Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to be in the Main Committee this morning to present a petition in relation to the youth allowance changes by the federal government. As members would be well aware, in the May budget the government announced a flawed scheme for changes to youth allowance. These are shameful changes which have had a visceral impact on rural and regional Australians, particularly young people who had dreams of a university and higher education career but who have had those cut short by the government’s short-sightedness and lack of understanding of the issues that affect rural and regional Australians.

The primary alteration was to require young people in rural and regional Australia to fulfil a 30-hour work test to be able to qualify for the independent rate of youth allowance. Anybody who lives outside the cities knows that the idea that there are a plethora of casual or almost full-time jobs available in country towns across Australia for 30 hours a week is living in la-la land. The reality is that they do not have access to those kinds of jobs and therefore their dreams of higher education will be cut short.

The second change that the opposition has tremendous problems with is the issue of cutting off students who are currently in their gap year, who planned their lives around the rules as they were. The government has changed those rules halfway through the game, and those students are now facing an entirely different prospect for the future. The coalition will not support retrospective legislation. My colleague in the Senate, Senator Guy Barnett from Tasmania, has run a petition through the northern part of his electorate—he tends to take care of Launceston and that area around Northern Tasmania. He has organised this petition, which draws the attention of the members of the House of Representatives to the paucity of ideas in the Labor government to do with the youth allowance, the impact it will have on university students and future university students, the fact that it flies in the face of Labor promises to do with obtaining more access for young people to higher education and the embarrassment that is the education revolution in so many areas, but particularly in this area of youth allowance.

The petition has achieved 1,057 signatures and it has been approved by the Standing Committee on Petitions. Because of the importance of youth allowance, particularly to people in rural and regional Tasmania—and also across Australia—and as the shadow minister responsible for education, I felt it was appropriate to present the petition in person on behalf of Senator Barnett and the 1,057 good Tasmanian citizens who have signed this and who are genuinely concerned about the impact of youth allowance on the future of young Tasmanians. I present the petition.

The petition read as follows—

To the honourable The Speaker and members of the House of Representatives

This petition of Launceston citizens draws the attention of the House to the proposed amendments to the Youth Allowance and Independent status requirement as outlined in the Universities, Innovation and Education Revolution (UIER), May 2009,

1.

18 months is an unreasonable time frame for students, as universities do not allow deferment beyond 12 months.

2.

In this economic climate 30 hours a week is an unreasonable expectation.

3.

Rural and regional students are heavily disadvantaged, as many if not all need to relocate to attend university.

4.

Education should be about merit, not financial situation.

5.

The Rudd Government was elected on promises about support for “working families” and an “education revolution”, these amendments undermine both promises.

6.

As 18 year olds are adults in every legal sense (tried as adults, able to vote, pay tax etc…), to tie one adult to another adult’s income is unjust.

7.

We believe that in these times, our best hope for the future is in the education of our youth.

8.

These amendments reflect short term thinking.

9.

These laws undermine the “equality of opportunity,” referred to in the Rudd Governments UIER document.

10.

Present and future year 12 students will be equally disadvantaged and excluded from accessing tertiary education, the pathway to enhanced life chances.

We therefore ask the House to withdraw this proposal as we feel it disadvantages and disenfranchises Australia’s youth, especially those from rural and regional areas, as well as those in working families who are classed as “middle income earners” (above $42,559 p.a.).

from 1,057 citizens