Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am speaking today on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Simplifying Student Payments) Bill 2016. This bill seeks to amend means testing for Youth Allowance and Austudy recipients to make it consistent with other payments as well is to create an automatic entitlement an issue of a health care card to all recipients of Youth Allowance and Austudy. Youth Allowance is payable to students studying at university or TAFE, including Australian apprentices. Some of the changes in the bill will align Youth Allowance and Austudy with existing rules for Abstudy and other changes in this bill will also apply to Abstudy.

This bill will also amend the Social Security Act to allow for the most recent Australian Statistical Geographical Standard Remoteness Structure to be applied when assessing whether an applicant for Youth Allowance lives remotely. Schedule 1 amends means testing for student payments in a number of ways. Independent Youth Allowance and Austudy recipients are currently exempt from assets testing if they are a member of a couple and their partner receives an income support payment. This bill would remove the asset test exemption from this group of recipients. Current payment recipients will remain eligible for payment unless they and their partner have assessable assets over $375,000.

Under existing legislation only Independent Youth Allowance and Austudy recipients' interests in private trusts are considered for means test purposes. This bill will make the means testing of interest held in private companies and trusts by Independent Youth Allowance and Austudy recipients consistent with other income support payments. Currently any periodic gifts or allowances received by recipients of Youth Allowance or Austudy from family members are included in the means test. This bill will exempt these gifts from means testing.

Eligibility for dependent Youth Allowance recipients is subject to a parental income test. Currently the parental income test does not include any tax-free pensions or benefits. This bill will change the parental income test to include tax-free pensions or benefits. It will make the test the same as the calculation of income for the purposes of family tax benefit. By making the two tests the same, the reporting on families and the department will be lessened. The bill will create an automatic entitlement to a health-care card for recipients of student payments. Student payment recipients are the only income support recipients who are not currently automatically entitled to receive a health-care card. When the bill becomes law, the health-care card will entitle students to access the extended Medicare safety net threshold and discounted prescriptions under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Student payment recipients who live in remote areas of Australia can be eligible for additional benefits such as a relocation scholarship. The Social Security Act currently refers to the 2006 remoteness structure which is now 11 years out of date. This bill will amend the Social Security Act to instead consider the most recent remoteness structure. It will amend the Social Security Act so that it automatically considers the most recent remoteness structure instead of requiring a legislative amendment to this effect every five years.

Since the bill was introduced into the parliament in October last year, an amendment has been added—specifically schedule 4. This amendment will make it easier for young people from regional and remote areas to qualify as independent for youth allowance purposes. Currently, students from regional or remote areas who need to move from their parental home to study can qualify as independent if, since leaving secondary school, they have over an 18-month period, earned 75 per cent or more of wage level A of the national training wage schedule included in a modern award—in the 2016-17 financial year, this was equal to $24,042—or, for at least two years, worked at least 15 hours each week. This amendment will allow applicants from regional and remote areas to qualify as independent after only 14 months of paid employment, as per the other conditions that I have just mentioned.

Claimants can check whether their address is classified as regional or remote for youth allowance purposes on the Centrelink website. It is expected that around 3,700 regional and remote students will qualify as independent as a consequence of this change, and that will be a helpful thing for them. It is argued that this measure will allow students to take a gap year following the completion of school and still qualify for youth allowance as an independent in time to commence study the following year. We certainly do welcome these sensible changes to youth payments.

As someone who grew up in regional Victoria and had to move to Melbourne to pursue my ongoing education, I do know of the challenges experienced by many young people who are moving from the country to the city to study. It can be very difficult and expensive for those young people. There is a significant regional divide in the proportion of school leavers who go on to higher education. While 37 per cent of school leavers in major cities go on to further study, this drops to 20 per cent in inner regional areas, 16 per cent in outer regional areas, 13 per cent in remote areas and just four per cent in very remote areas. I hope the changes in this bill will help those regional students.

As I said, Labor will be pleased to support these measures in the bill. However, we do remain deeply concerned about a whole range of cuts that this Liberal-National Party government is trying to inflict on young Australians. Labor, of course, strongly oppose the attempts by the Turnbull government to deregulate Australia's university system. In the 2014 budget, the Abbott-Turnbull government launched an all-out assault on Australian universities and Australian students by trying to bring in $100,000 degrees. Let's be very clear: this government wants to make it harder and certainly more expensive for young Australians to go to university.

Labor believes that your parents' credit card should not determine whether or not you go to university. Those opposite might try to pretend that, as a result of this bill, they are the friends of students. But I think if you look at a wide range of different things that this government is trying to do to students you can see why Labor is very concerned. The government does appear to be making it easier for regional and remote students on the one hand, but they are going to make it much harder for those young people if we see penalty rates slashed, as this government supports.

In order to be deemed independent in the 14 months that students will have to earn money, young people will have to earn $24,000. Of course, that will be so much harder if and when their Sunday rates have been cut. The cut to penalty rates will mean that young people will take longer to earn the required amount and, of course, some of them just will not be able to meet that $24,000 target in the 14 months that they have available to them. For example, a part-time retail worker on the minimum rate of $19.44 an hour who works every Sunday would have to work an additional four hours a week, 17 hours a month or 240 hours over the 14 months in order to earn the money that they will lose from the cut to their penalty rates. This is the very real implication of what the penalty rates cut will mean for these young people and, of course, it relates to the bill that is in front of us.

On top of that, the Turnbull government is attacking young Australians by trying to introduce a five-week wait period for Newstart. This is a cut that is due to be debated in the Senate this week. In the 2014 budget, this government wanted to make young people wait six months before accessing any income support. Six months is really what those opposite wanted, and many people here in this House voted to say to young people, 'You will have to wait six months before you get any form of support if you cannot find a job.' They could not get that through the parliament, so now they are trying to get this new one-month wait.

There is no evidence whatsoever that this would be something that would actually work, let alone any evidence to suggest that young people would be able to survive with no form of income support over a four-week or five-week period. It is actually a five-week period because there is currently a week that people have to wait to get access to Newstart. The government wants to add another four weeks to that. So young jobseekers, if this government got its way, would have to wait five weeks with absolutely nothing to live on—to buy food, pay the rent or even get the bus to look for a job. They would have absolutely nothing to live on for five weeks.

I certainly hope that when this is debated in the Senate, maybe as early as tomorrow, we will see this very, very cruel measure, pursued by this government over the last 3½ years, defeated again and that finally this government will take it out of the parliament. No amount of window dressing can hide the fact that this Liberal-National government has consistently targeted young people to find budget savings. It is not just the effort to say to young people, 'You will have nothing to live on for five weeks'; they also want to say to young people aged between 22 and 24 that they are going to be pushed off Newstart onto the lower youth allowance. This is a cut of $48 a week—almost $2,500 a year. We have not heard the minister talk about these cuts to payments to young people, which would leave many young Australians in dire poverty.

