Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

A disastrous effect, Member for Gippsland. This is a committee chaired by Labor, with a majority held by Labor, concluding what this government will not admit: that these changes will have a disastrous effect. The committee went on to say that it:

… will have a detrimental impact on many students who deferred their studies during 2009 in order to work and earn sufficient money to be eligible for Youth Allowance.

So there we have a Labor committee, from a Labor state government, with a Labor majority, concluding that this will be bad for students in regional and rural areas and bad for the so-called education revolution.

So how does the denial of independent youth allowance to so many regional and rural students contribute to an education revolution? How is making it more difficult for regional and rural students to obtain tertiary qualifications and trade skills—when they are more likely to go back into the regions where those skills are required—taking them out of the system or giving them a disincentive going to improve this nation into the future? I would maintain that this is one of the greatest backward steps in Australian education in quite some years.

How can the government claim that it is fair to pull the rug out from under regional and rural students who made decisions some time back on their future based on the status quo? How can it claim it to be fair to discriminate against students who face far higher costs in obtaining an education than those in the metropolitan areas? The government should be condemned for these changes. The Building the Education Revolution program has proven to be grossly mismanaged. It is proving to be working against many students, particularly those in regional and rural areas.

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