The 1 January release of old Cabinet papers has put on the public record the original submission that led to the creation of HECS.

As Julie Hare reports in The Australian, some of its issues are still current today. The Department of Finance wanted a real interest rate on HECS debt, and the Pyne reform package’s original proposal that this be implemented suggests that they have been consistent over the last 25 years on this point (it was in the leaked 1999 reform submission as well).

The issue of doubtful student debt is not so prominent, but it is alluded to in a related Expenditure Review Committee document. The ATO, concerned about the bureaucratic implications of maintaining records for decades, wanted to close HECS accounts that had recorded no changes for extended periods (10 years was suggested). This was opposed by both the departments of Education and Finance, with the latter saying that the issue was evidence of the need for faster repayment requirements and the real interest rate to provide an incentive to repay. They did later get faster repayments, with the initial rates of 1%, 2% & 3% of income (depending on earnings) soon replaced with higher rates, and progressively increased over the years to the current range of 4% to 8%.

There are a few ideas in the documents that were not pursued. Waiving indexation of HECS debt of people out of the workforce for long periods due to unemployment or invalidity was to be investigated. I suspect that this was rejected on feasibility grounds – there is a lot in these documents about the complexities of implementation, down to such detail as the need to upgrade the ATO’s air conditioning before the necessary IT equipment could be installed. If a variable is not in the existing ATO systems, it is very hard to have policy based on it.

A proposal to not charge HECS in the first year of university to students who had been on AUSTUDY or ABSTUDY in their last year of school was also dropped. The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet suggested that this could undermine the argument that the loan scheme alone could deal with equity concerns, and lead to lobbying from other groups for exemptions. They thought we should wait and see if there was a problem with demand from this group. They made the right call on this, as subsequent research has not shown socioeconomic background in itself be a significant factor in price sensitivity.

At the Conversation, Gwil Croucher discusses some of the other considerations revealed by this release.

As Christopher Pyne is finding, higher education reform is hard. These Cabinet documents provide some insight into the background of a big reform that was implemented and, in modified form, survives.