Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Labor should have thought twice when it decided to save $1.87 billion by making changes to the independent youth allowance, hitting hard at rural and regional students. The anger and frustration expressed to me by students, parents and teachers from rural and regional communities in my electorate are quite extraordinary. I have never seen anything like it before. So angry and frustrated are my constituents that today I seek leave to table a document of 1,921 signatures, all expressing their opposition to the changes to youth allowance by the Rudd Labor government.

Leave granted.

Current gap year students have found themselves caught out by the changes. Their expectations of working this year to save towards the costs of moving to the city for university next year, supported by youth allowance, have now been dashed. A rally in Mount Gambier in June of this year was organised by Sasha Miles and Sarah Dickins, who are both taking a gap year to work and accumulate money so that they can attend university next year. That rally was attended by several hundred students. It was not a rally I organised; it was a rally they organised. I also met a large delegation of students from the Riverland with the very same issue at my Berri office.

Students who participated in the Mount Gambier rally told me that, of the graduating year 12 class last year, only a couple could afford to go straight on to university. These students told me and are telling the parliament through this petition that they believe the proposed changes are wrong, and they want their representatives to act to fix them. Our families are not wealthy. The mean weekly income in my electorate is $1,077, much less than the national average. The university aspirations of many families in my electorate, many on this petition, have been dealt a blow by the Rudd Labor government, which should hang its head in shame. If you look at that petition, you see that you have people from all over my electorate signing it, whether they be in Renmark, Berri, Loxton, Barmera, Waikerie, Angaston, Tanunda, Nuriootpa, Murray Bridge, Mannum, Kingston, Millicent, Mount Gambier, Naracoorte, Padthaway, Bordertown, Lameroo or Pinnaroo. A whole host of towns around my electorate have been affected by this change. In fact, in every part of my electorate the students have to leave home to go to university, and as a result they are drastically affected by these changes. (Time expired)

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