''It wouldn't be insensible for us to do so. Why would you rule anything like that out?'' Mr Pyne said. He cited Britain as an example of a country that had sold its HECS debt as an asset. ''We are going to investigate whether it is a sensible move to do so,'' he said. ''We were elected to make a change. We weren't elected to simply keep the ring that Labor had created for six years in their government.'' The opposition will try to block the Abbott government from privatising university student HECS debts, with Labor's higher education spokesman Kim Carr saying students would suffer if a sale goes ahead.

"There is no question that the only reason you would buy this is if you can make money out of it," Senator Carr told ABC TV on Tuesday. "Someone's going to have to pay for that extra profit, and that will be the students and the ex-students." Meanwhile, Mr Pyne said he would like to begin online national testing for literacy and numeracy from 2014 so results would be made available to teachers within two to three months. The current National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests are done on paper. ''If you get the results in October or November, it is far too late for the teacher to do anything about using it as a diagnostic tool,'' he said.

''The principal can use it for the following year but if you do the tests in May, you should get the results back two or three months later. ''The only hitch with that is trying to get the states and territories to agree that they have the hardware necessary.'' AAP, with Jonathan Swan