I hope that this measure will be defeated in the Senate tomorrow and that this government will take this cruel measure out of the parliament. All of these measures—the deregulation of university fees; saying to young people that they will have nothing to live on for five weeks; saying to young people that they will get moved off Newstart onto the lower youth allowance—should be removed from the parliament.

I would also say to those opposite that one of the main reasons that we have so many students in rural and remote Australia not going on to further education is, of course, because they do not get the support that they need at school. If students in rural and remote Australia do not get a good education at school, of course they are not going to get the chance to go on to further study. That is one of the big reasons why we argue so forcefully for the Gonski education reforms, to make sure that all Australian children, including those in rural and remote areas, get the best in life.

We will support this bill today, but we certainly have not lost sight of the attacks by this government on Australia's young people: cuts to Newstart, cuts to universities, cuts to schools—a terrible record on the way in which this government is trying to attack young people. Labor certainly will not be letting any of you forget it.

Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I note very much the points that have been made by the shadow minister for human services in relation to the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Simplifying Student Payments) Bill 2016. I also note that the minister responsible for this bill has chosen not to come into the House and speak on the bill. Nor are there any speakers on the government side for their own bill. I find this absolutely remarkable. In fact, I find it almost impossible to understand. Why would the minister responsible for this bill not come into the House, particularly understanding that there is bipartisan support for this bill? It is absolutely remarkable. I am not sure whether it means that the government is so busy that they cannot speak on their own bill, or whether the minister does not think it is important enough, or whether in fact they are just too lazy to come and do it. You would have thought that there would be National Party people, since this is going to be completely advantageous for those regions that in many cases are represented by the Nationals, who would come and speak on a bill that is going to be very helpful for young people in their areas.

Given that, certainly this side of the House has speakers prepared to put forward our views on this bill. As the shadow minister has said, Labor is going to support these amendments, which aim to make it simpler and easier for students in regional and rural areas to qualify as independent to access the youth allowance. This is a very good thing, but I will come to some of the issues that the shadow minister raised towards the end of my speech on these particular amendments.

The bill will adjust the criteria for qualifying as independent. It will allow those from regional areas to qualify as independent after 14 months of paid employment. Previously, as the shadow minister pointed out, it was 18 months, so that is a great step forward for young people living in rural and remote communities. Currently students from regional and remote areas who need to move from their parental home to study can qualify as independent if—these were the criteria—since leaving secondary school they have over an 18-month period earned 75 per cent or more of wage level A of the National Training Wage Schedule included in a modern award—in the 2016-17 financial year this was equal to $24,000 or thereabouts—or worked at least 15 hours each week for at least two years. Of course those things are often very difficult in rural and remote communities. Also, their parents must have earned less than $150,000 in the previous tax year. As a result, 3,700 regional and remote students will qualify as independent.

This will make a real difference for young people living outside our cities, who often have to relocate to attend university or to find employment. I am sure that is the experience of many members of this House and their families in a personal way; but also, more importantly, it is the experience of the constituents they represent. For those who now live in cities, to attend a university that is not too far from home is not challenging; but of course for young people living in regional and remote communities it is impossible if they do not leave home to do so. This applies to much of our country. These amendments will make a real difference for young people living outside our cities, as I have said, who need to relocate to attend university or to find employment and other training. Like the previous speaker, the shadow minister, as a young girl I also grew up in regional Australia, and I understand acutely how difficult it can feel to leave in order to get an education or to find work. So on that basis, and on the basis that this is a good amendment to the legislation, we will be supporting this change, and I also will certainly be supporting it.

But it must be noted that this is ultimately a token effort from the Prime Minister and the government, who want to force young people to live on nothing for five weeks if they are under the age of 25 and need assistance. It is absolute hypocrisy that on one hand the government is taking away from young people and on the other hand is offering these amendments in relation to student assistance. This is the same government which also wants to see the incomes of jobseekers between the ages of 22 and 24 reduced by $2,500 a year by shifting them off Newstart and onto Youth Allowance. I think those two measures are absolutely reprehensible. I see a theme that has well and truly established itself with this government, and that theme is that we are going to fill our budget black hole by ripping the money out of the most vulnerable and the most needy in our community. I do not understand how that can be government thinking. It can only be, to me, a cynical move to attack the most vulnerable, hoping that in attacking the most vulnerable there will not be repercussions for the government.

But I say this to the government: one thing that Australians truly understand is fairness. They understand, and make judgements of, governments that are not fair. They understand very much that the measures are in the main about reducing the income of students, and that expecting young people to live on nothing for over a month is fundamentally unfair and, as I said, hypocritical. This is the same government that does not understand that young people need to be supported while they finish their studies. That is a basic matter of fairness, but it is also a basic application of good economic management. If you want an economy, if you want a community, if you want a country that is innovative and that is able to challenge the economic and employment issues that are coming down the track towards Australia then you want a workforce that are well qualified, you want a workforce that are numerous and you want a workforce that are able to complete their studies. It seems to me that there are warped priorities from this government. Understand that taking money out of students' pockets, ripping off young people and expecting them to get by with less is not good economic management—and I make that point very strongly.

This bill does nothing to fix the other problems experienced by young people at Centrelink—hours on the phone or in service centres and months of waiting for processing. I know that last year many students who had applied for Youth Allowance and student allowance had waited up to six months for their applications to be processed. That is not the fault of Centrelink staff; it is the fault of a government that is starving Centrelink of the resources that are needed. The problems with Centrelink are not just about eligibility; they are about ease of access. I speak to Centrelink staff on a regular basis, and they will tell you that they want to help the people who contact them. They want to do their jobs. But in many instances it is almost impossible. They are totally overstretched and unsupported by the government, and I hope that overstretched and unsupported staff are not going to find it more difficult with the measures that we are talking about today. There have been over 5,000 job cuts in the past five years, 35 million unanswered calls, robo-debt, a pay freeze, and month-long waits for age pension applications—not to mention a minister who is intent on attacking staff and misrepresenting Centrelink clients at every turn and cannot even be bothered turning up for a speech on his own piece of legislation. In fact, as I said, no-one from the government—

Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's extraordinary.

Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is extraordinary, as the member for Port Adelaide has just said, that the minister and no member of the government can find time to come and speak on their own legislation. The real problems at Centrelink will not be solved by these amendments; they will be solved only when the government finally start valuing its biggest department. The Turnbull government have bought into their own rhetoric. They do not believe in our welfare safety net. While I welcome these amendments, they do not change the overall narrative of this government, who still think we are all either lifters or leaners. To those opposite, the welfare safety net is nothing but an unnecessary nuisance. I want to speak about that. The welfare safety net in Australia is something we should be proud of. Many countries, including many First World nations like America, do not have a welfare safety net. It is something that is a right; it is not something that is a gift to the Australian people or Australian individuals—certainly not Australian young people. The welfare safety net is a right and it is a well-earned right for the people of Australia. The government have spent so long demonising those who cannot find a job, those who need support while caring for a loved one or those receiving a disability support allowance that they are starting to believe it is okay to treat people poorly.

