'A scam and a rip-off': Submissions reveal spiralling student debt, with senate report about to be tabled
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The bill also looks to amend legislation in a bid to "improve the fairness" of various loan schemes by raising the minimum repayment threshold for the loans and tying it to the median wage. The Greens said a Parliamentary Budget Office analysis showed that of the 3.2 million graduates still trying to get on top of their growing debt, 60 per cent of those who would benefit from a freeze were women and 54 per cent were under 40 years of age.
Mr Sheldon, who chaired the committee, said it was the former Coalition government's decision to lower the minimum repayment threshold from $52,000 to $45,880 which had substantially increased the hardship suffered by low- and middle-income graduates. "After enduring years of funding cuts and the erosion of working conditions in our universities by the former Coalition government, a wholesale review of the sector was needed, and that is what the minister has initiated through the Australian Universities Accord process."Science graduate Clare Ripsher, pictured with her son Rhys, says she felt "suffocated" by the weight of her debt.
"I tried to enter the workforce only to find I was over-qualified for most jobs or under-qualified for the rest."I didn't end up in the career of a nutritionist due to the reasons above and that so many other students came through and studied the same thing, making what little jobs there were even harder to get.
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