but isn't that exactly what hecs is mate?
NO!!! And thats another part of the problem. HECS is a government scheme by which students become financially responsible for PART of their tertiary education, the government pays the rest. For example take medicine. The full domestic fee for a medical degree is something in the order of $150 000 to $200 000 depending on where you go. The commonwealth supported places within medicine (read HECS places) end up paying approx $40 000 of that as HECS payments. Fortunately for most students paying HECS you can choose to defer payment of these fees which is where the assumption that it is all a loan comes into the equation.
If the government wanted to start up a LOAN scheme whereby the student repays the full cost of their training then by all means. But not HECS. HECS is for degree level education.