As I said, Labor will support these amendments to this piece of legislation, because it does mean that young people in rural, regional and remote areas will qualify more easily as independent in relation to accessing student payments, but by the same token I reiterate: where are the government on their own piece of legislation? Is that not a demonstration of the sentiments that have been expressed by myself and by the shadow minister—that the government have very little care for young people, very little care for those that require assistance and a hand up at certain points in their lives?

Those issues are not missed or forgotten by those on this side of the House, and they will not be missed or forgotten by those people who are most drastically affected by some of the government's other measures, including those outlined by the shadow minister for human services in the omnibus bill, which is about to be considered by the other place.

So, with those words, I conclude my comments in relation to the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Simplifying Student Payments) Bill. Once again, I say it is a great shame—and I draw the attention of the House to the fact—that the minister chose not to speak on his own legislation, and the government chose not to put any speakers up in relation to this piece of legislation on something that has bipartisan support.

Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Good evening, Deputy Speaker, and thank you for this opportunity to address the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Simplifying Student Payments) Bill 2016. There are three main points I would like to make in my speech tonight: first, to give my support for the bill and the process involving it; second, to talk a little bit about Indi—my electorate—and some of the wonderful things that are happening there with young people; and third, to put the call out for a much stronger approach and recognition from this House to support young people, and particularly young people in rural and regional Australia. Clearly, I have some ideas that I would like to share with the House about how we might do that.

I am proud to support this legislation. Regional students must have support to go to university and access higher education, and this bill goes some way towards addressing this. As we have heard, the legislation will align means-testing rules for student payments with other welfare payments; the automatic issue of healthcare cards to recipients of student payments, removing the requirement for separate application; and the automatic update of the geographical classification, which is used to assess eligibility for independent rates of youth allowance. I welcome these amendments and I am really pleased that we have got this far.

One of the reasons we have got this far—and I would like to take a minute to acknowledge it—is the work of Senator Bridget McKenzie from the other place. Senator Bridget McKenzie has taken a lead role in understanding the problems we have with rural and regional Australia and going out to the community, doing the listening and then coming back with this legislation. In 2015 Senator McKenzie hosted a series of regional higher education forums across country. The forums were an opportunity to discuss the barriers to accessing higher education for regional and remote students and how to overcome them. She has clearly listened, and the results are in this legislation tonight.

These changes are a win for young people and their families across regional Australia, but they are particularly of benefit to the people in my electorate. I would like to take a moment to share with the House some of the amazing things that are happening with and through the young people in my electorate and to talk about why it is really important—and that we need legislation—to look at the problems young people are experiencing in their ability to participate in our society. For us to play a role in getting rid of those problems and barriers, we need to go the next step. But first I would like to talk about some of the wonderful things that are happening in my electorate.

Next week, as members of parliament will probably know, is National Youth Week. Local governments across north-east Victoria are delivering the 2017 Youth Politics Camp. This camp gives young people an opportunity to learn more about our political system—to come to understand why politics is important and how it works, how young people can participate and have their say, and how they can build their networks and discuss issues with other people who care about politics.

I would particularly like to acknowledge the work of local governments in my electorate: Amanda Aldous from Benalla Rural City Council; Tom Arnold from Wangaratta City Council; Jenny Corser from Alpine Shire Council; Sal Kimber from Indigo Shire Council; Inga Hamilton from Strathbogie Shire Council; Jodie Bell from Mansfield Shire; and Rachael Habgood and Anthony Nicholson from the City of Wodonga. They have come together as local councils to run the Youth Politics Camp, which is in the first week of April. It is going to be a most amazing experience, and I am really looking forward to being there. These people, as youth coordinators, have engaged, mentored, supported—and they really respect—the young people of my electorate. So, for that, I want to say, 'Thank you, team'.

Other activities that are having an amazing impact are the leadership development programs that are happening in Indi. One particular one, in its ninth year, is the Wodonga Youth Leadership Program. It provides opportunities for young people with a desire to strengthen their 'inner leader'. The program allows young people to develop their skills in decision making, project management, conflict resolution and communication. These people, together with the RED Carpet Youth Awards and the Eagle Award in Wodonga, get recognition for the projects they undertake in our community to make it a stronger place. So the Wodonga Youth Leadership Program has been a great success and has been identified by other local governments across the state as something they want to use in their own areas.

I would like to talk about one particular graduate. In 2016 Liam Shay, who is currently working at Wodonga TAFE, never thought he would take on the responsibilities of a social worker, until he participated in the program. Liam describes the program as one that was challenging and that exposed him to people and opportunities he never would have experienced otherwise. Clearly, Liam and his friends are going to go from strength to strength in leadership.

I know that rural and regional communities like mine will thrive when organisations, groups, communities and people gain the skills and confidence to seek their own solutions, to make plans and take effective action to get results. We will be even better when we, as adults, include processes in our organisations where we open our arms to young people and say to them: 'We want you to come on board. We want you to be involved. We want to hear what you have to say. But, most of all, we want to walk side by side with you in our communities.'

One of the things that I do as a member of parliament to support young people in my electorate is give community members from across my electorate the opportunity to volunteer in my Canberra office every sitting week here in Canberra. These volunteers have become a really important part of the infrastructure in enabling me to represent my community. They understand local issues, they help me stay connected with the community and they bring joy and fun into our office.

While this is not specifically a young person's program or a student program, this year I have had the pleasure of welcoming four young people as volunteers—Billy Munro, Tahlia Biggs, Claudia Weatherall and Cory McKinnon. They have been joined by Sean O'Neill, who is one of my permanent staff. Sean comes from Wangaratta. He is studying in Canberra and works in my office two days a week. They have also been joined by Jamon Shay—coincidentally, the brother of aforementioned Liam Shay. Jamon is in my office as part of the Australian National University Parliamentary Internship Program. As part of his internship, he will be looking at the engagement of young people in political processes, which is a fantastic thing for me, for Indi and, of course, for his degree. I would like to acknowledge two young people in the gallery tonight. Claudia and Jamon, thanks for turning up.

I would like to talk a little more about these volunteers. When they come and work in Canberra you get to know them better. Tahlia, from Wodonga, who is now living in Melbourne, is a mentor and facilitator for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders from all around Victoria and in some cases nationally. She helps young people engage in areas of education, voting, health and well-being. I am delighted to see Linda Burney in the chamber. Linda took the opportunity speak with them and inspire them and give them the courage. When young people come to Canberra and they get the opportunity to meet members of parliament, they can get to know us as individuals, and they can see, 'Well, I could be like that when I grow up.' And I know, Linda, that that is exactly what you provided to Tahlia.

