds, for women from all backgrounds, the impacts of poverty on the ability to leave violence and live in safety is profound,” the letter reads.
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