Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I am very glad to get the question from the member for Ryan and I am very pleased that the Leader of the Opposition allowed her to ask it, and that you gave her the call, Madam Speaker, because it is a very, very important subject that we are debating in the House today. One of the aspects of the government's higher education reforms is that we are abolishing the up-front fees that are charged on the FEE-HELP loans and VET FEE-HELP loans, the HECS-HELP scheme that applies to vocational education and training students as well as students at nonuniversity higher education providers. They are currently being charged a fee of 20 per cent for VET students and a fee of 25 per cent for nonuniversity higher education provider students.

As part of our reforms, we are abolishing those fees and that will help 50,000 students who are currently at nonuniversity higher education institutions, and it will help 80,000 students in vocational education and training, saving students over the next three years $723 million. I do not like to borrow a line too often but, dare I say it, this government is the best friend students have ever had. That is one of the reasons it is so important that the higher education reforms pass the House because VET students and students at nonuniversity higher education providers will be very much better off when this reform bill passes. I am not the only one who thinks so.

Mr Thistlethwaite interjecting—

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