Alby Schultz (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the appalling treatment of regional students and their families by Labor over the last year and a half. The coalition has been fighting tooth and nail to reverse a disgraceful decision by the then Minister for Education and now Prime Minister to cut assistance for rural students under the Independent Youth Allowance Scheme. Regrettably, I was on leave from the House at the beginning of this year, which prevented me from speaking on the importance of the work done by the Liberal led coalition members and senators in the coalition, particularly the member for Forrest, in trying to talk this government back into common sense and decency on this issue.

The Social Security Amendment (Income Support for Regional Students) Bill 2010, introduced by the Abbott led coalition, aimed at reinstating $370 million worth of financial assistance stripped from the rural students by Labor when Julia Gillard was Minister for Education. As a rural member of parliament at both state and federal level for the past 23 years, I am totally dismayed by the government's disgraceful attempts to advise the Governor-General to scrap the bill proposed by the Abbott led coalition. The government is trying to block the coalition's moves at every turn to get back the funding rural students desperately need. Students who cannot access youth allowance in the inner regions are going to be the big losers if the government persists with these appalling tactics. At the beginning of this year I gathered 500 signatures of hardworking families and students from across the Hume electorate in support of the coalition's petition to reinstate the financial support rural students desperately need to help them get through their tertiary education. During the period that I was running the petition and gathering signatures I was being told stories such as the one from a family in Goulburn whose son was adversely affected by the changes introduced in July last year:

With the current situation our son is not eligible for any financial assistance at all. As we live in Goulburn and he is studying in Canberra he will need to live there, as his course convener has told him he will need to be there five days a week. Rent is quite expensive in the ACT …

I know that; my rent has just gone up $60 a night. They continued:

Unless he works for a further 30 hours a week for four months longer he does not qualify for youth allowance. He has earned more than $13,010 in the financial year so we cannot claim him to be dependent on us. He will turn 20 years old in May and feels he should not have to wait any longer to commence his course of study. We agree with this.

The present legislation is discouraging the youth of Australia from seeking further education, and placing extra financial burdens on families. Students and families planned their tertiary education, deferment, financial savings and choice of university all in good faith, reliant on the government's criteria prior to the 1 July 2010 changes. The government scrapped the criteria during the very period that students and families were halfway through their attempt to meet the work and earning-capacity criteria.

This decision is an astounding breach of faith, yet typical of a government which people know they can no longer trust or take at their word. As I have said for a long time: do not look at what Labor says; look at what they do. Because of this government ineptitude, we now run the risk of having regional students turn away from continuing their student careers at university. This would be a tragedy not only for rural and regional Australia but for all Australians.