Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Social Services. Can the minister please update the House on the progress the government is making towards fair and equitable access to youth payments for both dependent and independent students in rural and regional electorates like O'Connor?

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. Indeed, it is a timely question because very soon in this House we will be debating in the final stages the Social Services Legislation Amendment (More Generous Means Testing for Youth Payments) Bill 2015. I think the member for O'Connor will realise that in large part that bill had its genesis in a range of complaints that had emanated from rural communities about some of the difficulties that they were experiencing in accessing appropriate education for students in their families. In fact, I recall the member having spoken to me about this issue some time ago after a forum in his electorate where a parent from Albany in the great electorate of O'Connor had described spending up to 80 hours trying to help their child fill out the necessary documentation which went to the issue of asset testing for that child and that child's family to be eligible for the relevant payments for study. That was clearly an untenable situation and it left those families at great disadvantage.

Member for O'Connor, I congratulate you for your great advocacy and, of course, as you would be aware—and the timeliness of the question goes to the point—the Social Services Legislation Amendment (More Generous Means Testing for Youth Payments) Bill 2015 will be debated very shortly in this parliament. What it will do is remove the complex and unnecessary meaning tests and improve the operation of parental income tests. The changes will help students from regional and rural families—like those that you spoke to in Albany, member for O'Connor—to better support the transition of their children from school to further study, including those children who continue to study beyond year 12. The bill was introduced at the urging of Senator Bridget McKenzie, who you have had a great relationship with on this matter, yourself, the member for O'Connor, and other backbench colleagues, following an examination of issues by an interdepartmental committee on access to higher education for regional and remote students. The committee held 14 regional education forums, including one in Albany which I have spoken about. It was attended by over 65 people, and they were very obviously eager to discuss this.

What the proposed changes will mean is very much simplified rules by more closely aligning the parental means test assessment for youth payments with the family tax benefit A assessment, which is subject only to an income test based on adjusted taxable income, and the latter, the family tax benefit part A, having no family assets test or family actual means test. What that will mean, across Australia, is that about 1,200 families from regional and remote areas will become eligible for an increase in payment from the removal of the family actual means test. They are also expected to benefit from the removal of the family assets test. What you will see is farming families who will not have farm assets counted towards the test for their children accessing youth allowance, and for all of the families that we have looked at you will see a benefit of an increase in their rate of youth allowance, which is very important, and that will be about $7,000 per year. So, well done, member.