If you have any spare time today, you might want to try one last time to BEG our leaders to stop HECS-HELP indexation.
Here is what I just wrote to Anthony Albanese:
"Dear Prime Minister,
On behalf of the 18,888 people who have signed the "Stop HECS-HELP indexation", I beg you once again to stop indexation.
Yesterday, Jim Chalmers used the "this is how it's always been" argument, and I must say, that defence just does not cut it. We have just come out of 3 years of pandemic, we are facing extraordinary times- to argue that you are 'just doing what has always been done' is just not good enough. Changing times require CHANGING processes. When we discover that a scheme is broken and hurting young people, we do not defend and perpetuate it. We remedy it.
This scheme has been measured and found wanting. Indexation has been shown to have a disproportionate effect on women- arguably, it breaches the Anti-Discrimination Act as it is an example of indirect discrimination. Furthermore, it adds to the burden of young Australians who now are saddled with an ever-increasing debt. Additionally, we have the shady practice of applying indexation BEFORE the collected funds from PAYE tax have been applied to the debt. All of these considerations are cause to pause indexation while we work on more equitable ways to fund higher education.
Please act today to stop indexation!
Yours,
Gemma McWhirter"
I thought Jim Chalmer's behaviour in Parliament yesterday were appalling- https://tinyurl.com/fpt43fhy . He deflected the question about freezing indexation while he literally laughed through his response. This is not the posture of someone who cares about the crippling debt faced by young Australians- it was point scoring and 'gotcha-ism', while perpetuating a broken and damaging system. We can do better than this. Yes there are only a few more hours to make our voice heard- but I still am hopeful that our leaders will do the right thing and STOP INDEXATION TODAY.
Stay safe,
Gemma