Howard Hits Nurses With Massive Debt Jenny Macklin - Deputy Leader of the Opposition Shadow Minister for Education, Employment, Training and Science Acting Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing

Media Statement - 28 May 2003

Nurses who go on to specialise in areas such as midwifery face massive students debts under the Howard Government's plans for higher education.

Deputy Labor leader Jenny Macklin said that under the Howard Government's plans nurses who completed their course and went on to specialise in areas such as midwifery would be hit with massive debts of $37,800 or more.

Ms Macklin said there was already a severe shortage of nurses in Australia and the Howard Government's plans would do nothing to encourage more people into the profession, particularly in specialist areas where the shortage is critical.

"Nurses are a vital part of our health care system and do a wonderful job. But instead of valuing their contribution, the Howard Government just wants to find ways to wriggle out of paying for their training," she said.

"In Parliament today Education Minister Brendan Nelson refused to answer questions about why he and his government were trying to saddle nurses with so much debt."

Under the Howard Government's unfair university changes, for the first time universities will not be limited in the fees they can charge post-graduate nursing and teaching students. These students will also be charged a six per cent interest rate for the first time.

Because of the way the Howard Government has structured student debt, midwives would be obliged to repay their outstanding HECS debt first, before starting to pay off the full-fee loan they have had to take out to pay for their post-graduate diploma. That means that all the while they are paying off their HECS debt, their full-fee loan is growing at the rate of six per cent a year*.

A nurse who takes out a full-fee loan to undertake post-graduate studies in midwifery will finish his or her studies with a debt of $37,800, including $4,300 in interest.

* assuming CPI remains at 2.5 per cent