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

The other great vice of that system, as statistics show, is that if young people take a gap year many of them actually do not then go on to do the university course. So what are we trying to do? We are trying through these reforms, through the changes to the parental income test, to enable people in the member for Gilmore’s constituency who have family incomes in the low to middle range to qualify upfront for youth allowance. That means you could do year 12 this year and go to uni next year, having qualified—no gap year, no need to worry about getting work. More people will be qualifying that way because of the changes in parental income support.

The member for Gilmore would be entitled to ask me: how many people will benefit from these changes? I can tell her: around 100,000 students will benefit from these changes—68,000 more will qualify, will get money for the first time, and 35,000 will get more money. Then her constituents who would have to move away from home will, as youth allowance recipients, automatically get the benefit of the student start-up scholarship and, if they need to move away from home, get the relocation scholarship. For them, what is that worth in the first year? The relocation scholarship and the student start-up scholarship is worth $6,254, which will enable them to make that transition into the first year of university, plus they will get the youth allowance. That means more people qualifying, getting more money without having to do what the member for Gilmore is worried about and that is look for work in regional towns where it may not be available. Given our concerns, she should be out spruiking these reforms as better reforms for her constituency, because they are.

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