By political reporter Latika Bourke
Video: Who said what about higher education debts (ABC News)
Photo: Mixed message: Treasurer Joe Hockey and Prime Minister Tony Abbott (AAP)
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Prime Minister Tony Abbott has quashed suggestions the Government will collect higher education loan debts from dead people's estates, but appears at odds with two of his most senior ministers.
Education Minister Christopher Pyne has told the Australian Financial Review he has "no ideological opposition" to collecting debts from the estates of students who have died.
Treasurer Joe Hockey has backed the idea, saying HECS debts should not be quarantined.
"It shouldn't be treated any differently to any other loan that is applied whether it be a mortgage or anything else," he told reporters in Canberra this morning.
"And the idea that you’re going to have parents, or brothers or sisters are going to have to pay it is ridiculous, again more scares from Labor.
What is the current policy?
- A trustee or executor needs to lodge all outstanding tax returns on behalf of a deceased person, up to the date of the person’s death.
- Any compulsory repayment included on a notice of assessment that relates to the period before the person’s death must be paid from the estate, but the remainder of the accumulated debt is cancelled.
- Neither the deceased person’s family nor the trustee is required to pay the rest of the accumulated HELP debt.
Source: Study Assist
"It's only against the estate of the individual. It's not going to go across families and so on.
"That's the same as any other loan, any other mortgage we have in our lives."
But, speaking almost at the same time, Mr Abbott told ABC NewsRadio he would not be changing the current system.
"I want to make it absolutely crystal clear this Government is not going to change the existing rules," he said.
"And the existing rule in respect of university debts, fee help debts, HECS debts, is that they cease, they cease, on decease, as it were."
MPs arriving at Parliament house have been quizzed about the proposal.
Nationals MP Andrew Broad backed the idea of collecting HECS debts from graduates who have died.
'Right budget for the times'
Prime Minister Tony Abbott tells ABC NewsRadio's Marius Benson the Government will not change existing rules around HECS-HELP loans.
"It's a loan with the government and it should be treated the same as every other loan... that's consistent," he said.
"It's not mean-spirited; I think it’s fair enough."
But Cabinet minister Bruce Billson said the Government had "no plans" to amend the system.
"We have no plans to change those debt recovery arrangements," he told reporters at Parliament House.
He said the Government was more focused on collecting HECS debts from graduates who work overseas and do not pay taxes in Australia.
"We are in discussions through a dialogue with the UK for example about how we might interact with overseas governments where students from Australia, with a HECS debt, may be living in another country."
Labor is attacking both the scotched policy and the Federal Government's mixed messages.
"It is the height of meanness for this Government to be proposing what Christopher Pyne said yesterday," Opposition Leader Bill Shorten told reporters in Canberra.
"But it shows what disarray this Government and their unfair budget is in.
"Christopher Pyne and Joe Hockey say one thing, then out rushes the Prime Minister to smack down his senior minister within half an hour.
"Coalition thought bubbles don't even last 30 minutes anymore."
Pre-budget leaking strategy questioned
Meanwhile, another federal MP has joined in criticising the Government's budget strategy and the selective leaking of what was in and out in the weeks leading up to budget night.
Queensland LNP MP Teresa Gambaro says the electorate is "traumatised" after six years of Labor and as a result it is more crucial the Coalition does a better job of explaining what it is doing and why.
"We have to do better in communicating to the Australian people exactly what we are doing and how and why we are cleaning up Labor's mess," Ms Gambaro told Parliament today.
The Member for Brisbane hit out at what she describes as the "cat-and-mouse" game of pre-budget leaks, which both sides have employed.
"I am already on the public record as saying the Government needs to stop playing a cat-and-mouse game with the Australian public as to what is in and what is not in the budget.
"People are sick of these games. They have been played by all sides of politics for far too long.
"There has to be a better process where we have closer integration between the Parliament and the executive in the development of the budget and the reporting of these processes should be formulated in the future to provide certainty," she said.
It follows criticism from Ms Gambaro's Queensland colleague Senator Ian Macdonald, who said he was astonished at the Government's strategy.
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