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

I move:

That the requested amendments be made.

This is the return to this House of the student income support legislation. We are now in a position to secure passage of this piece of legislation today, which is good news. It is good news for university students and their families who have been waiting anxiously for the outcome of this bill. It is good news for the 150,000 students who will now receive student start-up scholarships. It is good news for the 100,000 students who will receive youth allowance for the first time or more youth allowance. It is good news for students in country Australia because the old system of student income support was one in which the participation rate of country kids was going down.

I would like to thank those who have played a constructive role in ensuring passage of this bill. First, I would like to thank members of the government backbench who have worked with me, reflecting the views of their community to me about the contents of this bill. I would like to thank the three Independents in the House of Representatives. Each of them represents a rural constituency and each of them worked with the government to secure passage of this bill because they understand what is good for country students. I would like to thank the Greens and Senator Nick Xenophon. At all stages, they have been honest and straightforward in their dealings with the government. They have been clear on their objectives. They have been prepared to work with us constructively.

Had the opposition taken a comparable approach then passage of this bill could have been secured at the end of last year, avoiding these many months of uncertainty and delay. However, finally, in the last sitting fortnight before we adjourn prior to the budget session, the opposition have managed to do something constructive. I thank the shadow minister for abandoning the opposition’s absurd amendments, where they sought to spend an extra billion dollars on student income support—a billion dollars they never saw fit to expend on student income support over 12 long years in government. I thank the shadow minister for abandoning a proposition which would have meant that a student from the home of a multimillion dollar family could have accessed full youth allowance if they had chosen to move from Melbourne to Brisbane to study. This was the original proposition of the opposition, costing more than a billion dollars.

Finally, after all of these months of delay, that proposition has been abandoned in favour of the following very limited proposition which cost something less than $100 million. This limited proposition is that students who come from the outer regional Australia, remote Australia or very remote Australia classifications under the Australian Standard Geographical Classification index and whose parents’ income is less than $150,000 per annum will be able to access the old independence test criteria. This is a proposition for change that applies to around 1,900 students around the country.

Delay is bad enough but, despite the opposition having entered into an arrangement with the government to deliver this bill, today we have seen unnecessary continued politicking from the opposition, who have always been more concerned about the politics of this than the outcome for students. Despite having entered an arrangement with the government that this new change would apply to students in outer regional Australia, remote Australia or very remote Australia, today the opposition have gone through the farce of moving amendments in the Senate they up-front said they would never insist on to play politics with other country areas. This is a disgraceful thing to do.

The final disgraceful thing done by the opposition is that they have now campaigned up and down the length and breadth of the country promising an extra billion dollars for student income support but, as the shadow minister has made clear, in government they have no intention of delivering it. Their only promise to Australian students is a review. It would have been better for the opposition to have taken a straightforward approach (Extension of time granted) and this could have been achieved last year. I will conclude in one minute’s time and then I understand the shadow minister will take equal time and we will be able to dispose of this matter before question time.

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