The Turnbull Government has welcomed the Senate committee recommendation that the student loan sustainability bill pass the Senate, Education and Training Minister Simon Birmingham says. Good-o, except the Labor and Green committee members oppose the bill. And the three government members want a major amendment, the replacement of the presently proposed $104 000 cap on lifetime student borrowings ($150 000 for medicine, dentistry and vet) with a loan ceiling so students who pay debt down can borrow again for further study. “This would enable the government to recover debt as HELP loans are repaid, but will not impede on the ability of students to pursue life-long learning,” committee chair Lucy Gichuhi (Lib-SA) and her party colleagues Jim Molan (Lib-NSW) and James Paterson (Lib-Vic) say. Senator Birmingham also says; “he would continue the positive and constructive conversations he was having with his parliamentary colleagues about the bill.”

Senator Gichuhi had a question for the minister in Senate QT yesterday, sadly it was a dorothy dixer about South Australia and energy, not the one she would probably have liked to ask him, “so are you going to change the cap?” Nor did the minister get to ask her one he probably wants to, along the lines of, “Lucy, what the f?”