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

I thank the member for Page for her question, and I thank her for the opportunity to visit her electorate last week and to meet with community leaders and local schools. I believe that the member for O’Connor has indicated what may be motivating the Liberal Party to hold up the student income support bill in the Senate; that is, they simply do not understand it and they care so little about Australian students and Australian working families that they have not bothered to familiarise themselves with the details of it.

I point out to the House that, very significantly, those who care about education are urging senators to pass this bill. Yesterday Australia’s 39 vice-chancellors each signed a letter to every senator, calling on them to pass the bill—a truly extraordinary thing. And now, as I understand it, opposition members are hurling abuse about vice-chancellors. Thirty-nine vice-chancellors sent a letter calling on senators to pass the bill. In the letter the vice-chancellors said:

We, the undersigned, write on behalf of Australia’s universities and their students to seek your support for the passage of the bill.

And they go on:

The income support for students bill properly targets less well-off students across Australia for whom income support is critical. The increases to the parental and personal income thresholds will mean that more students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds will be able to access the full rate of youth allowance.

I table a copy of the letter and the full list of 39 signatories to the letter. The government, at each and every stage of trying to reform youth allowance to make it fairer, have been willing to accept reasonable amendments. We have worked with the Greens and accepted amendments. We have worked with Senator Xenophon and accepted amendments. That means that, as of today—

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