Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 per Cent) Bill 2025

The majority voted in favour of a motion to pass the bill in the Senate. In other words, they voted to read it a third time. Since the bill has already passed in the House of Representatives, it can now become law.

What does this bill do?

According to the bills digest, which is a document prepared by the parliamentary library:

The purpose of the Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025 (the Bill) is to amend a range of laws governing the management of student loan debt, in order to:

• provide a one-off 20% cut to student loan debts incurred on or before 1 June 2025

• increase the minimum repayment threshold for student loans from $54,435 in 2024-25 to $67,000 in 2025-26

• introduce a marginal repayment system for compulsory student loan repayments that will change the repayment calculation method to be based on the portion of a person’s income above the new $67,000 threshold, rather than being based on total income.