Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will come to that. The participation rate in 1996 for students from rural and remote Australia was 18 per cent. By 2006 it was 21 per cent. In metropolitan Australia in 1996 it was 28 per cent and in 2006 it was 35 per cent. For those students from remote Australia the participation rate was one per cent. The member on the other side might scoff at this, but I represent a rural and remote electorate and I am passionate about the great divide that exists in this country. We have two nations, not one. I can put it another way. If you look at the population aged between 15 and 64 in Australia today, 27 per cent of them live in regional and remote areas, whereas 19 per cent are higher education students. But look at the participation rate. In 1996, 18 per cent of students from rural and remote Australia participated in post-secondary education. By 2006 it was 21 per cent. In metropolitan Australia the participation rate was 28 per cent in 1996, it rose to 35 per cent and it is still escalating.

What does that tell you? That assistance for students who live in rural and remote Australia so they can afford to access post-secondary education is the issue that must be addressed by government. The parents do not have the ability to send all their children away—these figures confirm it. Governments at all levels have to address this issue. Urban Australians have subsidised urban transport to access university or TAFE colleges. They can live at home and they can have a job if they remain at home. But those who live in rural or remote Australia have to leave home to gain access.

It is an issue of equality of access in the areas of health and education. It is an issue I am passionate about and we as legislators have a responsibility to make sure that we do more than has been done in the past, because the gap between rural and remote Australia and metropolitan Australia in the area of health and life expectancy and in relation to access to post-secondary education is widening. We talk of horizontal fiscal equalisation for the distribution of GST revenue to the states. Tasmania gets more than Western Australia, and we all agree that we should be a Commonwealth sharing in the common wealth. But when some of those funds go to the states why can't it be applied to ensure that your geographic postcode has no bearing on your life expectancy or your education opportunities? Today it does—the postcode where you were born, where you live and where you grow up.

People say, 'They choose to live out there.' Well, that is where their job is. That is where the great wealth of this nation is generated—in the mining sector, in the agricultural sector by the food producers of this nation. They live there and they produce this wonderful food for us, which is so often taken for granted in this country. My time is just about up—in fact it is—but I just want to say that it is a passion of mine, the inequality between people living in rural and remote Australia and those who are living in metropolitan Australia. The gap is widening. It is something that the government did not address in this budget and it is something that I will have on my agenda in the lead-up to the next election. (Time expired)

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