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Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily

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Speaker 1: ohs oh now it makes sense.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Tuesday,

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Speaker 2: the seventh of May.

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Speaker 3: I'm zara, I'm Billy.

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Speaker 2: The federal government has announced it will wipe three billion

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Speaker 2: dollars in student debt and offer payments for some students

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Speaker 2: undergoing mandatory placements.

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Speaker 3: These announcements come.

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Speaker 2: A week before the federal budget and in the wake

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Speaker 2: of recommendations made to the government about how to form

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Speaker 2: the sector. So Billy on today's podcast, we're going to

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Speaker 2: explain what the changes to HEX could mean for you

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Speaker 2: and how the placement payments will work.

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Speaker 3: Before we get there, though, what's making headlines.

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Speaker 1: The families of two missing Australian brothers have formally identified

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Speaker 1: their bodies in Mexico. Concerns for Jake and Callum Robinson,

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Speaker 1: along with their America friend Jack Carter Road, were raised

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Speaker 1: last week after the three men failed to arrive at

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Speaker 1: an Airbnb in the Baja California region of Mexico. Authorities

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Speaker 1: believe the brothers and Road were all killed by single

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Speaker 1: gunshot to the head following a confrontation with thieves. Three

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Speaker 1: people have been arrested. The Department of Foreign Affairs in Trade,

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Speaker 1: along with the Australian Embassy in Mexico and Australian Federal

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Speaker 1: Police are assisting local authorities with the investigation.

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Speaker 2: Telstra has announced it will delay closing its three G

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Speaker 2: networks until the end of August. The telco previously said

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Speaker 2: it would shut down its three G networks in June,

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Speaker 2: but set its delayed plans to ensure the closure won't

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Speaker 2: stop customers calling triple zero. Telstra is urging customers to

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Speaker 2: check their devices and upgrade to four G before the shutdown.

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Speaker 2: Vodafone and TPG have already shut down their three G networks,

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Speaker 2: while Optus has plans to end three D services in September.

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Speaker 1: Median national rents have reached a new record high of

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Speaker 1: six hundred and twenty seven dollars a week, according to

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Speaker 1: the latest figures from property data firm core Logic. Rentals

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Speaker 1: were most expensive in Sydney and Canberra, where median weekly

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Speaker 1: rents reached seven hundred and seventy dollars and six hundred

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Speaker 1: and seventy four dollars respectively. Per saw the biggest increase

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Speaker 1: in prices over the last twelve months. With a fourteen

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Speaker 1: percent rise. Rents across Australia increased by eight point five

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Speaker 1: percent in the twelve months to April.

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Speaker 2: And today's good news, the Australian women's three x three

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Speaker 2: basketball team has qualified for the Paris Olympics. The game,

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Speaker 2: which made its Olympic debut at Tokyo twenty twenty, is

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Speaker 2: a condensed version of basketball. Three players aside compete on

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Speaker 2: a half court with a single hoop. The Australian women's

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Speaker 2: team qualified for Paris after the Gangaroos beat Canada nineteen

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Speaker 2: sixteen in Japan. And if you want more sport news,

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Speaker 2: you can sign up to tda's sport newsletter. We will

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Speaker 2: throw the link to that in.

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Speaker 3: Today's show notes.

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Speaker 2: So Billy, A couple of weeks ago, we did a

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Speaker 2: podcast episode. It was about the Australian University's Accord final

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Speaker 2: report that is a mouthful, which made nearly fifty recommendations

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Speaker 2: to the government about how to create change in Australia's.

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Speaker 3: Higher education sector.

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Speaker 2: Now a bit over a month later, we are circling

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Speaker 2: back to this story because the government has made two

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Speaker 2: major announcements off the back of these recommendations. One of

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Speaker 2: them is about HEX, so about student debt, and the

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Speaker 2: other is about placements that university students have to do

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Speaker 2: for their degrees.

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Speaker 1: So let's take them one by one. The HEX story,

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Speaker 1: this was absolutely massive. It broke at midnight on Saturday night.

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Speaker 3: We enjoyed a one am text from one of our journalists.

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Speaker 1: Yes, who had written a great piece on it. So

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Speaker 1: what was in that announcement.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'll get to explaining the announcement in just a second.

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Speaker 2: I do want to just set this scene a bit,

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Speaker 2: so for anyone that might be a bit out of

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Speaker 2: university or didn't go to university. I just want to

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Speaker 2: explain what we're talking about when we talk about HEX.

