Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I support this motion from the member for Parkes, and I think we should congratulate him for it. If I can take up where the member for Braddon left off, this is an important issue. I was part of the committee inquiry in 2000, and I think we came up with some good recommendations. Whilst over the years we have made some improvements, we still have this discrimination of rural students based on where they live, not on what they earn. There is no doubt that we could make a change to this without too great a cost to the Australian taxpayer.

It is a basic right of Australian children that their educational needs and their future aspirations should not be disadvantaged simply because of the location of their family home. To add to what the member for Braddon was saying, I know of many examples of parents who, when their children are getting close to tertiary education, actually leave the rural areas to go to Adelaide on the basis of making it easier for their children to go to university. The problem with that is the brain drain out of the rural areas. This is happening all the time. Many students living in rural and isolated areas are unable to easily access all levels of schooling—not only primary and secondary but also preschool and post-secondary education. We have excellent facilities at our universities in Adelaide and Melbourne, but that is of little consequence to many students in my electorate who simply cannot access them due to distance and cost.

It is a well-known fact that the alarmingly low participation rate in tertiary education for rural and remote students was 16 per cent in 1997, compared to nearly 30 per cent for metropolitan students. This is not because country students are dumber; it is just harder for them to get to university. Whilst this was last measured some years ago, I have been talking to many families in my electorate, and it is still unacceptably low. It is much harder to get our rural students to university.

The cost of accessing tertiary studies is always very difficult for isolated rural and remote families. Many people in my electorate live 400 kilometres away from a university. You cannot travel that every day, can you? So you have to shift house. With the economic downturn that we are now facing, together with the ongoing impact of drought—every part of my electorate is under EC funding, so that shows that we are all under drought—it is impossible for many parents to meet the rising costs associated with children attending boarding institutions to go to university.

Means testing of rural students’ entitlement to youth allowance or Austudy against parental income and assets denies many students the assistance that would mean the difference between them attending and not attending university. Like the member for Braddon, I think we do need a means test. We can all agree that a means test should come into it, but this is on the basis of equity. Rural students do not face the same thing as their city cousins. If you are in the city, you can live at home. If you are in the country, you have to shift, and that is an extra cost. Recent research estimated expenses of $15,000 to $20,000 per year, plus up to $6,000 for start-up costs. I am not saying we should pay all of that, but if we paid, say, $5,000 or a bit more than that then it would at least give some encouragement for rural students, and it might make the difference between that student going to university and not. It is a barrier that must be removed so that tertiary education can become a viable option for all rural young people.

I have raised this on many occasions in this parliament, as I am sure the member for Parkes and the member for Braddon have. It was again brought to the attention of the Prime Minister with a collaborative proposal which was developed by 10 members of the rural industries and rural communities stream at the Australia 2020 Summit. This summit concluded, as I have been calling for for years, that rural young people should be eligible for youth allowance if they must leave home for tertiary education.

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