News
2 August, 2025
Debt relief for over 20,000 Blair students
NEW Australian Government legislation introduced into Federal Parliament last week is set to cut 20 per cent – or more than $5,500 – off student debts for around 23,000 people in the Blair electorate.
The reforms will wipe more than $16 billion in debt for more than three million Australians, including around 23,150 local students and graduates across Ipswich, the Somerset Region and Karana Downs area.
Based on Australian Taxation Office figures, the average student debt in Blair is $24,403, so this will see around $5,520 wiped from these outstanding Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) loans.
Backdated to June 1, it will reduce the burden for people with a student debt – including all HELP, Vocational Education and Training (VET) Student Loans, Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans, Student Startup Loans and other student loans.
In addition to cutting student debt by 20 per cent, the legislation raises the minimum amount before people have to start making repayments from $54,435 to $67,000 and reduces minimum repayments.
For someone earning $70,000 it will reduce the minimum repayments they have to make by $1,300 a year.
On top of this, the Government has requested that financial regulators APRA and ASIC update their guidance to the banks to make it easier for Australians with a HELP debt to responsibly take out a mortgage and buy a home.
Federal Member for Blair Shayne Neumann hailed the changes and said the Government’s focus was continuing to deliver cost of living relief for the Australian people.
“Cutting student will ease pressure on workers and students in my community. It makes the system fairer by giving people on lower incomes more money in their pockets,” Mr Neumann said.
“We have two University of Southern Queensland campuses in Blair – in Ipswich and Springfield – so these changes will make a difference for students attending uni here. It’s a big deal for a lot of young people.
“This builds on our reforms to fix the indexation formula, so that loans never grow faster than wages into the future, which has already cut more than $3 billion in student debt.
“Getting an education shouldn’t mean a lifetime of debt. No matter where you live or how much your parents earn, our government will work to ensure the doors of opportunity are open for you.
“For young people just out of uni, just getting established and possibly looking to buy a house, this will take a weight off their back.”
Mr Neumann emphasised that the cuts to students’ debts were not just aimed at university students.
“We know that cost can often be a barrier to people pursuing a TAFE course, apprenticeship or other VET qualification,” he said.
“This bill will deliver cost of living relief to almost 280,000 students in the VET sector – cutting half a billion dollars of student debt from this group alone, and will help students attending TAFE in Ipswich.”
