James Bidgood (Dawson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Income Support for Students) Bill 2009. This bill is about providing fairness in a system that supports thousands of young people in this country through their university education. The package of measures contained in this bill will increase the level of assistance payable to students and families, and expand the eligibility for support to families that need it most. This increased support will ensure that students from low-income backgrounds are able to access the support they need to participate in education and training, including in higher education at university level.

This bill will enable an additional 67,800 young people who do not currently qualify for assistance to access youth allowance or ABSTUDY as dependent recipients under more generous parental income test arrangements. The parental income test changes will also assist a further 34,600 existing recipients, who will receive an increase in their payment, often to the full payment rate. This is great news. That has got to be good news.

We made a change for the sake of equity. Things could not stay as they were. The government agreed with the Bradley review finding that student income support was poorly targeted. The review found that 36 per cent of independent students living at home were from families with incomes above $100,000. The same survey estimated that 18 per cent of students in this situation came from families earning income above $150,000 and 10 per cent came from families earning above $200,000. The package of reforms in this bill aims to increase access to, and better target, income support for students through a fairer and more equitable allocation of the existing resources. Also, in a step forward for students in postgraduate study, there is an extension of student income support to all masters by coursework programs commencing in 2012.

These reforms align with the government’s education outcome objectives of 40 per cent of all 25- to 34-year-olds attaining a qualification at bachelor level or above by 2025, and 20 per cent of higher education enrolments at undergraduate level being people from low socioeconomic backgrounds by 2020.

These reforms will be funded by tightening the workforce participation criteria for independence under Youth Allowance and ABSTUDY rules. The new criterion will only allow those who have demonstrated their independence by working at least 30 hours per week for at least 18 months during any period over two years to achieve independence. However, many rural and regional young people who might have expected to qualify as independent students in the future will instead automatically qualify as dependent recipients under the more generous parental income test arrangements that will be introduced under this bill. Furthermore, young people who completed secondary studies in 2008, took a gap year in 2009, commence university in 2010 and are required to live 90 minutes or more away from home to study will not be affected by the changes. It is very important to point out that out in this debate. There will be many who will greatly benefit.

The bill also lowers the age of independence, for the purpose of receiving study assistance payments, from 25 years to 24 years in 2010, 23 years in 2011 and 22 years in 2012. In addition to the payments in 2010, it is estimated that around 146,600 student income support recipients will gain an entitlement to the new annual $2,254 Student Start-up Scholarship aimed to help low-income students who find it difficult to meet their study costs. This is a new funding measure for our students.

From 1 January 2010, students receiving youth allowance while undertaking an approved higher education course who need to move away from the family home in order to study will also receive a new Relocation Scholarship, except for those receiving a Commonwealth Accommodation Scholarship. This will be available to dependent students who need to live away from home and certain disadvantaged independent students who cannot live in the parental home. In 2010 the scholarship will be paid in one annual instalment of $1,000, or $4,000 for the student’s initial relocation. This will assist students with the costs of establishing new accommodation in order to attend university.

Also, this bill will increase the personal income-free area for student and apprentice recipients of youth allowance and Austudy from $236 to $400 per fortnight, with effect from 1 July 2012. Students and apprentices will, therefore, be able to earn up to $400 in a fortnight, without having their payments increased annually with the CPI. Under the previous system, the parental income test was so low that many students sought to gain access to student income support as independent recipients. This new system is comprehensive, fairer and more equitable and will benefit more young people.

The member for Farrer, the previous speaker, commented on rural universities and metro universities. I am pleased to say that, in the seat of Dawson, students and scholars have access to two fantastic university campuses. One is in Mackay—the Central Queensland University, which is expanding at a rate of knots with special trades-training emphasis, linking schools and a transition into apprenticeships, and then going on to degree level engineering, with a special emphasis on looking after the mining services for the Bowen Basin region. That exciting development is currently being developed and heavily invested in. It bodes well for our region.

Also, Townsville has James Cook University. As a lot of members would know, just recently the boundaries for the seat of Dawson were redrawn. I welcome the suburbs of Annandale, Wulguru, Stuart, Idalia and Oonoonba. James Cook University in Townsville and its campus in Mackay are doing fantastic work. I give credit where credit is due: the previous government did expand the number of junior doctor training places in Townsville in the belief that students who train to be doctors or medical specialists in a rural area will carry on living in that vicinity. I believe that to be true. I look forward to the new Mackay Base Hospital, which will be built by the Queensland government, being assisted by this federal government in helping doctors to be trained there as well. I know that JCU are currently in discussions with the Queensland government to make that a reality.

These are exciting times for the seat of Dawson. These are exciting times for students who aspire, out of school, to trade training with the possibility of then going on to develop degrees in engineering, technology, science and all these things. All these things will be available not just in traditional metro universities down south, as we say in Queensland, but in the great tropical north in the booming areas of Mackay, Bowen, Ayr, Townsville and Cairns. There is great work going on there as well. I know the member for Leichhardt is passionate about the way the university is developing there. It is all very good indeed.

I believe these are exciting times, because new technologies enable new means of learning and even rural remote students, who perhaps cannot leave the family farm, do not have to rely on short-wave radio or something like that. They can now get onto the internet via Austar or satellite and they can access information on the World Wide Web—the global library—and the open learning centres and open university courses, which enable correspondence degrees to be carried out. These are fantastic new developments.

When I did my correspondence degree with the open university we did not have the Internet, unfortunately. I had to fax all of my essays—all 2,000 words every month—for six years, until I achieved my Bachelor of Science with honours in social science. I enjoyed that experience. But I think it is so stimulating, and so radical, the way there is nowhere across this great continent that does not have access to top-quality global information and this government is committed to the broadband network, which is one of the fastest speeds in the world. Not only will that help learning; it will also help business do better business in its transition of information from anywhere on the globe into this country, to any rural area as well as metropolitan areas. So new technology brings new methods of learning. These are indeed exciting times.

I would just like to remind the member for Farrer of that, as she made reference to rural people having to go to metro universities. Obviously, it is a great learning experience to have a change of scenery and change of environment and sometimes the high levels of specialisation can only be found in certain parts of the country. But fortunately we have new technologies which enable greater communication and that is why I am so proud that this Rudd Labor government truly does believe in education.

I have just put out the latest copy of the Bidgood News—it is a great publication members should get one. I am proud that this government has invested $103,996,931 into the seat of Dawson on 554 local projects, truly delivering in a way that we have never delivered before, for schools—including primary schools—and also for social housing, for campuses, and for the Mining Technology Innovation Centre for Australia, based in Mackay, servicing the mining industry across Australia. Again, these are more great opportunities for learning and innovation.

I am proud of what we are doing. It is absolutely fantastic. And it is good to know that 70 per cent of the stimulus is in hard core infrastructure. With everything that is going on, we are enabling everyone in our society a fairer, more equal chance to learn—wherever they are—whether it is through new technologies, or new investments in schools, university campuses or innovation centres. We, the Rudd Labor government, are making it happen. I say this is a great bill and I commend it wholeheartedly to the House.

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