Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Assistant Minister for the Public Service, Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General
PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Like the Prime Minister and all ministers of the Albanese Government, I congratulate President Trump on his election to office. Many in Australia watch the United States and their democracy very closely, and what we've seen again is they've gone through that process, elected their president, and we look forward to continuing our strong bilateral relationship with our friends in the United States under the Trump presidency.
What we know is that that relationship has been strong with people-to-people links for centuries. But it was under John Curtin, a great West Australian who was Prime Minister during World War II, that we really saw the Australia-US relationship strengthen, and it has gone from strength to strength since. It has gone from strength to strength in terms of the trade deals that we've been able to put together, in terms of our work in the G20 and indeed, of course, through AUKUS. I know that that work will continue, and I know the Australian people and the people of the United States of America will continue to foster those strong links that have been good for Australia and good for the United States. And once again, congratulations to President Donald Trump.
Here in Australia, the Australian Government has been focused on how do we make sure Australia's education system is even more accessible and more welcoming for the future. We saw in Adelaide on Sunday, the Prime Minister announced Labor's commitment to slash student debt by 20 per cent under a re-elected Albanese Government. That means that for someone with an average student debt of around $25,000; $5,000 gets cut off the debt. That means that people pay less for their degrees, and it means they'll pay off those degrees sooner.
We also committed that we would raise the threshold at which students start repaying that debt, so that only once you're really earning do you start paying off those degrees. It means that for most people, as they go in those early stages of their career, they'll be able to earn more and keep more of what they earn. That's good for students, and it's good to encourage students to take up those great training opportunities at Australian TAFEs and Australian universities.
We've also, here in the Parliament this week, seen the passage through the House of Representatives of our commitment to pay early childhood educators a fair wage for the incredibly valuable work that they do. This has been something that the Parliament has talked about for so many years. How do we make sure that those who look after our youngest Australians and help build up their skills, their minds as young Australians - how do we make sure we give them the opportunities that they need for the future and support those early childhood educators? And I was really proud to vote for that legislation to make sure that we do have a fair day's pay for early childhood educators. Some of the most valuable work that happens in Australia. And again, I'm looking forward to that legislation also passing the Senate so that those pay rises can flow from December 1 to our early childhood educators.
And then the other, great Labor reform, free TAFE. Free TAFE has been a huge success. How huge has the free TAFE policy been? How huge a success has the free TAFE policy been? It's been so huge that some 500,000 Australians have participated in our free TAFE policy. That means that people can get skills for free in early childhood education, in aged care, in construction. So that we can solve some of those big bottlenecks in our skills that we need here in Australia. Getting more people building more houses. Getting more people helping older Australians. Getting more people into great careers like early childhood education.
So this week really has been for the Albanese Government "Education Week." Committed to education by slashing student debt. Committed to education by making sure that we raise the thresholds at which you repay that debt. Committed to education by backing the educators of our youngest Australians. And committed to education by legislating today in the Parliament we will introduce the legislation to make free TAFE permanent. Because we know that when something's good, you should lock it in, and that's exactly what we're going to do.
Finally, just to conclude, I'll note we also acknowledge the decision of the High Court yesterday. Minister Burke will be introducing legislation into the Parliament to make sure that former detainees can have a strong electronic monitoring regime continue to be applied to them, just as we've done since previous decisions, and to strengthen the ability of the Australian Government to return those to third countries where they no longer have a visa here in Australia. Thank you.