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Speaker 2: So the Higher Education Contribution Scheme HEX, which is under

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Speaker 2: the Higher Education Loan Program HELP, but we're just going

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Speaker 2: to call it HEX. That makes sure that students can

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Speaker 2: go to university without having to pay for their course upfront. Now,

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Speaker 2: students pay off their HEX debt to the government after

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Speaker 2: they begin earning above a certain threshold, and those payments

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Speaker 2: are what's called indexed over time. I'll explain what that

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Speaker 2: means in just a second. The report I referred to

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Speaker 2: earlier looked into how HEX was functioning here in Australia,

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Speaker 2: and it found that the system needed to be modernized.

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Speaker 2: It recommended overhauling the indexation of student debts. So indexation

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Speaker 2: is basically when the amount that a student owes increases

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Speaker 2: to reflect inflation, so rising prices on the first of

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Speaker 2: June each year. So if we're to use an example

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Speaker 2: of what happened last year, on the first of June

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Speaker 2: last year, anyone with HEX that went up seven point

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Speaker 2: one percent. Now that was a record that was huge,

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Speaker 2: but it was in line with what we had seen

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Speaker 2: the rise of inflation. Now, the review suggested that a

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Speaker 2: cap on indexation might avoid significant increases like we saw

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Speaker 2: last year from happening again. And it also suggested that

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Speaker 2: instead of always being pegged to the rate of inflation,

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Speaker 2: that indexation should be pegged to either the rate of

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Speaker 2: wage growth or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So just to recap, we have HEX, which is

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Speaker 1: thousands of dollars in debt that pretty much every person

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Speaker 1: who goes to UNI has, and then every year how

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Speaker 1: much students owe increases and that's to do with rising inflation. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: as we know, we've been in a cost of living

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Speaker 1: crisis and the rate of inflation has been extremely high

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Speaker 1: and that was reflected in the indexation that happened last year.

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Speaker 1: And then we have this report that does a big

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Speaker 1: review into what is going on with HEX and if

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Speaker 1: anything can be improved, and they say that lots of

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Speaker 1: things can be improved and what.

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Speaker 2: They call for an overhaul. They basically say it's not

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Speaker 2: working as intended. People are unable to pay back this

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Speaker 2: debt and it's just becoming a huge issue. So they

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Speaker 2: make these really big recommendations. That's a month ago, and

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Speaker 2: then over the weekend the government finally announced what they

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Speaker 2: were going to do about it.

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Speaker 3: And so what is that announced?

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Speaker 1: It the big building, but finally there.

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Speaker 2: So just in time for budget which is hands down

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Speaker 2: a week today, the federal government announced that they are

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Speaker 2: planning to wipe three billion dollars in student debts. I

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Speaker 2: think we often hear these headlines about wiping debt. We

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Speaker 2: certainly hear it a lot in the US.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I was going to say, we don't hear a

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Speaker 1: lot in debt.

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Speaker 3: We don't remember overhearing it.

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Speaker 1: But Joe Biden has been doing that in the US.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So I just want to explain exactly what that means.

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Speaker 2: In an Australian context. So basically, this concept of wiping

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Speaker 2: debt is the government announcing that they're going to change

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Speaker 2: the way that hex is indexed. So the announcement was

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Speaker 2: that they will base student debt indexation on whatever is

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Speaker 2: lower out of wages or inflation. So remember I said

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Speaker 2: it was always pegged on inflation, but now they've gone

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Speaker 2: with that recommendation and they're now going to have the

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Speaker 2: option if wages are lower, they will do it to

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Speaker 2: that lower rate.

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Speaker 1: And that also goes to the conversation that we've been

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Speaker 1: having in recent years that wages have not been increasing

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Speaker 1: at the same race as inflation.

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Speaker 2: And I think the really important part of this announcement

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Speaker 2: is that the government have said that they will backdate

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Speaker 2: it to June of last year, So that means that

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Speaker 2: anyone that had that seven point one percent indexation applied

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Speaker 2: to their debt that will be wiped.

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Speaker 3: Under the government's announcement and or to go down.

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Speaker 2: To the lower rate of three point two percent, which

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Speaker 2: is what wage growth was at.

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Speaker 1: Just to be clear, though, the seven point one percent

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Speaker 1: isn't entirely going, it's just being replaced by the three

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Speaker 1: reduced it's been reduced to the three point two percent increase,

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Speaker 1: which is in line with how much wages increased at

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Speaker 1: that point last year exactly.

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Speaker 2: So his Education Minister Jason Clair explaining what that means.

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Speaker 4: This will wipeout what happened last year and make sure

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Speaker 4: it never happens again. It means for someone with the

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Speaker 4: average help debt of twenty six thousand, five hundred bucks,

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Speaker 4: up to two hundred dollars will be wiped from their

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Speaker 4: outstanding help loans.

