Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Preventing Family Violence) Share this | Hansard source

Before going into the substantive comments on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Student Reform) Bill 2018, I move:

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:

(1) condemns the Turnbull Government's cuts to Centrelink which have caused delays in Youth Allowance processing times for students from regional, rural and remote Australia; and

(2) calls on the Turnbull Government to end these delays, which are putting at risk students' ability to start and continue their studies".

I rise to support this bill. I think it's important that we understand, as I know this parliament does, the context in which we are having this debate on this piece of legislation. It is in the context of—as we have heard today and on many occasions—an incredibly crippling drought, particularly in New South Wales and Queensland. In a sense, this bill is not what I would describe as a response to that and not a measure to address the drought specifically, but it certainly has implications for young people who are living on those properties and the children of people who are very much affected by drought.

This is really an issue of access and equity. At the moment it is well understood that young people in regional and rural Australia are participating in tertiary education much less than their city counterparts. That's a really important point to understand in relation to this bill. The Social Services Legislation Amendment (Student Reform) Bill 2018 will expand access to youth allowance to regional and remote students who move away from home to study. Of course, it goes to reason that young people living in regional and remote areas of Australia, in many cases—in most cases—do need to move away from home to study. We know that, according to the Independent Review into Regional, Rural and Remote Education, commissioned by the government and conducted by John Halsey from Flinders University, young people in regional Australia are half as likely to have completed a university degree compared with their urban counterparts. I think that's a fact that a lot of people don't fully appreciate. When you think that only half as many young people in regional and remote Australia are participating in university, it is quite a shocking statistic.

It was a Labor government that introduced the youth allowance regional workforce independence criteria in 2011, as part of our reforms to increase the number of regional students attending university. It is thought by the government that this particular reform will bring about an extra 2,000 young people from regional and remote Australia participating in a university degree. It will hopefully take the numbers from something like 3,000 up to over 5,000.

A young person must satisfy criteria to participate in this scheme, and there are a number of criteria which I'd like to go through for the benefit of the House. The student's parental home must be in a regional or remote area. The student must need to move away to study, as I have outlined. Since leaving secondary school, the student must have, over a 14-month period, earned 75 per cent or more of wage level A of the national training wage schedule—that's about $25,000—or, for at least two years, worked at least 15 hours a week. Those criteria need to be understood in the context that it is often very challenging, particularly for young people from remote areas, to actually meet those two criteria. We need to understand that, in some remote areas, there is not an economy that allows a student or a young person to meet that criteria—and that is something to take on board. Nevertheless, Labor will support this bill, as I initially indicated.

This bill will increase the regional independence criterion parental income limit for students from regional and remote areas from $150,000 to $160,000 and add $10,000 to the income limit for each additional child in the family. Currently a flat threshold exists regardless of the number of children in a family. That is a very significant change to the criterion—one we hope will see an increase in the number of students being able to qualify for this payment. It will allow students to use the financial year prior to their gap year—assuming they do have a gap year—as the year when parental income is assessed. This will provide additional certainty about whether they will meet the parental income limit before taking a gap year—as I said, if they do take a gap year, and of course not all students do that.

We don't need a study to tell us that rural and remote students face extra and sizeable hurdles in undertaking post-secondary education. As I have outlined, some of that is geographic but it is often the capacity, particularly in difficult times like this, for families to afford for their young person to participate. As I said, it is about access and equity. The independent review that I referred to earlier was helpful in outlining and articulating those very challenges to policymakers—which, ultimately, has prompted the drafting of this bill. If people have a great interest in this, I recommend that they apprise themselves of Dr John Halsey's very fine work.

We all know too well that accommodation and living expenses represent a major challenge. For students from rural and remote areas there are the additional travel expenses that come from travelling from remote and regional centres to locations where places of study are and travelling home to visit your family. Accommodation is expensive—there's no question about that—especially in inner-city and suburban areas, and affordable accommodation can be difficult to find. That's a really important point to dwell on. The closest university to where I live is Sydney University, and housing and rental prices in that inner-city area of Sydney are absolutely exorbitant. You can pay $500 or more a week just for a one-bedroom unit, which of course is absolutely impossible for most students. There is of course student accommodation, but there is not enough to meet the needs of all students. This is a huge challenge, particularly for young people who have limited resources.

