Sussan Ley’s shock response to Labor’s bid to slash the HECS bill for millions of Australians

Sussan Ley has left the door open for the Coalition to back Labor’s promise to slash student debt by 20 per cent in a landmark move towards bipartisan government.

One of Labor’s key pledges before the election was to cut student loan debts like HECS and HELP by 20 per cent.

The Liberal Party opposed the policy, branding it ‘elitist’ and ‘profoundly unfair.

But now Ley has said she is open to supporting the policy because the shattered party was ‘going to look at everything anew’.

‘We’re not carrying policies forward. We’re going to pause and consider everything,’ she revealed in an interview with The Daily Aus.   

‘So we will consider that legislation as it comes forward. We haven’t seen it obviously, and when we do, we’ll have a discussion within our party room about how we respond to it.’

During the wide-ranging interview with Lisa WIlkinson’s daughter Billi Fitzsimons, Ley said she could identify with the ‘challenges’ young people are facing – before making a cringeworthy pop culture reference. 

‘I remember when not fitting in at school, becoming a sort of dropout punk for a while, struggling with all of the issues that you do as a teenager, and then finding my way by having a passion, which was wanting to fly aeroplanes,’ she said. 

Sussan Ley has left the door open for the Coalition to back Labor’s promise to slash student debt by 20 per cent (pictured: RMIT University students on graduation day)

During the wide-ranging interview with Lisa WIlkinson’s daughter Billi Fitzsimons Ley said she could identify with the ‘challenges’ young people are facing – but then bungled a pop culture reference.

Ley, 63, said she worked three jobs to save up for flying lessons. 

Before entering politics she previously worked as an air traffic controller, an aerial stock mustering pilot, a shearers’ cook, a wool and beef farmer and public servant. 

She said the Coalition’s election loss was a ‘very serious, humbling message’ and that she was now focused on listening to Australians before building a policy platform. 

In a bid to perhaps appear ‘down with the kids’, Ley also dropped a pop culture reference when discussing the brief, post-election breakup of the Coalition.   

‘So he (David Littleproud) came back to the table to give it another go, and maybe took some inspiration from Charli XCX and Lorde and yeah, got back together on the remix,’ she said. 

However, she slightly misquoted the lyric. 

The reference is to Charlie XCX’s song ‘Girl, so confusing featuring lorde’ which actually has the lyric: ‘Let’s WORK IT OUT on the remix’.