The designer of the HECS scheme for university students has thrown his support behind a similar plan for drought-affected farmers.

ANU Professor Bruce Chapman created the Higher Education Contribution Scheme in 1988 as a senior economic advisor to Paul Keating.

Now he’s backing Alan Jones’ idea to create a similar scheme for our farmers, saying he can’t understand why the government won’t support it.

“I wish I knew the answer to that,” he tells Alan Jones who has been broadcasting from the bush all week.

“This is just a very simple loan mechanism. You only have to pay it when you’ve got the resources.

“We’ve done all the modelling. We think it can be done with almost no cost to the budget.”

Click PLAY below to hear the full interview

Image: ANU/Stuart Hay