I was told that clever accounting can get around HECs, but not sure if it is true.
In order to repay HECS, you have to earn more than nearly $52,000 pa this tax year. Debt is indexed by CPI or something, but you don’t have to pay anything. The statute of limitations on this debt is 6 years, so if Government takes no Court action within six years then the debt expires.
Wonder if anyone has tried it?
A HELP debt (HECS) is wiped upon death! So that is an effective strategy.
Last sentence sounds like bullcrap.
Yeah, still sounds like bullcrap. You gotta argue you never actually took the HECS/HELP loan, you gotta argue the reason you didn’t pay was because the Gov had abandoned it, etc.
Also, the statute of limitations is state legislation, and does not apply to Commonwealth liabilities
pretty much
however there is a legitimate concern about unemployment levels in areas without much else going on if coal mining was to cease
and “retrain them to build solar panels” isn’t as straight forward a solution as you’d expect it to be
The world turns, things change and people adapt. Blacksmiths must have adapted, wheelrights, flethers, coachmen, elevator operators, galley slaves, lamp lighters, night cart workers, town criers, type setters, Kodak employees, Ansett employees. They’ve all adapted to changing circumstances and/or the advancement of technology.
Coal mining towns may eventually look like some of the near deserted, boom to bust, gold mining towns of Australia. Hopefully they can attract other long term stable industries to the areas.
When a particular municipality is largely dependent on a dying industry, it does cause major issues no doubt. The rust belt of America is proof enough, in particular Detroit.
I reckon the rest of the world can’t live without coal fired power stations and furnaces for a good while yet. So I’m reckoning that the coal mining towns have some decades still to go before it all drops off a cliff.
I don’t mind the HECS/HELP changes.
lower of CPI or Wage price increase.
There definetly was a lot of blowback last year after higher than normal inflation rises.
Plus the amount of students with 100,000+ debts, now earning income and trying to look at entering the housing market.
Still think labor should reduce student immigration. But offer free courses for Australian residents in areas of need. (if they pass). Rather than steal doctors/nurses from other countries, then try and teach them the way we do things here. Just invest in developing them here. Maybe put a tie in must work in Australia in that role for the Course to be free.
Also would introduce a 5% discount for early payment of HECS. As a incentive for those that want to reduce their student debt.
Yes, that helps for three (Nursing degree) to at best six (medical degree plus internship) years from now. Which is one or two election cycles. Health system issues are here now.
It should absolutely be part of the fix, but I’m not holding my breath.
We’ve been talking about a lack of GP’s since at least the 90’s.
And we’ve been talking about short-term fix Governments since?
I think generating more doctors/nurses from Australian graduates is a great idea.
But there are several issues: resources for teaching, do we need to loosen acceptance criteria for medical students (and would this be accepted by the general public), how do we ensure that graduates enter streams (e.g. GP instead of some other specialty) of need etc. It requires long term thinking and that seems to be beyond most Governments now.
The Government has acted to deny many student visas for dodgy courses that bring no benefits to the optimum balance of the workforce by immigration. Reportedly, the Federation University has been impacted by these measures.
Additionally, residence or PR is no longer automatic for undergraduate degrees.
In terms of the health sector, those countries where students have English as a first language, or education in EL, have been the main source ( former Brit colonies and the Philippines). More recently, the net has been cast more widely, for example Nepal, where there are boarding schools for secondary students (set up under aid programs) with teaching in EL. Vietnam has also become a source, some scholarships, others financed by families pooling their money to send females here, who will send money home when they enter the workforce.
As to the Pacific Islands, I recall that Oz set up a program for training of health workers in Fiji, with the objective of them contributing to the Fiji health sector.
Immigrants from the Pacific Islands are now contributing to our health sector in terms of their children acquiring qualifications in the health sector.
Do we know if international students are meeting the same acceptance criteria or are they just meeting the financial criteria? It would appear to me, completely external to any of it, that we sell off our top education programs to international students, many who take that quality back home with them and then in exchange we bring in lesser qualified doctors to service the local market.
Other than UK and USA, it’s a very high hurdle for acceptance of foreign medical qualifications.