Billy is a young musician from Wodonga. He works as a structured workplace learning team member at North East Local Learning and Employment Network. He leads our young people in music industry projects. Cory, from Yackandandah, is now studying a double degree at Deakin University. He is studying a bachelor of law and a bachelor of international studies. In 2014 Cory was part of the Wodonga Council Youth Leadership Program. He volunteered in my office and he just loved being part of the hurly-burly and the bustle. I know that he spread the warmth and the love of parliament—which I think people so rarely see—back to his educational environment and back to his community of Yackandandah.

Claudia, who is with us tonight, is from Wodonga and is now living in Melbourne. She graduated with a bachelor of arts from the University of Melbourne. Following her completion of the Victorian parliament intern program, she came to my office. This week while she has been up here, she has been the person to guide and help the people from my community who are visiting, as happens in the offices of many members of parliament. This week we have had the Alpine Valley's leadership program doing leadership development work, and Claudia has been able to sit in on their program for the two days. She has also provided great insight and help in our office. So thank you, Claudia. I really appreciate having you here.

One of the things that makes what happens in Indi so important, and what Bridget McKenzie and the minister have been able to do with this legislation, is to say, 'We've got to go and listen to young people and we've got to get rid of the barriers that stop them participating.' There are so many barriers and challenges that young people who live in rural and regional areas face. So, while it is of course really good that we have begun working with these problems around youth allowance and we have sorted out some of the obvious inconsistencies, there is so much more to do.

One of the most critical periods for students is the transition period from December to March when they leave school and work out what they are going to do next. There many factors that affect students during that period. Many country kids take the opportunity to have a gap year, and they want to go and earn money rather than going straight on to university—which is often a good thing; I am not against it. But we have found that the statistics show that the number of students going on to study after the gap year is really low. It is a matter of getting the money, getting yourself to university, leaving home and doing all the really hard yards that go with it. The statistics show that the number of young people from rural and regional areas studying in university is shamefully low. As Senator McKenzie has said, 'A postcode should not determine whether a young person can secure a university degree'—but, sadly, for us it does. We have to do a whole lot more work on getting our young people into study. I am told that, while only 10 per cent of Australians live in rural and remote areas, the evidence suggests that there are a lot fewer of us that actually take on study. Regional students make up only 18.8 per cent of domestic undergraduate students at university compared with 26.4 per cent of the population. That is really shameful and we have to do a lot more work to correct that.

But I will not talk more about the problems, because that is not what tonight is about. What I would really like to do is talk about what we as a parliament can do, and I want to focus on some of the work that I would like to put out there. One of the most important things that I think that we could do as a parliament is have a minister for youth affairs. I am not talking about a minister like we have a minister for age affairs or for health, but a really special colleague—one of us who is a networker, a facilitator and a community development person, who can work within the government and with the opposition in a bipartisan way to make sure that all of our policies actually take account of young people. The youth affairs minister's job would be to ensure that every single piece of legislation that comes before the parliament has considered the impact on young people and, where appropriate, the youth affairs minister would then be able to go and work with, for example, local government in my electorate, with the leadership programs in my electorate, and say, 'Okay, we're doing this fantastic work now on legislation that we passed yesterday around rural health and we are looking at pathways to get more doctors into rural health.'

So the youth minister's job would be to work with young people and help them understand where the jobs are and where the barriers are and then they would come back to parliament and work with the government and say, 'Here's the plan of how we need to do it. Let's work together in a bipartisan way to really support the legislation that we passed yesterday about getting more doctors to the country. So how can we work with young people to make sure that they can get the training that they need in the communities that they live in, if that is appropriate, and not have to go to Melbourne or Sydney?'—which is often one of the disincentives.

Next week, on Monday, my colleague from Mayo and I are going to be moving a private member's motion in which we will be calling for the introduction of discussion around a young person's minister. And I really ask my colleagues in the parliament tonight to think about how we would do this, because young people are so special, and the way they work is so different—the digital natives in particular—to how we work. Our solutions are not going to be their solutions, so we need a really clever—and I am sure we can do it—way of working with young people, not only the scheme I am doing, with volunteering, and not only the internship program that is being offered now with Canberra University, but around how we can get the ordinary community leaders, the kids in our schools and the kids who run our community groups so well, interested in parliament and how it works and get their voices heard in this place.

So, the member for Mayo and I are hoping we can start a discussion with our colleagues on both sides of parliament, and then perhaps after the budget comes down we can spend some more time in the winter and spring sessions bringing up for next year a private member's bill that hopefully gets the support of both sides of parliament and that gives us a young people's minister who will really help us do the work and give us that step up. With young people's involvement, this country really could reach its potential. The Prime Minister is always asking us to be innovative. The way to do it is to get our young people into parliament.

Ross Hart (Bass, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is always a pleasure to hear the well-informed views of the member for Indi. Thank you for your contribution on this legislation, the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Simplifying Student Payments) Bill 2016. This bill makes amendments to the Social Security Act 1991. Firstly, means testing arrangements for social security benefits paid to students, such as youth allowance and Austudy, are brought into line with other income support payments. Of particular note is the exemption of periodic gifts or allowances from family members from means testing. This means, importantly, that parents and other family members can now provide financial support to young students without the fear of causing them any problems with Centrelink. This is a good move and is important as a large percentage of students rely on ongoing parental support in order to be able to continue studying, even when they are engaged in some form of paid employment or are receiving income support.

Secondly, this bill ensures that all students who are in receipt of income support receive a Health Care Card from 1 January 2019. Students receiving youth allowance, Austudy and ABSTUDY living allowance will no longer have to qualify for this card as a separate benefit but, rather, will be issued one automatically as other income support recipients are. This measure will see around 240,000 students accessing a range of concessions, including PBS prescriptions at a reduced rate as well as the Extended Medicare Safety Net. Making Health Care Cards available to all independent recipients of student payments acknowledges that young people have limited earning potential whilst undertaking their studies. Labor supports any measure that eases the financial burden on students.

Thirdly, this bill also enables the Australian Statistical Geography Standard's remoteness structure that is used to assess eligibility for student payments to be automatically updated. Youth allowance recipients whose family home is outside of a major city can qualify for additional assistance, such as a relocation scholarship. Whether a location is considered to be outside of a major city is defined by the remoteness structure as published by the Australian Statistician after each Census. Currently the act must be amended each time the remoteness structure is updated. As a result, the act currently relies upon the remoteness structure from 2006. This bill would amend the act to automatically refer to the most up-to-date remoteness structure and to make sure that the instrument is consistent with ABS standards.

Overall, these amendments will have a beneficial impact for students through ensuring consistency across income support, and I am happy to support these particular measures. Labor understands that whilst a small number of recipients may be worse off, it appears that the impact will be minimal and that there is a sound rationale to ensure consistency with means testing arrangements for other payments. Put another way, whilst there are some individual iniquities between some students who are dependent for the purposes of their eligibility and other students who are independent, the overall impact of the measures within this proposed legislation is beneficial.

