Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of equality and fairness this afternoon and supporting the second reading amendment that should be made to the Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Other Legislation Amendment (Election Commitments and Other Measures) Bill 2011. The amendment reads:

That all words after “That” be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: “whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House require the government:

(1)

urgently to introduce legislation to reinstate the former workplace participation criteria for independent youth allowance, to apply to students whose family home is located in inner regional areas as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics instrument Australian Standard Geographical Classification; and

(2)

to appropriate funds necessary to meet the additional cost of expanding the criteria for participation.

It is an absolute disgrace, what the Gillard government have done—with the changes they have made to the independent youth allowance—to regional and rural students. They say they are a government of fairness. Well what they have done to regional and rural students is not fair. I have received numerous letters that highlight this fact.

I received a letter from Rosanne Baird, which states:

Dear Dan

I am writing to you regarding the current Austudy boundaries. Our son Nicholas has just completed a ‘gap year’ and is heading off to University of Ballarat to study business/sport management in late February. I contacted Centrelink today to see what he was eligible to claim.

Nic has worked hard for the past four years, commencing a part time job at the local supermarket, going onto full time during school holidays and then gaining full time employment once he had completed his VCE. He resigned from the supermarket in December 2010, and commenced at the local abattoir, working 40 hours per week.

It is therefore very disappointing to discover that he is not able to claim Austudy automatically, as we live in Stawell, 5 minute drive from us at Deep Lead is in the eligible area!!!!! I am at a loss to understand how these kids are to further their education under this system, we are rural people and all should be treated the same—making life a little easier for our kids.

I know we have to prove that Nic has earned ‘X’ amount of $ and worked ‘X’ amount of hours—this will not mean that he will be eligible—t only gives him a chance! My husband and I earn just on $100,000 per year, whilst it sounds okay, it is not enough to be able to support a full time student and another child still at school.

We are not eligible for anything under the family tax benefit because we earn too much!!!

The only answer for this family is for my husband or I to get a second job to support Nic in his studies.

I would be pleased if you would consider our plight, on behalf of average working families trying to support our kids education.

A second letter that I received is from Anna Zebra. It reads:

Dear Dan

It is with pleasure that I take the opportunity to write this letter to you after speaking with your office. I have been increasingly frustrated with the Youth Allowance situation and the fact that it directly disadvantages country students. I am more than happy for you to use our situation as an example, and will outline our story.

We have four children, and at this stage two have chosen to pursue a tertiary education, which in both cases involves them moving over two hours from home to do so. We live about 10 minutes from Hamilton in a small town called Tarrington. Unfortunately we are not in a financial position to support two children living away from home.

My daughter Jaz completed year 12 in 2008 and took a year off in 2009 to work and travel, then commenced her tertiary study in Melbourne in 2010. She qualified for Youth Allowance as an independant having satisfied the requirements, and is continuing to study and support herself this year.

My son Tyler completed year 12 in 2009 and also took the following year off to work so that he could also qualify for Youth Allowance. Unfortunately the requirements were changed …

And who changed them? We know—the Gillard government, in spite of their so-called fairness.

… in this period so that now due to the “zoning” rule he cannot receive the payment and will have to try to support himself in studies at Ballarat University.

I will outline his situation in point form below:

• completed year 12 2009
• accepted into Ballarat University; deferred position for 12 months to work
• worked full-time at Iluka for 12 months from Nov 09 to Nov 10
• tried to apply for Youth Allowance for tertiary study commencing in 2011 (realising he would not be able to receive any payments until a full 18 months had passed from the time he finished year 12), satisfied all the requirements as an independent student except the residential location, thus due to this he cannot receive any payments
• other students who live 10 minutes from us in towns such as Penshurst are zoned differently so will be able to qualify.

I hope that this is enough information for you to be able to use our case.

This poor boy—his older sister is getting independent youth allowance and going to university, he has met exactly the same requirements as she has and he cannot. Fellow students who live five to 10 minutes down the road are also eligible to get independent youth allowance, but he is not. This policy is an absolute disgrace. It is unequal, it is unfair and Prime Minister Gillard, whose policy this is, should act to change it immediately, because if she does not then she is disadvantaging regional and rural students.

I want to touch on a few points that are relevant here and go to the heart of the two amendments. I would especially hope that all rural and regional members of the ALP—and I know there are not a lot of them—would support us in making sure that these amendments are supported. Here are some facts about what we are dealing with. Finding full-time employment in regional areas and small communities is often very difficult for these students, so they have a hard time trying to just get the employment. When they do and they qualify we should enable them to get independent youth allowance so they can go and get a tertiary education. The legislation does not take into account seasonal employment sectors such as tourism and agriculture in regional areas, creating further barriers for regional students. So it is hardship upon hardship that the government is putting on these rural and regional students.

Rural and regional students face significantly increased costs associated with relocating for study; this is proven and factual, with no debate. Everyone knows that this is true, yet what we are seeing is a government that will not stand up and do the right thing by these students. Many regional students have no choice but to relocate to study. The major universities are in our capital cities. We have some, fortunately, in regional areas. We have a very good university, Deakin, in Warrnambool in my electorate, and RMIT in Hamilton, but unfortunately they do not yet offer the variety of subjects that all students need, so students are forced to go to the capital cities—and that costs them a serious amount of money. Evidence has shown that it is a financial barrier of between $15,000 and $20,000. These students are prepared to do the work so that they have some money to go to university, but what is the Gillard government doing? It is taking away from them the opportunity to get some assistance for these costs.

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