On 1 June current and former students across Australia woke up a lot lighter in the pocket. HECS-HELP debts were indexed at 7.1%, in line with the inflation rate. My own student debt went up by $3000 overnight. For me, that’s almost equivalent to a semester worth of fees, or two months’ pay.
When there is evidence suggesting that corporate greed (as opposed to wages) is driving inflation, students face the daunting reality of entering the workforce with historic, ever-increasing levels of personal debt amid stagnant wages.
Through no fault of our own, we are expected to pay more. More student debt, more rent, more for a house, more for groceries, and more for utility bills. We’re told that these are the unfortunate realities of our current economic climate. Our unfair economy is the outcome of forces beyond our control. Wealthy politicians, bankers, and economists claim that they understand the struggle, yet their only excuse is the familiar line of responsible economic management.
Let’s talk about responsibility. Responsible is when one of the world’s wealthiest countries can’t put a roof over everyone’s head. Responsible is when we deny, or better yet, continue the genocide of the First Nations people of this land. Responsible is when pensioners, who have worked hard and contributed to the betterment of our country, are hung out to dry, unable to afford basic food and shelter. Responsible is when, instead of giving young people the means to better themselves and their communities, you gut public education and saddle them with historic levels of debt. Responsible seems to mean you don’t give a shit.
These problems are not immutable economic realities. They are political decisions. So is the outrageous demand that students cough up an extra couple of thousand dollars because: “inflation”. Meanwhile, our corporate overlords make record profits from our labour and natural resources while giving next to nothing back.
Successive Labor and Liberal governments have routinely sacrificed ordinary Australians at the altar of responsible economic management. Politicians, financial institutions, and economists have patronisingly attempted to pacify the rage and indignation of struggling Australians, telling them that their very real lived experiences of poverty, homelessness, and governmental neglect are necessary sacrifices for the nation’s economic wellbeing.
Anthony Albanese loves to talk about his upbringing, with a single disabled mother growing up in social housing. Yet, he and his government have stubbornly refused any meaningful increase to welfare payments to the most vulnerable or to commit to an effective public housing policy. Instead, he rolls around town sprinkling pennies down onto the poor, his media team working to polish his image as he participates in various photo ops much like our late, great, supreme leader Scott Morrison.
For a government that won the last election on a platform of compassion and empathy, Albanese’s government has demonstrated a complete lack of humanity. If any members of the Albanese government have any sense of duty or compassion toward the Australians they are meant to serve, they should start by scrapping the HECS-HELP indexation which places unnecessary debt on the already impoverished youth. If not, then my generation can expect to be the most destitute and broken generation this country has seen yet.