But let's not fool ourselves here. If Mr Turnbull, the Prime Minister, really wanted to support young people he would not have reintroduced into this parliament measures that will push young people into poverty. The Australian Council of Social Service reports that between 2012 and 2014 poverty rates increased for those receiving youth allowance to over 50 per cent. Research by the Educational Policy Institute found that living costs for university students in Australia are the third highest in the world. It is estimated that two-thirds of Australian university students are living below the poverty line and, as a consequence, are suffering financial stress. This figure is even higher for Indigenous students and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds—and I might say that that is, in particular, people from my electorate of Bass.

The current rate of youth allowance is almost $160 per week below the median income poverty line. Young people need stable and decent living conditions in order to successfully complete their education, which is difficult to achieve without sufficient income. The recent universities conference held here in Canberra highlighted these issues, with representatives noting that the student experience is rapidly changing as a result of needing to balance part-time work with full-time study. Students are facing unprecedented stress from cost-of-living pressures and the associated issues arising from tight financial circumstances.

I would also echo the sentiments of opposition leader Mr Bill Shorten, who recently made the point that this is a government that is at war with young people. Thousands of Australian students employed in the retail and hospitality sectors have just had their penalty rates slashed. These are the people affected by this decision and are typically those who are in low-income households or in insecure work. Students from my electorate of Bass have called this decision 'a real kick in the guts', because they rely on their weekend penalty rates to make ends meet. The nature of university life means that students tend to do more work outside of normal business hours and on weekends so as not to interfere with their studies. Cuts to penalty rates leave students with the unenviable decision of either having to increase their employment hours to maintain their income—thereby potentially compromising their studies—or copping a pay cut that leaves them unable to afford even the basics.

Last week, the member for Gorton visited Bass in his capacity as the shadow minister for employment and workplace relations. I was able to introduce him to Ruby, who is a part-time university student who works in the retail industry and relies on her Sunday penalty rates. Ruby explained to the shadow minister that these cuts to her penalty rates are, in a word, devastating. Ruby said:

I live pay cheque to pay cheque at the moment. I rarely save money. Losing that bit extra makes it a bit harder. People like me in my situation, we spend money on little luxuries that go back into the community and it means I'll have less money to do that, pay the rent and other essentials.

This Liberal government is no friend to Australia's students and young people like Ruby, despite what they seek to introduce by virtue of this legislation. The Prime Minister is pushing ahead with legislation that will leave jobseekers under the age of 25 with nothing to live on for one month. This is a holdover from one of the more toxic zombie measures from the 2014 federal budget—which, I must say, was a low point in fairness, even for this Liberal government. Changes to the eligibility age for Newstart will also push jobseekers that are between the ages of 22 and 24 onto the lower youth allowance, at a loss of $48 a week. This leaves thousands of students worse off—especially when they graduate and are looking to enter the workforce.

Let us not forget that this is the government that also wanted to give our current cohort of students the deregulation of university fees, with the risk—a real risk—that many students would leave university with crippling debt. Many students in this situation might be forced to make a choice between entering the housing market and completing their education to attract high wages. On the issue of the housing market, of course, this government of the rich and privileged, for the rich and privileged fails to take reasonable steps to address housing affordability. An ongoing reluctance to review negative gearing deductions means that first-home buyers are increasingly priced out of the market by investors buying their fourth or fifth property. Even in my home state of Tasmania, the median house price increased by 6.5 per cent in the last quarter, with first-home buyers and young families increasingly competing against well-resourced investors. Young people need support to finish their studies, to find a job or to purchase their first home, not savage attacks that make it harder for them to find a job, to buy a property or to support themselves.

The government has recently moved a fourth amendment to this bill that gives effect to the 2016-17 MYEFO measure, 'regional and remote student access to education—additional support'. This schedule is intended to make it easier for young people from regional and remote areas to qualify as independent for youth allowance purposes. Currently, students from regional or remote areas who need to move from their parental home to study can qualify as independent if, since leaving secondary school, they either have earned, over an 18-month period, 75 per cent or more of wage level A of the National Training Wage Schedule included in a modern award—in the 2016-17 financial year, this was equal to $24,042—or have worked at least 15 hours each week for at least two years. Also, their parents must not have earnt more than $150,000 in the previous tax year. This amendment would allow applicants from regional and remote areas to qualify as independent after only 14 months of paid employment, in accordance with the conditions I have just outlined. As a result of these changes it is expected that 3,700 regional and remote students will qualify as independent. Labor will support this amendment, which makes it easier for young people to access income support for tertiary education.

However, the more cynical amongst us might call this a token effort from the Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull, to shore up his shaky leadership and to appease his colleagues from the National Party. Why else would this government provide assistance to a small group of regional students whilst they still have their cuts to young people before the parliament? If the Prime Minister and his government were truly concerned about opportunities for young people, they would not be trying to make them live on nothing for five weeks or pushing jobseekers under the age of 24 onto youth allowance—a cut of almost $2,500 a year. The icing on the cake, of course, is the cuts to penalty rates, which will have an immediate effect if they are introduced. This government has a choice as to whether it joins Labor in introducing legislation to oppose that. Thank you for receiving my submission on this bill.

Meryl Swanson (Paterson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Simplifying Student Payments) Bill 2016. I would like to commend my colleague the member for Bass for his forensic and excellent contribution to this debate. I speak in support of the bill and in support of the most recent amendment, 'regional and remote student access to education—additional support'. These changes will improve the administration of payments to students and ensure consistency with other payments. Ensuring consistency across income support is a sound rationale and one that Labor supports.

It is also an important feature of this bill that all recipients of youth allowance and Austudy will automatically receive a healthcare card. This acknowledges that young people have limited earning potential while undertaking their studies. I am also pleased to note that the amendment, 'regional and remote student access to education—additional support', recognises the disadvantage faced by young people in regional and remote areas. This amendment will make it easier for young people from regional and remote areas to qualify as independent for youth allowance purposes. This change is expected to benefit about 3,700 regional and remote students, and that is good news. This will particularly help students who want to take a gap year straight after school. They can work for that year and still qualify for youth allowance as an independent in time to commence study the following year. It is also important that this bill amends the Social Security Act 1991 to provide that the most up-to-date 'remoteness structure' will be automatically used when a youth allowance recipient or applicant's family home is in a remote area. That is of particular importance to country kids who move away and need that extra bit of support—kids in the area that I represent, Paterson.

So I do support this bill, but I wonder if it is any more than a token effort by the government to feign support for students and young people when, really, it could not care two hoots about them. Some of the large structural changes it is putting into place erode some of the most important supports we can provide for our young people. If this government really did care about young people and about students, it would not have before the parliament other measures that will cause them hardship and force them into poverty. It would not be pushing jobseekers under the age of 24 onto youth allowance—a cut of at least $48 a week, almost $2,500 a year. If the Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull, really wanted to support young people, he would not have reintroduced into the new parliament measures that will push them into poverty. The Prime Minister is continuing Mr Abbott's attack on young people, in my opinion. He is knowingly pushing them into poverty. Young people need support to finish their studies or to find a job, not savage attacks that make it harder for them to find work.

