Student loans cap
Greens lash legislation
UNIVERSITY students will have to pay back student loans when their earnings hit $45,000 under Federal Government measures to rein in bulging university costs.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham wants to cap student loans because some students are racking up debts by juggling multiple degrees.
Legislation is before the Senate to reduce the student loan repayment threshold from $55,000 to $45,000 a year.
The Bill also limits how much students can borrow at $104,440 or $150,000 for medicine, dentistry and vet science students.
“It’s clear some students are racking up unnecessary loans that are all funded by taxpayers,” Senator Birmingham said.
The Government wanted to cap loans for life, but dumped the measure in favour of making the debt limit renewable.
Students will be able to borrow multiple times provided they have paid off enough debt to remain below the limit.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale said it was another example of the government making life harder for young people.
“It is no secret that young people are getting royally screwed over by this older generation of LNP politicians,” Senator Di Natale told parliament yesterday.
The Government will have to win crossbench support for the student loan reforms with Labor and the Greens opposed.
In March, Centre Alliance, which controls two Senate votes, signalled it could support the tweaked package.
Labor senator Murray Watt said the Government was paying for company tax cuts by slashing education funding.
“Right now it’s students in universities who are in the gun, but it really doesn’t matter what type of young person you are in this country — you are in the sights of this government,” Senator Watt said.
The move to cut the HECSHELP threshold was flagged in December’s mid-year budget, with the amount lower than the $42,000 outlined in the 2017 Budget. KIDS as young as seven years old will spend their school holidays learning how to build their own iPhone apps as part of an innovative program coming to Geelong.
Program provider Code Camp is partnering with Deakin University to offer primary school aged students two unique three-day school
After the experience, students have access to Code Camp World — the platform they used to create the app — so they can further their coding skills at home.
The Spark program for first timers to be held in Geelong next week is already sold out but the Ignite program for return students, starting July 4, has positions remaining.
For more details, or to book, visit codecamp.com.au
AAP