Higher Education Loan Program (HELP): a quick guide

This guide provides an overview of higher education student loans that are provided through the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP). Introduction: Australia’s Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) provides loans to Commonwealth-supported tertiary students. The scheme allows students to defer the costs of tuition until their taxable income reaches a certain level at which repayments commence. HELP is regulated by provisions in the Higher Education Support Act 2003 and administered by the Department of Education. HELP debts and repayments are managed by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)

Will access to 'gap year' Youth Allowance improve regional students participation in higher education?

  In the recent Senate debate on Senator Nash\u27s private member’s bill to extend the criteria for Independent Youth Allowance to Inner Regional students the issue of why so few regional students go on to tertiary education was raised and an argument made that the ability to take a gap year and qualify for Youth Allowance would improve regional students’ access to and participation in higher education. However past experience would suggest that if the bill–which has passed the Senate–is debated and passed in the House of Representatives it may do little to improve the regional participation rate in higher education

"Sorry": the unfinished business of the Bringing Them Home report

On 26 May 1997 the report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, entitled Bringing Them Home, was tabled in parliament. It received widespread publicity the following day at the Australian Reconciliation Convention in Melbourne and led to continuing public and parliamentary debate about the implementation of its recommendations. A key recommendation in the report was that reparation be made to Indigenous people affected by policies of forced removal. That reparation should include an acknowledgement of responsibility and apology from all Australian parliaments and other agencies which implemented policies of forcible removal as well as monetary compensation. State and territory parliaments have apologised specifically to those affected by the policies of separation. Under the Howard government the Commonwealth parliament did not agree to a full apology but expressed ‘deep and sincere regret’ for unspecified past injustices as part of a Motion of Reconciliation on 26 August 1999. Since elected to government in 2007 the Australian Labor Party has announced that it will honour its policy of an unreserved apology to the stolen generations but has rejected any suggestions to compensate victims. These two components of reparation, an apology and compensation, remain as the major unfinished business of the Bringing Them Home report. This background note provides an overview of these issues within the context of the Bringing Them Home report, a chronology of the key developments in the debate, the text of state and territory apologies and links to further web resources

'Forgotten Australians' and 'Lost Innocents': child migrants and children in institutional care in Australia

On 30 August 2009, the anniversaries of the tabling of two landmark parliamentary committee reports, the Australian government announced that it would ‘issue a formal statement of acknowledgement and apology to Forgotten Australians and former child migrants. This background note provides a brief overview and history of the arrival of child migrants from the United Kingdom and government responses to claims of their mistreatment whilst in institutional care in Australia. These children who arrived in Australia between 1920 and 1967 have been referred to in a number of Senate inquiries as the ‘Lost Innocents’. Similarly, Australian-born children raised in institutional care during this time have also claimed mistreatment. During the 1995 inquiry into the removal of Aboriginal children from their families and the calls for an apology and compensation to Aboriginal children, non-Aboriginal children who also suffered in institutions called themselves the ‘Forgotten Australians’ and lobbied for similar recognition of past injustices. This background note also provides an overview of government responses to their claims. Image: Mosman Library / Flickr.  David Hill - ex-Mosman Council garbo and boss of Soccer Australia, the ABC and NSW Railways - talks about his new book published by Random House. Part memoir, part oral history, "The Forgotten Children" tells the story of the child migrant schemes that operated under the auspices of Empire. &nbsp

Higher Education Loan Program (HELP): a quick guide - October 2014 update

This Quick Guide provides an overview of higher education student loans that are provided through the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP). It includes: an introduction that provides background to the program types of loans HECS-HELP FEE-HELP OS-HELP SA-HELP VET FEE-HELP student contribution rates repayment arrangements key statistics budget treatment and information on other income-contingent loans for students