The Higher Education Contribution Scheme is what university students here access to pay for their courses. It's been around since 1989. I've never had anything to do with it myself so I had to look it up to find out the details. The latest article from the SMH gives the suggestion that this could be used for the elite sportsmen who use gov money to train for Olympic competition.
Persons seeking to enrol in award courses at higher education institutions are required to complete and return to the institution a Payment Options Form. This Form nominates if they are going to pay their HECS up-front and receive a 25 per cent discount, or if they are going to defer their payment by asking the Commonwealth to pay their HECS for them. If they pay up-front, then the Commonwealth pays the remaining 25 per cent to the institution from the HECS Special Account. If they choose to defer payment, then they must provide the institution with their tax file number so that the Tax Office can be informed of their HECS debt.
The HECS debt is indexed using the Consumer Price Index each year. The adjustment is made on June 1 and applies to that portion of the debt that has remained unpaid for a year or more. No interest is charged on HECS debt.
HECS debtors are required to begin repaying their loans when their 'HEC repayment income' reaches the compulsory repayment threshold. HEC repayment income is defined as taxable income plus any reportable fringe benefits and any reductions for net rental loss (i.e. income cannot be reduced through the negative gearing of rental property). HECS repayment thresholds are adjusted each year to reflect changes in average weekly earnings. It is possible to defer the compulsory repayment if it can be demonstrated that such payments would cause serious financial hardship.
It is also possible to make voluntary repayments at any time. For voluntary repayments in excess of $500, a bonus of 15 per cent is added to the repayment.
Voluntary repayments and payments made through the tax system are paid into the HECS Special Account. Any shortfall between these repayments and the payments made out of the HECS Special Account for loans or discounts is covered by a Commonwealth contribution to the Account. The DEST Annual Report has an appendix containing financial data relating to the HECS Special Account. Current and former Annual Reports can be obtained from this page.
HECS debts are cancelled at death. There is no requirement for the deceased person's family or beneficiaries to repay any remaining debt. Link
Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm sensing a groundswell of public opinion on this - demanding better use of public money and more accountability by those who access it. I'm sure there are many university students around the country, past and present, who are annoyed that Olympic sportsmen are given a free ride whilst they have had to pay for their training. People who have studied for high end work such as doctors and lawyers, along with other important jobs in the community, but because they're not training for an Olympic medal they have to pay and be accountable for the money they access.
The most recent Olympic spend for London was enormous; about a third of a $billion. This is from a country of only 23 million people FFS. Sure, lets fund sport, but do it fairly in a way that the whole community benefits, not just a few Olympic medal hopes.
The levels and purpose of public funding are set to be hotly debated after the London Olympics, at which the cost of each medal won by Australians as of yesterday was $10.3 million, the Herald reported yesterday.
The federal government is investing a record $1.2 billion in sport over four years from 2010-11, $170 million of which goes to high-performance sport, mostly Olympic sports.
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Professor Bloomfield praised Australia's Olympians but indicated the allocation of resources may have moved too far towards the pursuit of elite success. He supported high government investment as a preventative health measure but said it would most likely invest more in sport if it knew it would recoup some of the expense from financially successful athletes.
''They wouldn't pay it back until they earned enough money,'' he said. ''So, if you don't make anything, you don't pay anything back.
''But you've got to remember these are public funds. There are some tennis players, for instance, who went through sports high schools, state academies, the Australian Institute of Sport - all publicly funded - and are now earning a lot of money. They should be paying something back.
Link
London may well be shaping up as a watershed here for Australia. We can't just go on forever handing money out for nothing except a medal or three and a bit of patriotic zeal. It's not only unsustainable, but grossly wrong.
And yes it's hard to win a medal, and we hear Olympians relating to us how hard they've had to work to succeed and nobody's challenging that. Our gold medal winner in track and field for example, Sally Pearson, told of how your body is on the absolute edge as you push it so far to it's limits to win. OK it's hard and takes a lot, but why are their efforts apparently more important than other Australians who face their own life battles? Not for the glory of a place on a podium on the world stage, but simply in the events and challenges of their own private lives? Sometimes pushing, or being pushed, themselves very much to the absolute edge.
One thing about Australians and their sporting nature, is a belief in everyone having a fair go. A level playing field. A fair society. It's high time the AOC was reigned in from it's elitist attitude and continual expectations of ever increasing funds with no public accountability for them. Everyone else has to justify the spending of any public money they get (including me to get as I recently did the DSP). Why not them?
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