Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

You might want to listen to this one. Billy said,

‘VSU has smashed my campus. We lost our welfare and academic help on campus and it was not able to support me and the other 3,500 students on campus. When we needed help we had to at some stages call or webcam Townsville just to receive some counselling.’ Perhaps the National Party would like to stand up in this place and explain exactly why they do not think that regional students, many of whom are living away from home for the first time, deserve face-to-face counselling—but the National Party do not think that is important. Perhaps they can stop pretending to care for regional students who are moving away from home to commence their studies and listen to the likes of Marshall, who moved from the small town of Clonbinane in Victoria to study at Victoria University. I will tell you what Marshall said to me. He said,

‘Moving to the city from a rural area was honestly uncomfortable. To move from a place where everybody knows everyone by name to a place where you are recognised as a number was a very sobering experience for me. Coming to university, I was under the impression that there would be clubs for every interest, whether they be debating, music, theatre or sport. However, sadly, these programs all had to be cancelled.’

But it is not just the students who are suffering. We know that there will be a decline in jobs in regional Australia as a result of this. The thing is that at least the Liberal Party do not pretend to care. The National Party stand in this place, pretend that they care about regional students and, when we give them the chance to vote to prove it to all of Australia, they cowardly follow the Liberal Party line. If you would like one further demonstration of just how it is that the National Party have been using politics instead of policy in their decision making—

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