It's a pleasure to stand up and talk about the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025. University isn't for everyone, and it should not have to be. But the choice to go to university or not should never be based on whether a young person thinks it's something they can afford. I am extremely proud to rise in support of this bill—the first to be introduced in the other place by our government in this parliament. We, as a government, are delivering real cost-of-living relief by tackling student debt—a measure only possible and only happening because we have a Labor government. The average student loan sits at around $27,000. We're cutting that debt by an average of $5,000 per person.

Time after time, during the election campaign, I heard from constituents in my home state of South Australia about the difference this would make for them in the cost of living. It's a total reduction of over $16 billion in student debt nationwide, and, when combined with reforms to indexation, we are reducing student loan debt by close to $20 billion for more than three million Australians. The bill makes important structural changes to how the repayment system works. These changes apply to university students, vocational education students and eligible apprentices. The 20 per cent reduction to HECS and HELP debt comes into effect before the indexation, supporting students and graduates to avoid unnecessary compounding increases.

In my home state of South Australia, there are just over 200,000 South Australians with a student debt. Under these game-changing reforms, those 200,000 South Australians will receive an average cut to their debt of $5,000. This will make a huge difference to people in South Australia and in my community struggling with the cost of living. Of course, university is not for everyone, but, for those in whom it unlocks a life-changing opportunity, they should be given every opportunity to succeed and contribute to our community. I commend this bill to the Senate.