The AMA has been the most resistant of professional bodies to mutual recognition of qualifications…
At the level of nurses, Indian qualified have high hurdles. For acceptance, they have to be qualified at bachelor degree level from certain universities and then undertake additional courses in Australia to gain registration.
In regard to fee free courses here, they are generally only open to citizens or PRs.
There has been a longstanding problem in aid programs ( going back to the Colombo Plan) of students from developing countries preferring to stay here than to taking their acquired education skills back home. It’s a secondary brain drain.
I want to take you on a little journey and see if you arrive at the same conclusion.
MEDICARE.
The scheme was created in 1975 by the Whitlam government under the name “Medibank”. The Fraser government made significant changes to it from 1976, including its abolition in late 1981. The Hawke government reinstated universal health care in 1984 under the name “Medicare”. Medibank continued to exist as a government-owned private health insurance provider until it was privatised by the Abbott government in 2014.
Medibank started on 1 July 1975.[24] In nine months, the Health Insurance Commission (HIC) had increased its staff from 22 to 3500, opened 81 offices, installed 31 minicomputers, 633 terminals and 10 medium-sized computers linked by land-lines to the central computer, and issued registered health insurance cards to 90% of the Australian population.
After a change of government at the December 1975 election, the Fraser government established the Medibank Review Committee in January 1976. This led to legislative changes, and the launch of ‘Medibank Mark II’ on 1 October 1976. It included a 2.5% income levy, with taxpayers having an option of instead taking out private health insurance. Other changes included reducing rebates to doctors and hospitals.[24] Over the following years, universal free hospital access ceased in almost all hospitals, with only the poor receiving free access.[14]
Also that year, the Fraser government passed the Medibank Private bill, which allowed the HIC to enter the private health insurance business. It was to become the dominant player in that market.
In 1978, bulk billing was restricted to pensioners and the socially disadvantaged. Rebates were reduced to 75% of the schedule fee. The health insurance levy was also scrapped that year.
In 1979, Medibank rebates were cut further. In 1981, access to Medibank was restricted further, and an income tax rebate was introduced for holders of private health insurance to encourage its uptake.
Finally, the original Medibank was dissolved entirely in late 1981, leaving behind Medibank Private. It continued to be operated by the HIC, and grew its share of the private health insurance market.
On 1 February 1984, the original Medibank model was reinstated by the Hawke government, but renamed Medicare to distinguish it from Medibank Private which continued to exist. The first Medicare office opened in Bankstown on 1 February 1984.[25]
In 1997, the Howard government implemented a higher level of Medicare levy for high income earners. They could avoid paying this levy if they took out private health insurance. From the start of 1999, a 30 per cent rebate on the cost of private health insurance became available to further encourage people to take out private health insurance. From 2000, the “Lifetime Health Cover” policy came into effect, with private health insurance companies now charging higher premiums for people who had not taken out a policy before their 30th birthday.[29
So… Let me know if you’re noticing a theme on acts of bastardry, especially with tyrant Howard’s Medicare levy.
And finally I’ll leave you with this definition.
Extortion is a criminal offence in which an individual, through the use of threats, coercion, or intimidation, compels another person to perform an act or refrain from doing something they have a legal right to do.
This act is committed with the intention of obtaining money, property, services, or some other form of advantage from the victim. Extortion can take various forms, and it is considered an indictable offence under Australian law.
Why would a bank worry about HECs debt ? It is not like any Government is going to make people sell a house to pay it off.
Even with $100k HECs debt, that is $1000 a year repayment, not much for these type of graduates. I obviously do not understand it.
Before 1972, the only way you got to Uni was to have rich parents or enough brains to win a Government scholarship. That is why in my first year, over 70% of my fellow students were private schoolboys and girls. My University life was full of parties at rich peoples houses !
University should be free and available on merit for all.
This reminds me of the Clarke and Dawe sketch where Dawe is interviewing the Energy Minister:
Clarke: They’re saying that our energy infrastructure is hugely inefficient
Dawe: And who’s saying it is ‘inefficient’?
Clarke: Well the people that want to buy it, Brian. They’re telling us it’s only worth a song