Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the previous speaker for his efforts. I rise to speak on the Higher Education Support Amendment Bill 2009. This bill will see changes to the application and approval process for the income contingent loan schemes for higher education and vocational education and training. The coalition sees benefits in allowing higher education and vocational education training providers to lodge their application for approval to offer FEE-HELP and VET FEE-HELP before tuition assurance arrangements are in place. The main benefit will be a reduction in the duplication of administration and a cut in red tape by allowing the two processes to occur simultaneously. As a result, the approval of providers and access to student loans will occur more rapidly and efficiently.

University students in my electorate of Forrest welcome the implications of the Higher Education Support Amendment Bill as the amendments, unlike the recently proposed changes to Youth Allowance, will actually benefit students in regional and rural communities. The government failed to consider regional and rural students in the proposed Higher Education Support Amendment (2009 Budget Measures) Bill 2009. I was contacted by over 200 students and parents in my electorate who are concerned about the government’s proposed changes to Youth Allowance which compromise the future of young people right throughout Australia. As I said, for regional students, the associated costs enforced on a student who must relocate to study are enormous, particularly in comparison to those of, for example, a metropolitan student who lives at home and/or has access to public transport.

Don is a concerned grandfather from Busselton who got in touch with me. He stated in an email:

I feel, as a country resident, we are being treated as ‘second class citizens’. So much for the ‘education revolution’ we hear so much about!! I would say that many country children who should be able to attend University are unable to do so because of the heavy financial impost on the family.

Debra was another constituent who got in touch with me. She has a son who is currently living in Perth and studying at UWA. Debra said:

His board and lodgings at the residential college (and he is staying at one of the cheapest ones) is around $11,000 for the 34 weeks of university this year. He also has to pay for books of around $1,000 pa and weekly living costs such as stationery, printing, clothes, medical supplies etc. The UWA website estimates these weekly living costs (at $80pw) to be $2,720 for the 34 week university year. This means his essential costs for the 34 weeks are $14,720 pa—and not including his HECS or his board and living costs for the 18 weeks he will have to move out of the residential college each year.

I have had many parents contact me who are angry that the government is deciding that the future of their child or children is to be without youth allowance, particularly because they may not be able to access higher education simply because the family and the student cannot afford the cost. Year 11 student Lahni, from Busselton, sent me an email, addressed ‘To the government’:

I hope you can see the impact you are having. You are not changing figures; you are changing a child’s future. You are not helping the economy, you are disadvantaging it. You are not creating futures, you are destroying dreams. So I hope with the goodness of your hearts, you can find the courage and the common sense to stand up for regional kids. To stand up for education, to stand up for me … I hope most of all you can sleep at night. As I lay in bed listening to my mother cry, and worry because she can’t afford to send her daughter to university, to get away from a small town … but you can. You can make this difference, you can make my dreams come true. You can give me this opportunity my parents can’t. I beg you.

They are very powerful words from such a young woman. I am still not convinced the Minister for Education fully understands the associated costs that regional and rural students must encounter.

As demonstrated by supporting this bill, the coalition strongly supports education, and strongly supports good legislation such as the Higher Education Support Amendment Bill, which reduces the red tape for students attending university. This bill also broadens the condition under which the minister may be satisfied that a VET provider is able to meet the VET quality and accountability requirements and so qualify to offer VET FEE-HELP. It is anticipated that this legislation will achieve greater administration efficiency in the income-contingent loans schemes for higher education and vocational education and training. I, along with the coalition, support this legislation.

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