As promised, Labor’s first act in the 48th parliament was to cut 20 per cent off all student debt. It’s a long-overdue move and undeniably welcome. Students have spent years shouting into the void about the rising cost of degrees, and this announcement suggests that some people in Canberra might finally be listening. Or, at the very least, want to look as if they are.
But if this is the government’s headline act – the big proof that they’re listening to students – then we’ve got a serious problem. The 20 per cent cut will help, as will the higher threshold and tweaked rates for repayment, but these steps don’t come close to fixing the structural mess that got us here. The core problem remains: students are still…