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Speaker 2: And just to give you a sense of what this

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Speaker 2: actually means in real number terms, So if you were

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Speaker 2: to look at your HEX debt and it says that

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Speaker 2: you owe thirty five thousand dollars, you're looking at just

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Speaker 2: over one thousand, five hundred dollars in credit under the

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Speaker 2: government's new scheme. If you're someone that's looking at sixty

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Speaker 2: thousand dollars of debt, for example, you're looking at around

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Speaker 2: two thousand, six hundred dollars in credit. Obviously this will

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Speaker 2: change depending on how much your HEX is, but this

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Speaker 2: is just a rough indicator that the government's given us.

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Speaker 1: So that's a massive change. What happens now doesn't need

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Speaker 1: the support of the opposition.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so I feel like there should always be a

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Speaker 2: bit of an asterix when we make these big announcements.

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Speaker 2: So government is doing big thing asterix, it still needs

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Speaker 2: to pass parliament, So the Government still needs to introduce

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Speaker 2: and pass legislation in parliament. So it's going to be

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Speaker 2: included in the budget, but it needs to pass through

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Speaker 2: parliament to become law, and the Government doesn't have enough

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Speaker 2: seats in the Senate to pass legislation by itself, so

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Speaker 2: it's going to need to rely on either the opposition

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Speaker 2: or some of the crossbench to support it.

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Speaker 1: And so have we heard from the opposition who do

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Speaker 1: be clear when we say opposition but about the coalition

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Speaker 1: which is the Liberal Party and the National Party.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we have so.

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Speaker 2: Shadow Education Minister Sarah Henderson said that the government's announcement

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Speaker 2: is quote all trickery and deceit and doesn't fix Labour's

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Speaker 2: student debt trap. It's pretty strong words there. If I'm

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Speaker 2: to summarize the opposition's main criticism of the government's announcement,

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Speaker 2: they kind of see it as a band aid solution.

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Speaker 2: So in their eyes they're saying the government has mismanaged

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Speaker 2: the economy, that inflation has been rising, really really rapidly

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Speaker 2: and that that's the actual problem, and that the government

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Speaker 2: isn't fixing that problem, they're just fixing the kind of

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Speaker 2: flow on effects of that, and so that is what

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Speaker 2: the coalition is criticizing the government about. Shadow treasurer Angus

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Speaker 2: Taylor said, and I quote the best way to address

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Speaker 2: growing hextet is to fight Labour's homegrown inflation at its

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Speaker 2: source by reigning and spending and strong budget management. Just

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Speaker 2: to be clear, the coalition there are criticizing the government's announcement,

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Speaker 2: but they haven't said whether or not they will support

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Speaker 2: it in parliament, so we'll have to wait and see

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Speaker 2: when it's introduced. The other group that the government would

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Speaker 2: be looking to for support our members of the cross Bench.

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Speaker 2: So we heard from Independent Senator David Pocock who said

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Speaker 2: that the announcement was a good first step, but that

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Speaker 2: without proper reform, student debt will continue to skyrocket. So

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Speaker 2: it'll be really interesting to see how this goes in

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Speaker 2: Parliament once the Government does actually introduce the piece of legislation.

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Speaker 1: So just to be clear that basically it needs the

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Speaker 1: support of either the opposition or the crossbench, both slightly

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Speaker 1: critical of it, but I think at the end of

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Speaker 1: the day, it's probably safe to presume they will get

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Speaker 1: the support of one of those, maybe with some amendments.

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Speaker 1: So okay, So that is a huge story. On Sunday

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Speaker 1: when we posted it, the audience reacted in quite.

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Speaker 3: A large way, strong manner.

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Speaker 1: There was a lot of interest in it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: But at the start of this you said that there

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Speaker 1: were two announcements, and I understand the other one is

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Speaker 1: about placements, which we have also done an episode on

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Speaker 1: and we will put it in the show notes. What

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Speaker 1: did they say about that?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So just before I go to the announcement, just

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Speaker 2: to clarify, when we're talking about placements in this context,

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Speaker 2: we're talking about when students have to complete practical placements

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Speaker 2: and professional training in order to get their degrees. So

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Speaker 2: many people listening to this have had to either do

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Speaker 2: it themselves or watch someone they know undergo these placements.

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Speaker 2: They're typically unpaid and they can last several weeks. When

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Speaker 2: we did You're Right, Billy this pod episode last month,

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Speaker 2: we heard from a couple of students about what the

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Speaker 2: conditions were like on their placements. As a reminder, here's

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Speaker 2: some of what we heard.

