Senator accuses the government of not treating reform with ‘urgency it deserves’ – with no modelling done on the cost of reversing or replacing the JRG scheme
Reversing the program that has left Australia’s arts students paying $50,000 degrees is facing more delay, as the body tasked with reforming the controversial job ready graduates scheme is unlikely to be ready on Labor’s timeline.
The education minister, Jason Clare, is set to introduce legislation to formally establish the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (Atec) in the final sitting week of the year.
It is not expected to pass within that week, and the Coalition, Greens or crossbench have not seen the legislation.
Atec is operating in an interim capacity, led by former University Accord chair, Mary O’Kane, and was due to be officially set up by 1 January 2026.
Experts have already told Guardian Australia that even if the body was set up on time, the $50,000 arts degrees would end in 2027 at the earliest.
The independent senator, David Pocock, has accused the government of not treating reform “with the urgency it deserves”.
“Students are paying the price … students can’t afford to wait years for this reform, we’ve known job ready graduates isn’t working for many years and reform is urgent,” he said.
Between the start of 2021, when JRG was established, and the end of 2024, total Hecs debt grew more than $10bn, according to parliamentary budget office modelling.
On Wednesday, Department of Education officials revealed to a Senate inquiry into university governance that there has been no modelling done on how much it would cost the government to reverse or replace the JRG.
They did not list reform of the JRG in the work the interim Atec has undertaken, and when asked when the department was “planning” for the scheme to be reformed, officials said it would be a “matter for government”.
They also revealed at the time of the hearing that the legislation had not been finalised. “I can say that we have had consultations and we continue the consultations on the drafting,” said Jasmina Joldić, the deputy secretary.
The opposition has raised questions over what the legislated Atec will do.
“There are some immediate questions that spring to mind. What is the problem that Atec solves? Will the establishment of this new body mean that more taxpayer money goes to funding university courses, or less?” said shadow education minister Julian Leeser in a statement to Guardian Australia.
“Universities routinely deal with up to seven different regulatory, funding or oversight bodies already.”
Greens higher education spokesperson, Mehreen Faruqi said the education department could do the work now.
“Labor spoke a big game in opposition about how terrible JRG was, but now in government they have kicked the JRG can down the Atec road as students continue to suffer under mountains of study debt,” she said.
“There is no reason we have to wait for Atec to be up and running to abolish these punitive fee hikes that punish students.”
On Wednesday, the University of Sydney senior deputy vice-chancellor, Prof Annamarie Jagose, told the Senate inquiry that the JRG is having a significant adverse impact on vulnerable communities.
She said the scheme “could be making some of Australia’s most vulnerable student groups, including First Nations, women, and first in family who tend to study humanities in disproportionate amounts put off enrolling in university at all, despite government and university intention for the opposite to occur.”