If this government truly supported young people and students, it would not be talking about introducing $100,000 degrees. Who in this chamber would have paid $100,000 for their degree? We were part of the lucky generations. For some in this place, higher education was free—thank you, Labor! For others it was a manageable debt we repaid through HECS. I was one of those people who started uni in 1989, when HECS was introduced, and we had the earning capacity that allowed us to pay it once we graduated. How on earth will these young people ever get on top of a $100,000 bill for their degree? Labor believes access to higher education should be based on merit, not on wealth. Deregulation of university fees and $100,000 degrees shut the door on our students and Australia's future economic prosperity.

Also, $100,000 degrees put up a barrier to young people entering the housing market. As if it is not hard enough, with first home buyers pitched in bitter battle against seasoned, cashed-up investors, this government wants to saddle young people with an education debt that could be the deposit for their first home. One hundred thousand dollars is nothing to be sneezed at, and it could be the changing, pivotal point in someone's life. There are two things this government could do to address this diabolical situation. It could axe forevermore any talk of $100,000 degrees and it could listen to Labor when it comes to reforming negative gearing and capital gains tax. That would go some significant way towards ensuring young people can get the education they need and afford their first home. These issues are not new, and they are on the table. All we need is this government to listen.

We are relatively lucky in the electorate of Paterson that our house prices have not gone crazy like those of the capital cities. But I want to turn to today's ABS property price data. It is the latest sign that the Australian housing market is moving beyond the reach of young first home buyers. Today's release shows that the average home price is $656,800, after rising at its fastest pace in at least the last five years. The December quarterly increase of four per cent is the largest increase since the data series began in 2011 and is a gross increase in average prices of $25,400. The Reserve Bank of Australia has today reiterated concerns around recent increases in investor lending and growth in household debt outstripping growth in household income. So, there you have it, straight from the ABS today. We know that houses are becoming exponentially more expensive, and we are pricing out young people.

Our young people also earn lower wages, and that is part of the conundrum. Their struggle is the same. In Paterson, house prices have not risen as quickly and as steeply, but people in my electorate earn less money—that is why this struggle is the same. They are competing with investors, some who are onto their sixth and seventh investment property. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has also found that finance to housing investors has rocketed by more than 27 per cent over the last 12 months. So the last quarter had the highest rise, but looking at the last 12 months the annual increase has been the largest since 2014. In New South Wales investors make up more than half of new mortgages. At the same time, the proportion of first home buyers in the market fell and remains at near-record lows. Don't these stats speak volumes about what is really going on? We have to do more to help young people buy their first homes.

Another thing that this government could do if it truly cared about young people is stop the cuts to penalty rates. I know one family who live in my electorate whose daughter studies at uni in Sydney and works part-time in retail. She works Sundays and public holidays specifically so that she can make the most money she can in the shortest possible time, because she is studying a double degree. When these cuts to penalty rates come in, her weekly pay will drop by $50. That $50 buys her food for the entire week. So what will she do about food when the cuts to penalty rates come in? Work more? Maybe, if the hours are there and if her study commitments allow it. Eat less? I know the two-minute noodle staple of the student diet is the thing that a lot of kids rely on, but she cannot reduce her food bill to much under $50.

If this government cared about students, it would also end the Medicare freeze so that more students could access doctors that bulk-bill. It would properly fund our hospitals so that the health of our young people is looked after. It would fully roll out Gonski so that our schools are properly funded and our students are given the very best start to their education that we can provide and so they learn in the best possible environment. In fact, they learn to learn, to go on learning for the rest of their lives, as our ever-increasing economy will require. The government would sort out the second-rate NBN as well—that is a diabolical situation. In my electorate—in fact, in my own family—we do not have the internet. The federal member for Hunter does not have the NBN. We are too far from the exchange to get ADSL. So, yes, I buy dongles, and I have children in high school. My girl in year 12 this year regularly rings me and says: 'Mum, we're out of internet. We need to get some more.' It is happening right across all of our electorates. It is disgraceful to think that, in this connected age, so many people are not connected. Further, if this government cared about Indigenous young people, it would be more than a little concerned that so many of our young Indigenous men end up in jail rather than in higher education.

This government has cut billions from schools and from universities. It has cut billions from vocational education and from TAFE, and our apprenticeship numbers have plummeted by 40 per cent. It has cut training and employment programs and group training organisations that were getting young unemployed people into jobs, particularly in country areas.

Yesterday I read a story in my local newspaper, The Maitland Mercury, about the apprenticeship shortage in the Hunter Valley. The Hunter Valley Training Company's CEO, Sharon Smith, said the company had experienced a 40 per cent decline in the numbers of apprentices over the past four years—forty per cent in four years; that is just extraordinary. This was, in part, due to the downtown in mining, but equally to blame were the removal of some federal government programs, such as the apprentice tool allowance, and increases in TAFE fees—which, again, have been exponential. This will likely lead to shortages of trades-qualified people, particularly in the mechanical engineering and fabrication and construction sectors. Hopes are being pinned on an increase in apprenticeships and traineeships in service industries, such as aged care, youth work and business administration—but there are still going to be skills gaps.

On a national level, the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Australian Industry Group have all said the number of apprentices and trainees in Australia more than halved between June 2012 and June 2016. About 299,000 people were in vocational training in 2012, and that figure dropped to 106,000 in the June quarter last year. I want to say that again: there were almost 300,000 people in vocational training in 2012, and in June last year that dropped to 106,000. That is not sustainable for an innovative country.

Gen Y is Australia's most educated generation, yet it faces the worst job prospects in decades. Our young people are living in a world of uncertainty. They are worried about how they will afford their education and even whether an education is worth it—will it lead to a job, and will that job be permanent and full time? Or will they be part of an increasingly insecure, casualised workforce in which people work fewer hours than they want and fewer hours than they need?

This simplifying student payments legislation does, in some small way, improve the lot of our young people. It recognises regional disadvantage and it recognises students need help with healthcare costs, but it does not go far enough. Students need choice, they need education they can afford, they need skills that are relevant to the jobs of today and tomorrow and, most importantly, they need the financial backing of their government to help them on their way. Australia offers many opportunities for young people, but the outlook is not at all rosy.

Our young people are worried about their futures, they are drowning in debt and they are living in poverty. This government needs to do much more to support our young people, our students, who are the very backbone, the very future, of what we are trying to build in this great nation. If there is anyone who needs our support it is the young people. I implore this government: please, get on board; you are at the steering wheel of our country at the moment. Time and time again in question time I hear the government saying, 'What about what you did when you were in government?' Here is the breaking news for the Prime Minister, the Treasurer and all of those men on the front bench: they are at the steering wheel now. It is time for them to put the pedal to the metal and get on with supporting our young people—making some real, positive structural changes that this country sorely needs and not abandoning our young people, and, therefore, abandoning the future of this country.

Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Simplifying Student Payments) Bill 2016 and discuss its impact in improving opportunities for young people from regional and remote areas. This amendment will improve access for young people from these areas to higher education, as well as entrance and retention rates, by making it easier for them to qualify as independent for youth allowance purposes. Labor is standing by this measure, as it works towards the core Labor value of equality of opportunity for regional and remote students and young people, as compared with them competing with their inner-city counterparts. The barriers faced by regional institutions and campuses, such as geographical dispersion of catchment, higher proportions of disadvantaged students and smaller participation rates, have rendered many of these institutions unviable to continue operating. An example close to home is the now defunct Rockingham campus of Murdoch University in my electorate of Brand, which closed its doors to local students in 2015, due to low enrolment and a lack of funds.

Vocational training in higher education institutes only operates effectively and efficiently with scale—there needs to be a weight of numbers. These numbers have to be present to provide the facilities, the services and the all-important teachers and lecturers, and that is not a scale that exists in my electorate of Brand. This means regional and outer suburban students travelling to inner-metropolitan campuses will be under further pressure to move out of their family homes. This is not new, though. From my own personal experience, I went to school at Safety Bay Senior High School. It is a mere 45 minute drive from Perth, but, for a young person without a car, that would mean at least a two-hour trip both ways on three buses getting out of Safety Bay to Rockingham to Perth out to the campus at Crawley. Fortunately, students these days do not have as much difficulty getting to the campus at UWA by public transport, as WA Labor built the southern suburbs a railway, and students now have an equity of access up to UWA, to Curtin and also to Murdoch University.

As financial hardship is the No. 1 reason students drop out of university, this amendment works to alleviate the pressures many of us remember as students of trying to pay rent while studying full time—and, for regional students, all this was without the luxury of sometimes dropping into your parents' place for a hot meal. However, this amendment benefits only about 3,700 students. Our young people in the regions and in outer suburbia are struggling with youth unemployment. In my electorate, that is at a staggering 14 per cent. Instead of meaningful higher education reform or embarking on job creation policies, the Prime Minister is trying to shore up his shaky leadership among the Nationals and the far right with today's sad announcement the government intends to water down the laws that seek to protect many Australians from racial discrimination. But, with regards to the Nationals, who knows what will happen come the next election. Like Colin Barnett, the Liberals under the member for Wentworth might ditch the Nationals for One Nation. I hope it is not so, but you never know.

I want to speak on universities for a moment. They are complex institutions. I had 10 years working at the University of Western Australia. Three and a half of those were in the vice-chancellery working for the then chief of staff, Professor Alan Robson. I have learnt how complex higher education funding is. It is tough to get right, it is tough to do, but it must be done. We must apply our efforts to engaging actively with all universities and all their various stakeholders—and I can tell you there are many—to fund education properly and also to fund research and science effectively and properly so that the most people get the most benefit. This government took full deregulation of higher education for students off the table but has failed to bring forward anything other than an options paper. The university sector is now faced with a policy black hole created by the Abbott and Turnbull government, and it is a real shame for the students of this country, not to mention the scientists, researchers and all the other workers in the university sector.

Returning to the topic of the students who will benefit from this legislation, I am happy for that small number who will benefit and I support this bill, but I do have to ask: why support a small group of regional students yet at the same time attack penalty rates day after day in this place. When given the chance, the Liberal-National government failed to protect penalty rates of 700,000 workers—penalty rates which many students rely on to survive and pay their rent and to perhaps get that extra serving of the two-minute noodles that we used to eat. I do not fondly remember them, but they were there! And why direct this amendment specifically toward regional students when, as reported in the Bradley review of 2008, students from a lower socioeconomic background in a metropolitan area such as my electorate have lower retention and completion rates? WA has the lowest school leaver university entrance rate in the country, sitting at just 47.6 per cent in 2015 compared with 67 per cent and 59 per cent in Victoria and New South Wales-ACT respectively. We have the lowest rate in the country, and it is getting progressively lower.

Prime Minister Turnbull is offering relief to regional students but in WA 76 per cent of our population live in the metropolitan area and we have to consider the difficulties they all face in getting into higher education. You have to look no further than my own electorate of Brand to see the impact economic background has on opportunities for education in my state. In 2015, only 33 per cent of students in Rockingham-Kwinana finished year 12 with an ATAR mark. That is well below the state average, but it is not the lowest average. Young people in Brand need support and they need a government that works for them. If the Prime Minister really wanted to support young people, he would not be pushing them into poverty with Newstart eligibility changes which mean some young people are faced with living on nothing for five weeks while others are facing a cut of almost $2,500 a year. It beggars belief and one wonders what the personal experiences of members of the government were in their own student lives.

Why would this government try to ram such changes through when young people of low socioeconomic background identify financial problems as the stress point in their university experience at a rate of 69 per cent in comparison with those in higher income brackets, which was reported by Monash University in 2013 to be an average of 53 per cent. It is a considerably higher rate of stress for students from those lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Monash University also found that lower socioeconomic students access student support services such as accommodation services, financial counselling and legal advice more frequently. Yet not only is this government directing money from the budget to the regions, which I do respect; it is also cutting funding to community legal centres. We all know where that is getting us. There are people who are in economic stress who need to access these legal centres more often than they used to, and that funding is being cut as well. Those of low SES background have always accessed these legal centres, and that is the reason they are there. I believe the Abbott-Turnbull government does not fairly represent the young and disadvantaged of Brand. Young people need support to finish their studies or find a job, not face savage attacks that make it harder for them to find work. Western Australians do not want a government which leaves young people with nothing to live on.

If this government were truly concerned about opportunities for young people it would emphatically rule out university deregulation and the potential of $100,000 degrees. There are already enough barriers for young people in Brand to access tertiary education, even with the great Labor initiatives of HECS and HELP and with of course cost caps and positions opened. With the Liberals' commitment to higher fee degrees the government will tilt the board against Australian students trying to get a better education. ATAR rates in Brand are, as I said, at 33 per cent—what will they be once Mr Turnbull and his team implement their neoliberal agendas in our higher education system? What is Mr Turnbull saying to potential students other than education is just out of reach for people from their economic background? It is hard enough even becoming eligible to go to university, to get through school, without coming up against such extraordinary fees. No wonder young people sometimes cannot see uni as an option for them—no wonder they sometimes give up.

The young people of Brand have been ignored for too long, and I will do all I can to help them participate in vocational education and higher education. I support this amendment because I support equality of opportunity and bridging the gap between the disadvantaged and the privileged in this country, but with particular respect to education. This does not discount the fact that I think young people in my electorate and young people Australia wide have been failed by successive Liberal governments. Only the Labor Party truly values the effect of a strong education and the effect it can have on transforming a person's life. My own experience in higher education policy, as I said, was working at the University of Western Australia for a number of years. Many good policies have been put up to respective governments.