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Speaker 5: Studying to zootherapy and as a requirement to graduate, we

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Speaker 5: must attend placements from eight to four and sometimes five pm,

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Speaker 5: depending on your placement, and during that time we do

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Speaker 5: not get paid a single cent of money. We do

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Speaker 5: not get any accommodation allowances, any travel fees, any food expenses,

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Speaker 5: nothing like that. So a lot of us would have

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Speaker 5: to seize our job, our casual our part time jobs

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Speaker 5: to accommodate our time for this. And a lot of

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Speaker 5: my friends had been saving up just so that they

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Speaker 5: have enough money to attend placements, and when they graduate,

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Speaker 5: they will be ending up with no money because they

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Speaker 5: have been using their savings throughout their time on placements,

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Speaker 5: which is one big concern that we are having at

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Speaker 5: the moment.

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Speaker 1: I think many people listening can relate to that. I

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Speaker 1: know that when I was at university, I needed to

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Speaker 1: do an unpaid internship and it was absolutely mandatory that

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Speaker 1: it be unpaid.

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Speaker 2: I think I was one of the few degrees that

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Speaker 2: wasn't required to do one. Everyone else I know, yes,

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Speaker 2: had to do one or many.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a huge issue for a lot of university degrees,

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Speaker 1: and so that is why this big review recommended that

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Speaker 1: the government changed that. Yeah, what did they announce yesterday.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so the government announced financial support for students who

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Speaker 2: are completing these mandatory practical placements. Now I'll go into

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Speaker 2: the specifics I do just want to flag again this

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Speaker 2: also has to pass through Parliament. So what we're saying

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Speaker 2: now is what the government is proposing, but it's not

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Speaker 2: law yet.

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Speaker 3: It still needs to pass through parliament.

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Speaker 2: But let's run through what we do know based on

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Speaker 2: what the government has announced. So from the first of

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Speaker 2: July twenty twenty five, nursing, teaching, midwifery and social work

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Speaker 2: students will be eligible for three hundred and nineteen dollars

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Speaker 2: and fifty cents a week during placements. By the government's estimates,

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Speaker 2: the initiative will be available to seventy three thousand university

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Speaker 2: and tafe students, and not everyone will be.

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Speaker 3: Able to access this support.

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Speaker 2: So even if you are doing these placements, you're not

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Speaker 2: necessarily going to be able to get it. It's going

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Speaker 2: to be means tested, which means that some students will

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Speaker 2: be excluded depending on their personal financial and living situation.

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Speaker 2: And it's also important to note I think that other

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Speaker 2: payments like O study or Commonwealth rent assistance won't be impacted.

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Speaker 2: By this new placement support, so they won't interact in

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Speaker 2: any way or it won't negate you from being able

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Speaker 2: to access that.

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Speaker 1: And what has the response been to that announcement?

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Speaker 2: So the National Union of Students welcome the payments but

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Speaker 2: said they don't go far enough. And I think that

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Speaker 2: it was interesting reading through our comment section when we

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Speaker 2: posted this, because there were a lot of people asking

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Speaker 2: about how the courses that the government chose were chosen.

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Speaker 2: There are a lot of you know, psych students or

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Speaker 2: physio students in our comments section saying I have to

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Speaker 2: do hundreds of hours of unpaid placement.

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Speaker 3: Why are other students getting this and not me? And

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Speaker 3: I think.

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Speaker 2: That that goes to this idea of clearly everyone recognizes

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Speaker 2: something needs to be done, but how you go about

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Speaker 2: it and how far it can go seems to be contested.

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Speaker 2: And then from the opposition we had an our quote

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Speaker 2: from Sarah Henderson. While the Coalition will consider this proposal

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Speaker 2: once the detail is announced, we are concerned about a

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Speaker 2: range of issues, including who will bear the ultimate cost

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Speaker 2: and eligibility requirements.

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Speaker 1: These are two big announcements that are super relevant to

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Speaker 1: young audiences. Thank you so much for listening. To today's

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Speaker 1: episode of The Daily oz and if you're listening on Spotify,

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Speaker 1: you'll see that there's a little Q and a section

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Speaker 1: on the episode page where you can tell us what

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Speaker 1: you thought of today's episode. We would absolutely love it

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Speaker 1: to hear from you. Thank you so much for listening,

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Speaker 1: and we will be back tomorrow.

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Speaker 5: My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Adunda

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Speaker 5: Bungelung Kalgotin woman from Gadahn. The Daily oz acknowledges that

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Speaker 5: this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadigal

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Speaker 5: people and pays respect to all.

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Speaker 3: Aboriginal and Torrestrate island and nations.

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Speaker 5: We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries,

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Speaker 5: both past and present.