Summary of proposal
Party
Other party
Policy Topic
Education
Portfolio
Education
The proposal would amend the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) as follows:
- Interest on outstanding HELP loans would be charged at the standard variable owner-occupied home loan rate published by the Reserve Bank of Australia.
- The threshold of income at which HELP compulsory repayments would take effect would be reduced to the level at which a recipient would lose eligibility for unemployment benefits.
- An initial repayment rate of 4 per cent of HELP repayment income, rising as per existing arrangements.
- Outstanding debts to be claimed from deceased estates.
The proposal would also:
- abolish higher education and vocational education and training (VET) tuition subsidies for courses commencing from 1 July 2017
- abolish government funding for research by higher education and VET institutions for courses commencing from 1 July 2017
- deregulate the higher education and VET sectors.
The proposal would be implemented on 1 July 2017.
19 October 2017