I note a policy I helped develop in relation to the WA Nationals' Royalties for Regions scheme, which sadly was not funded because the Nationals leader at the time insisted on universities building campuses in the far regions, and we know it is very difficult not only to build them there in the first place but also to make them economical and viable. Instead, there are novel propositions—they are not even that novel, quite frankly—about giving students from the reasons opportunities to undertake scholarships which support them through their time living in the city, in the metro area, which support their parents in visiting the students and support the students being able to return several times a year to their family farms or wherever the places are that they come from. These things are important—the connection to home and to family for regional students is critical for their ongoing mental health, especially in their first couple of years at university, when they are living outside the place they call home and all that is familiar. I know we implored the then Nationals leader, Mr Brendon Grylls, to support this initiative but sadly we had no luck. I only hope that the new state Labor government will look at this prospect again and perhaps seek to support regional students as they do go off on their adventures to university.

One thing I would say about the gift that education can bring is: often there is a sentiment among people from the regions that they want to keep young people in the regions and in their home town. That is understandable. They love their children. The young people give a vibrancy to the community. But the greatest gift we can give as people that provide education is a good education with all the services and all the facilities. Rural students deserve that as much as city students. I urge these communities to be more free of spirit, let their young people go and support them in their adventures when they go into the main population centres. They will enjoy better access to better facilities, all the services and all the community that a university can offer. It is a worthwhile gift and something that they should support. We all know that when you help people achieve their best they are more inclined to return the favour and return to their home town.

In concluding, I would note that the government has not put forward many speakers to support this bill. It probably says a bit about how the government views social services legislation. I note the minister is now in the chamber. I hope we hear from him soon. So to conclude I would state that we support the bill, but I do hope that the government would seek to do more, especially in higher education reform and in support for students from low SES backgrounds.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank all the members for their contributions to this second reading debate. By way of summarisation of the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Simplifying Student Payments) Bill 2016 at the second reading debate, I would note that the first measure in the bill will from 1 January or 1 July after royal assent—the first of those two dates—introduce four changes that will simplify the student payment means test and remove anomalies.

Firstly, the family tax benefit income test and the youth parental income test will be harmonised so that family tax benefit income details can be automatically re-used for the youth parental income test. Parents will no longer be required to resubmit their income information to support a youth payment claim by one of their children. Secondly, the integrity of the student payment means test will be improved by removing an anomaly that allows some partnered youth allowance and Austudy recipients to be subject to a more generous assets tests than applies to all other youth allowance and Austudy recipients. Thirdly, integrity will also be improved by extending the trust and company rules that already apply to all other income support payments to student payments. As a result, all of the income or assets held by students through a trust or company will be taken into account when establishing their entitlement to a payment. Finally, the pension income test exemption for regular gifts from immediate family members will be aligned across the social security system so that it also applies for student payments and other social security benefits.

The second measure in this bill will ensure that for the first time from 1 January 2019 all students receiving income support will receive a concession card. This change will allow all students receiving youth allowance, Austudy and Abstudy living allowance to automatically receive a healthcare card. This will guarantee that around 240,000 students will receive pharmaceutical benefits scheme prescriptions at the concessional rate and access to the lower threshold of the extended Medicare safety net when they receive a student payment. It may also provide greater access to bulk-billing, allowing students to focus on their studies without worrying about medical costs. This measure simplifies eligibility for the healthcare card rather than requiring students to meet additional requirements for the low-income healthcare card, as per current practice. Both cards provide the same Australian government health concessions. Under the current rules, student payment recipients are the only income support recipients not to qualify for an automatic issue healthcare card. These students have to make a claim for a low-income healthcare card if their income is below a certain limit in order to be issued a concession card. Under this measure, the healthcare card will be available to all student payment recipients as soon as they start receiving an income support payment. The measure will enhance a streamlined administrative arrangement for student payment recipients and support the implementation of improved student payment systems. It will improve consistency across the income support system by ensuring all income support recipients are automatically issued a concession card. It provides sensible solutions to a simplified and efficient welfare system.

The third measure in the bill will from 1 January or 1 July—the first of those two dates after royal assent—simplify the process for adopting the latest version of the Australian Statistical Geography Standard Remoteness Structure published by the Australian Statistician which is used to assess eligibility for student payments under the Social Security Act 1991. Currently, youth allowance recipients whose family home is in a location geographically categorised under the remoteness structure as inner regional Australia, outer regional Australia, remote Australia or very remote Australia can access additional benefits or concessional qualification requirements under the act that are not available to students from major city areas. These additional benefits for regional and remote students are in recognition that students from these areas are more likely to have to relocate to study and to have significantly lower participation rates in higher education than students from major city areas.

Since 2011, the geographical remoteness structure used in the Social Security Act to determine eligibility for those additional benefits is the 2006 Australian Standard Geographical Classification, which is published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. However, this remoteness structure is out of date. It was superseded in January 2013 by the 2011 Australian Statistical Geography Standard Remoteness Structure. The remoteness structure is updated every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics following each census. The next update to the remoteness structure is due in January 2018. This measure will introduce amendments to the act so that qualification for student payments will draw upon the updated remoteness structure without the need for future legislative amendment. This measure will simplify the administration of student payments and will ensure that the assessment of qualification for youth allowance and the relocation scholarship is based on the latest available information on geographical classification.

Together, the measures in this bill will assist in simplifying and supporting access to the payment system and support future welfare reform. There is also an amendment that will be moved during the reading stage. The amendment will add a fourth measure to the bill that will give effect to a 2016 election commitment. It is part of a package to support regional students' access to education. This measure will amend the rules governing when a person is to be regarded as independent for the purposes of youth allowance and the relocation scholarship. It will reduce from 18 to 14 months the period that young people from regional and remote areas of Australia have to earn the amount required to satisfy the workforce independence provisions. This measure is to commence from 1 January 2018. The measure recognises that regional and remote students face additional costs in pursuing tertiary education and, similar to the measure to automatically update the geographical classification used to assess eligibility for student payments, it recognises that regional students have much lower participation rates in higher education than students from major cities. The reduced period from 18 months to 14 months will allow students to qualify for Youth Allowance four months sooner than under current arrangements.

Students will be able to take a gap year at the end of secondary school and, subject to them satisfying the upper qualification requirements for Youth Allowance, will be able to receive payment as independent the following year. Students who are considered independent for the purposes of Youth Allowance do not have their rate of payment affected by parental income, as is the case for dependent recipients. Currently students who qualify for Youth Allowance under these arrangements may commence study prior to qualifying for student payments or take two gap years before commencing study and qualifying for payment. The longer students are disengaged from study after completing secondary school, such as for more than a year, the less likely they are to commence or complete tertiary study. It is estimated that approximately 3700 regional and remote students will qualify for Youth Allowance as independent under this measure.

I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation and proposed amendments announced.