Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question and I can tell him very clearly what advice I have received. I have received advice that over 100,000 students will be better off—that is, 68,000 students will receive income support for the first time and 35,000 students will receive higher payments. What the changes to the parental income test mean is that parents can earn more before their children start to lose income support—and I think that, as a regional member, the regional member will be very interested in these statistics. The way the scheme currently works is that for a student to receive the maximum away-from-home payment of $371.40 a fortnight, the income of their family has to be $32,800 or less. Under the new scheme, that threshold will increase to $42,559. And then we have changed the taper rate. The current taper rate is 25 per cent. The taper now will be 20 per cent.

For the regional member—and I know he will be concerned about this because he will know about incomes in his electorate—I point out that, under the Rudd government scheme, that means a family with university-age kids of 19 years and 23 years living away from home can receive support up to a family income of $139,388. That is compared with a family income of $75,324 now. He would know, as a regional member, that the average annual household wage and salary index study shows us that in regional and rural areas we are talking on average about household incomes of $54,500. That is, on average the constituents in his electorate fit into this scheme and will get student income support. That is before we moved to the question of the scholarships that we are having under our scheme.

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