Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition government of the Liberal and National parties realises that rural and regional Australians need extra assistance when it comes to the quality of their education and attaining the same levels of achievement as all Australians. The evidence is very clear that there are gaps and deficits in that regard. That's why we've undertaken comprehensive work to look at how we can boost educational attainment across rural and regional Australia, and we're investing out of this year's budget an additional $96 million to particularly target and support regional education.

Our investment will add new sub-bachelor courses, enabling pathways into university for many young Australians through a $28 million funding boost. We will also be funding an additional 185 commencing Commonwealth-supported places in our Regional Study Hubs, providing access to university services in towns where it's never existed before and relaxing the parental income test to provide greater support and access to youth allowance to students from rural and regional backgrounds to allow them to continue their study.