Dorinda Cox leaves Greens to join Labor – as it happened

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• Greens senator Dorinda Cox announces shock defection to Labor party

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Independent senator calls on Labor to change timing of Help/Hecs indexation

The independent senator for Tasmania, Tammy Tyrrell, has urged Labor to change the timing of indexation on Help/Hecs debts after they rose by 3.2% on Sunday.

Wiping 20% off every student debt is the very first piece of legislation Labor will introduce when parliament returns in July. To deliver on our promise and make sure you get the full benefit of this 20% cut, once we pass this legislation it'll be backdated to this Sunday, 1 June, before that indexation was applied.

Banks reduce your loan before charging interest. Credit unions do too. Just not the government, who pretend someone's repayments don't exist. It's costing students thousands of dollars all because Labor is too lazy to fix its accounting.

Labor's Help debt changes are one-off sugar hits. If they're genuine about making a difference for students, they could fix this rigged system when parliament returns. Just count someone's payments before interest is charged.