Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is always a delight to follow my very good colleague Senator Mason. At the outset, I would like to commend him for the work he has done on this issue. It has been, as he said, a particularly arduous process for nearly a year now. I think it was last May that we started on this process. It has been particularly difficult for those students who are living in regional areas. I would also like to thank and commend the work of my Nationals colleague Darren Chester, the member for Gippsland. He has been absolutely relentless in making sure that we get the right outcomes for regional students right across the country.

When this legislation, the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Income Support for Students) Bill 2009 [No. 2], was first brought into the chamber, it was greeted by this side with disbelief, in a lot of ways, because of what the government was putting forward. We did say at the time that there were positives to it, there were some things that we agreed with, and we still hold to that. We have been very open and honest about our measurement of the legislation and how it would operate, particularly the increase to the threshold for youth allowance, which we saw as a positive thing.

At that time, the government made the decision to remove the criterion for students to access independent youth allowance through the gap year pathway. If ever there was a decision made without any consultation or any understanding of regional Australia, that was it. It was absolutely appalling. The government had no idea whatsoever of the pathways needed for regional students to access tertiary education. There is an incredible inequity that exists between our regional and metropolitan students that I will go into a little later. But for the government to look at removing that independent youth allowance criterion without putting any other measure in its place to make sure that regional students had a pathway to university was simply negligent. It was absolutely negligent.

At the same time, the minister for too many things, Julia Gillard—and there must be too many things because things seem to be slipping through the cracks now—also said that those students who had finished year 12 in 2008 and embarked upon the pathway of trying to access independent youth allowance by taking their gap year last year could no longer access that allowance. Snap! Bang! There goes the rug from underneath them. She literally changed the rules midstream. How appalling is that? I think I must have used the word ‘appalling’ about 10 times now and I will probably use it a few more times as well. I think, Senator Mason, you might have to help me out with a few more adjectives.