Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It would have been light entertainment in Bendigo’s central mall last Saturday, about midday, if the mock wedding did not in fact refer to an intergenerational tragedy now emerging in rural and regional Australia. The protesting young people involved are currently in their gap year, which under the coalition would have made it financially possible for them to take up their university offers. They had worked hard and got the marks but unfortunately their future is now not to be as planned.

The Rudd Labor government and, in particular, Minister Julia Gillard have changed the rules on this gap year, leaving more than 30,000 students stranded without a university future. These young demonstrators were desperately trying to get the sympathy, attention and support of the federal member for Bendigo, Mr Steve Gibbons. Unfortunately Mr Gibbons has turned a deaf ear to their plight, merely reciting to the media the following day that the old system ‘has been rorted’. Why didn’t the member for Bendigo insist that the eligibility criteria could be changed without destroying the capacity of rural students to afford to live away from home to take up university offers? The member for Bendigo should have pointed out to his party that it is impossible for students to find 30 hours of work a week, over 18 months, in regional Australia, particularly in his electorate in northern Victoria.

The state Labor government has destroyed the fundamentals of the local economy—that is, agriculture—by taking agriculture’s water to Melbourne and Geelong, and Mr Rudd has destroyed the non-farm sector with his drunken sailor spending and skyrocketing debt. The retail sector is in desperate straits and manufacturers are putting off workers daily. In a further cruel blow, the coalition’s youth allowance eligibility criteria have been changed so that the sons and daughters of families in Bendigo and northern and central Victoria are not only denied access to a university education but are in a no-man’s-land without any information about how those now in their gap year will be treated in the future. There is no information. They are expected to just somehow survive.

What does this say about social inclusion and equity and a fair go for all? Why were these young people acting out a wedding? Because Centrelink has told them that the best hope for them to be eligible for youth allowance so that they can go to university is to get married or have a baby. This is disgraceful. I urge the member for Bendigo to get his act together and do the right thing by his electorate.