Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Hansard source

I am speaking today on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Better Targeting Student Payments) Bill 2017. Labor will not support this unfair bill. It contains unfair cuts to the education entry payment, and it contains unfair cuts to the pensioner education supplement. We oppose this bill because it unfairly targets disability support pensioners, carers, single parents and jobseekers who take up study, and it will jeopardise their chances to continue their studies and find employment. Extraordinary really, isn't it, that this government is attacking people who are trying to do their best to improve their education?

This is not the first time that the Liberals and the Nationals have tried to abolish or cut the education entry payment and the pensioner education supplement. Way back in the horror 2014 budget, the Liberals first proposed to axe these payments. They have tried for three years to destroy these payments. Three different ministers—they keep changing the Minister for Social Services, and there is talk around that it might happen again—have tried and failed to get it legislated. These cuts became part of this Liberal government's so-called zombie measures. Eventually, in the 2017 budget, after three years of failure, they gave up on some of the cuts, but not all of them.

In the 2017 budget papers, they listed the cessation of the pensioner education supplement, a cut of $272 million from the budget, as one of the zombie measures that they were removing from the budget. In that same list of zombie measures, in statement 3 of the budget, the cessation of the education entry payment was also listed—or, so it seemed. But, of course, a leopard never changes its spots—particularly this lot. They hadn't given up. The Liberals brought back cuts to these payments, just in a slightly different form.

Based on data obtained at Senate estimates, there are 11,000 people receiving the education entry payment and around 37,000 receiving the pensioner education supplement. Around 9,400 people receive both payments and are at risk of being doubly hit by these unfair cuts. These payments are received predominantly by people with disability, carers, sole parents and the unemployed who have taken up study or training. I can't emphasise that enough: these are people who are trying their best to improve their education. Sixty-two dollars a fortnight might not sound like much to this Prime Minister, but it is, of course, to a single parent who is trying to find room in an already stretched family budget to afford textbooks.

Australians are sick and tired of the relentless cuts made by the Abbott-Turnbull government. They really have had a gutful from what I can only describe as this weak and lazy government—weak because we know this leader has absolutely no authority, and lazy because they keep reproducing the same changes, year in, year out, that are so unfair, target vulnerable Australians and are very poor public policy.

By way of background, the education entry payment is an annual payment of $208 to assist certain social security recipients with the costs of education so that they can eventually re-enter the workforce. Recipients of Newstart, parenting payment single, disability support pension, special benefit carer payment and some other closing payments are eligible to receive the education entry payment if they're studying an approved course.

This bill creates a definition for 'normal amount of full-time study' and links the amount of education entry payment recipients can apply to receive to their study load based on the relevant percentage of full-time study or the amount of pensioner education payment supplement payable to the recipient. This calculation will be made with reference to the amount of full-time study for each individual course. 'Normal amount of full-time study' is defined in the bill as the amount of study that the institution offering the course considers to be full-time, or an amount of full-time study equivalent to the average amount of full-time study that a person would have to undertake for the length of the course in order to complete it in the shortest time possible; or, if the course is a course of study within the meaning of the Higher Education Support Act 2003 and there are Commonwealth-supported-place students enrolled in the course, the full-time study load of the course.

The new staggered payment rates in the bill are defined either by the percentage of full-time study being undertaken or by the corresponding amount of pensioner education supplement received. Where a person receives both the pensioner education supplement and the education entry payment, they face a cut to both. The current payment of $208 a year will continue for students studying at least 76 per cent of the normal amount of full-time study. The payment would then be reduced to $156, $104 or $52 in line with reduced study loads of 51 per cent, 26 per cent and 25 per cent respectively.

In the 2016-17 financial year, as I say, around 11,700 people received the education entry payment. Of those, 4,805 were recipients of parenting payment single, 2,986 were recipients of disability support pension, 2,762 were recipients of Newstart and 826 were recipients of the carer payment. People on these payments are less likely than other students to be able to undertake studies full-time, as they often have health barriers or caring responsibilities that prevent them from doing so. This is a very important point to make, and one that seems to have escaped the government. These are vulnerable people who are often in difficult circumstances, seeking to improve their skills and improve their job prospects by undertaking some study. This is a very important point to make, and one that seems to have escaped the government. These are vulnerable people, often in difficult circumstances, who are seeking to improve their skills and improve their job prospects by undertaking some study. We hear all the time from those opposite, including the Prime Minister, that it's important to get social security recipients into the workforce, yet here they are cutting help that's designed to do exactly that. They are cutting support to these people who are taking a bit of a risk by doing some study in order to get a job.

It is also important to note that the carer payment and parenting payment are paid overwhelmingly to women. Ninety-four per cent of the parenting payment's single recipients are women. Sixty-nine per cent of carer payment recipients are women. This means these cuts will disproportionately impact women who have started a course of training to get back into the workforce. It is unquestionably unfair.

The pensioner education supplement is a fortnightly payment to some social security recipients to assist with the ongoing costs of study. It was actually introduced back in 1987 by the Hawke Labor government. Currently the pensioner education supplement is paid at the rate of $62.40 a fortnight for a full-time student or $31.20 a fortnight for a part-time student. This bill cuts the pensioner education supplement during non-study periods. This will result in a cut for every recipient of the supplement, as it will no longer be paid in every fortnight of the year. The rate of payment will then be reduced to $46.80, then to $31.20 and then to $15.60 each fortnight in line with reduced study loads of 51 per cent, 26 per cent and 25 per cent respectively. To be clear, again: this is unquestionably a cut.

People with disability have stated—and they've said this about the bill—that these cuts will hurt those on the lowest incomes, including people with disability, who will be further pushed into poverty and financial hardship. It will make it harder for people with disability to start or continue undertaking education. The St Vincent de Paul Society said it is 'cutting payments to those who need them most and reinforcing disparities in access to education.' Based on the latest available data, 37,717 people received the pensioner education supplement and, of these, 16,276 were recipients of parenting payment single. There were 15,430 people who were recipients of the disability support pension, 3,336 people who were recipients of the carer payment and 2,619 people who were recipients of Newstart. The Australian Council of Social Service estimates that 75 per cent of recipients of the pensioner education supplement are women.

The third area that is affected by this bill is the relocation scholarship. This relocation scholarship was introduced in 2010 by the Labor government to help students who need to move away from home for tertiary study with the cost of establishing accommodation. The scholarship was designed specifically to address barriers faced by students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, particularly those in regional and remote Australia and Indigenous students. This bill proposes to cease eligibility for the scholarship for students who have both parents living outside Australia, students where their usual place of residence has been outside Australia within six months prior to claiming the scholarship or students who claim the scholarship to undertake study outside of Australia.

In summary, on the one hand the Turnbull government says that they have given up on their unfair cuts; but we know, as this bill shows, that they are just waiting for the next opportunity. They just seem to want to rehash the old, unfair cuts from 2014, giving them a different name. By contrast, Labor stands for fairness. The Liberals and Nationals are all about unfair cuts. The pensioner education supplement and the education entry payment were both introduced to help vulnerable people with the costs of study so that they have the skills that they need to get back into the workforce. Cuts to these vulnerable people are unfair, and the bill should be opposed. Labor will oppose it. I urge the Senate crossbench to reject it as well.

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