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
• abolish government funding for research by higher education and VET institutions
• deregulate the higher education and VET sectors.

The proposal would be implemented on 1 July 2017.