Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this afternoon to speak on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (More Generous Means Testing for Youth Payments) Bill 2015. This bill will implement the government's 2015 budget measure that will provide more consistent and more generous support for families with dependent young people who qualify for certain youth income support payments. With a financial commitment from the government of $262.7 million over the forward estimates, this bill will bring extra support to families as their children move into young adulthood—particularly rural and regional families whose children continue to study beyond year 12.

From 1 January 2016, this will include removing the family assets test and the family actual means test from the youth allowance parental means test arrangements. This will result in a more consistent level of support for families, as young people move from family tax benefit part A to an individual income support payment. The parental income test exemptions for youth allowance will also be aligned with existing arrangements for family tax benefit part A.

Removing the family assets test for youth allowance will allow around 4,100 additional dependent youth allowance claimants to qualify for the first time, accessing average annual payments of more than $7,000 a year. Removing the family actual means test will see around 1,200 more people receiving youth allowance for the first time, as well as increasing payments for around 4,860 existing students by approximately $2,000 a year.

The changes will reduce the significant regulatory burden on around 30,000 families subject to the family actual means test and around 200,000 families subject to the family assets test. The changes mean farming families will not have farm assets counted toward the means test for their dependent children claiming youth allowance.

A further beneficial component of this budget measure will apply from 1 July 2016 to expand the 'family pool' for the youth parental income test to include a notional maximum rate of family tax benefit part A for all of the children for whom the parents have financial responsibility. This will apply to families that have dependent children receiving individual youth payments which are parental income tested and which also have younger dependent siblings, and will result in a lower rate of reduction to the dependent child's youth allowance than is currently the case.

These changes will be particularly important to the people of the Parkes electorate. I have had countless contacts and meetings with parents who are struggling to access tertiary education for their children. We have mentioned in here that farm assets will be exempt, which will be very important. But it is also important for a lot of people in regional Australia who are working in town and have a combined income—and I will use the example of a policeman married to a schoolteacher—which until now has made it very difficult to access funds and to send their children away to university. We have had the case in families with two or three children where a decision has been made by the parents about which of their children can go to university and receive a tertiary education and which cannot, which is completely unacceptable. So these changes will be very much welcomed.

Including all FTB children in the family pool for the youth parental income test will allow around 13,700 families with dependent children in both the family tax benefit part A and youth systems to become eligible for an average increase in payment of around $1,100 a year. Around 5,800 families who currently miss out on payments due to the combined higher taper rates will also become eligible for an average payment of around $1,300 a year. Additionally, in a two-stage process from 1 January 2016, maintenance income will be removed from the youth allowance parental income test assessment. From 1 January 2017, a separate maintenance income test for the treatment of child support will be applied, like the test that currently applies to family tax benefit part A.

This bill is boosting assistance for working families, smoothing the transition to individual payments for young people, and better supporting them to study to build their careers, develop economic opportunities and contribute to our community. I will conclude on this by saying that there is one thing that will rectify the multitude of problems across our society, and that is education. At the moment, a young person from regional Australia is 30 per cent less likely to access tertiary education than someone from a metropolitan area. As someone who prior to coming to this place, in my previous occupation as a farmer, has educated three children through university, I understand the financial burden that is placed upon families. So this is a very good step forward in allowing people from regional Australia to level that playing field and giving them an opportunity to receive an education that will not only benefit them but ultimately benefit those regional communities from whence they came, because anyone that has a qualification as a professional person is more likely to go and work in a regional area if they were actually born and raised there in the first place. So I have great pleasure in supporting this bill.

See this speech in context