David Hawker (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the comments made by my colleagues in the coalition and, in particular, to commend the shadow minister, the member for Sturt, for the hard work that he has put in to get a much better arrangement; albeit, as colleagues have mentioned, that it is not ideal and not what we would really like to see. But I think the most important point to start with is that the government has agreed to get rid of the retrospectivity. It was extremely unfair. I think all colleagues had examples of people who in good faith had started their gap year and who had suddenly been told: ‘Well, that’s too bad. You’re going to miss out.’ So I commend the member for Sturt and I thank the government for accepting that point.

However, I must go on to say that we still face the same problem. The rate of take-up of tertiary study for people in the country is lower than for those in the city. The reasons for this are very clear. People from the country have to go away in order to study and they therefore have the costs of living away from home. In addition, they have the difficulties of having to settle in a strange environment, which is not easy. Many country students find that very difficult. It seems strange that the government has still not recognised the inequity that is there.

I would also like to address the issue of anomalies. The use of a map that is totally unrelated to education issues to decide whether or not you are allowed to qualify for the gap year under the old arrangements or under the new arrangements does seem to create some enormous anomalies. Some of the towns in my electorate of Wannon that will be missing out are Stawell, Ararat, Avoca, Mortlake and Camperdown. They will all miss out and they are all smaller than, say, a town like Portland that will come in. And, of course, all of those towns are much, much smaller than places like Townsville or Cairns, both of which seem to be allowed to stay under the old arrangements in terms of qualifying under the gap year.

So it is still far from satisfactory. I would urge the minister to look at how these boundaries could be improved. While I accept that the legislation has a sense of urgency about it now because there are so many students hanging on it going through, nonetheless I think it is very, very important that we remove this anomaly. It is almost like a lottery because it is based on whether you live on one side of the line or the other, despite the fact that the situation you are living in is virtually the same. I do not think that is fair by any measure, and I hope that the minister will look very carefully at this and say that we can improve on it.

It really comes back to this point: that we should be doing everything possible to encourage country students to continue their studies. We now have a situation where some are going to find it easier than others purely because of some lines on a map that do not bear much relation to each individual’s situation. So, again, I join with my colleagues to say that I see this as an improvement but that I still think there is a long way to go to improve it further. I hope that the minister will listen to the members who have, in good faith, spoken here this evening to say that we can do better. With those words, I am conscious that other colleagues would like to speak, and I thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for my opportunity.

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