A selfie with university students posted by Anthony Albanese has spectacularly backfired on the Prime Minister after he was accused of ‘buying votes’.
Mr Albanese posted a photo of himself with three students to remind Australians his government planned to wipe more than $3billion in HECS debts.
Labor has pledged to change the HECS indexation rate to be set against either the Consumer Price Index or the Wage Index, whichever figure is lower.
A student’s HECS debt would be indexed by four per cent rather than seven per cent in 2024 and 2023. The 7.1 per cent index rate would be backdated to 3.2 per cent.
‘We’re wiping $3billion in student debt, for more than 3million Australians,’ Mr Albanese captioned the happy snap posted to his social media on Tuesday.
Mr Albanese posted a photo of himself posing with three university students to remind Australians his government planned to wipe more than $3billion in HECS debt
The photo was quickly inundated with comments that accused the PM of trying to ‘buy’ votes while others complained it would be taxpayers who would foot the bill.
‘Wiping out student debt won’t convince the youth leaders of tomorrow to vote for you,’ feminist author Clementine Ford commented.
‘Student debt just isn’t going to be unfairly indexed to the ridiculous inflation rate your government has failed to keep down,’ a second wrote.
‘How stupid do you think we are? No one is buying your BS.’
A third commented: ‘Debt doesn’t get “wiped”, you just transferred it to the taxpayer, without asking. If those kids knew that their future kids would be paying for it, they wouldn’t be smiling.’
‘We’re wiping 3billion in student debt, to buy more than 3million Australian votes,’ another wrote.
The Australian Tax Office confirmed on June 1 that HECS debt was still being indexed at 4.7 per cent rather than four per cent.
Under Labor’s pledge to wipe debt, the average amount of money students owe to the ATO on their HECS and HELP debt will be cut by $1,200.
Students with larger debts such as those with a HELP debt of $50,000 will have their repayments reduced by $2,245.
The change will apply to all HELP, VET Student Loan, Australian Apprenticeship Support Loan and student support loan accounts that existed on 1 June last year.
‘There’s a range of areas we need to do much better for the younger generation and HECS is one of them,’ Mr Albanese said at the time.
Australians owed a combined $78.2billion in HECS-HELP debt as of 2023.
The indexation rate hit a massive 7.1 per cent last year as inflation hit an annual rate of 7 per cent, during the first three months in 2023.
Mr Albanese was accused of wiping student debt to ‘buy votes’ in the next federal election
In May, treasurer Jim Chalmers described the indexation system as ‘flawed’ and said it placed younger Australians under unfair fiscal pressures.
Dr Chalmers announced in the Budget $427million would be spent over four years to provide financial support to students undertaking mandatory practical placements in critical sectors, like nursing, midwifery, teaching, and social services.
Previously, students in those sectors were required to undergo weeks of full-time, unpaid work to get their qualification.
That meant students were unable to commit to their paid jobs and earn money to cover basic amenities like rent, electricity and food.
HECS and HELP are loans students can take out to pay for their tuition, with the amount funded by the government that will then need to be paid back.
Domestic students are eligible to access the program to obtain financial support from the Commonwealth.