Travel from remote and regional areas can also be costly. We recognise that travel to reconnect with family is important for the successful transition into post-secondary studies. That is also an important point. For a young person who has lived in a small country town, a regional centre or indeed on a property their entire life and is adjusting to moving to a larger centre, studying, going to university and often being isolated, the ability to travel back home and have connection with family and country is very important. If that is not available to the young person, the student in question could abandon their studies. That's a very important point to be recognised.

The challenge facing all students in terms of meeting their daily living expenses is also one that, of course, will fluctuate depending on where you live. This week we saw the release of the 2017 Universities Australia student finances survey. It showed that a large proportion of regional students were experiencing a shortfall between their income and their expenses. Of course, the people that make up that shortfall are the family. As I said, for many families in regional and remote areas, as you would know, Deputy Speaker Goodenough, their situations are extremely challenging and difficult at the moment. It showed a larger proportion of regional students were experiencing that shortfall. The report says they are less likely to have savings to use in serious financial difficulty, less likely to have financial support from family and partners and more likely to be financially supporting dependents. The analysis showed a higher proportion of regional students were experiencing financial hardship when compared with major city students. It goes back to the point that I've been making throughout this speech about the inequities and what this is about at its heart: trying to address some of those inequities. Shockingly, the report found that almost one in five regional students were regularly going without food or necessities because they could not afford them. That is a shocking situation for young people to be in. Many have had to defer studies because they are unable to afford to continue.

Again, Labor supports this bill. This bill is integral to improving the welfare of regional and remote students and their access to further education. But let us not overlook the fact that the government has given with one hand and taken away with the other. Regional and remote students will not forget the government's cuts to regional universities and to regional students. Just before Christmas, the government cut $2.2 billion from Australian universities. The government's cuts to universities will hit regional universities the hardest as it's simply more expensive to deliver education in regional areas.

Not only is it more expensive to deliver education in regional areas; but there remains a huge disparity between levels of higher education attainment between regional and metropolitan Australia. Regional universities have said this policy will likely see some regional campuses close and local programs certainly cut back. The New South Wales Charles Sturt University, which is my old alma mater, will lose $57 million under this government because of those cuts; the University of Newcastle, $69 million; and the University of Wollongong, $51 million. In Queensland, James Cook University will lose $36 million under this government, and in Victoria La Trobe University will lose a whopping $81 million. If the National Party really cared about tertiary education for students from regional areas, they would stand up to the Liberals on university cuts, but we can see that's not happening.

According to Universities Australia, under Labor's policy there was an increase in regional and remote undergraduate enrolments of nearly 50 per cent between the years of 2008 and 2016. Regional and remote families won't forget the government's cuts to regional universities. They also won't forget the government's attempt to unleash cuts to regional students. Regional and remote families will not forget that the government had a bill before the parliament to cut energy supplements for anyone who had begun to receive a pension or allowance in September 2016. Of course, we see today, with the Prime Minister's one o'clock presser along with his Treasurer and Minister for Finance, that they have withdrawn not only big company tax cuts but also the cuts to the energy supplement. I have to say that I feel very cynical about that, because I think it was not about assisting students or people receiving a government benefit; it was more about saving the Prime Minister's job. That has been noted. I think it has been very much noted, along with the many other retreats that this government has displayed around energy over the last week, and the public will not be fooled by that.

I think it's also extremely important that we understand what is going on with the Prime Minister withdrawing—taking off the table—the cuts to the energy supplement. I have to say that, at a time of increasing underemployment, fewer graduate-entry jobs and rising energy bills, the government's capitulation on the energy supplement after 2½ years shows just how out of touch and cruel this government truly is.

And we cannot forget how difficult this government has made it for young people and students to contact and access Centrelink. I don't speak from an academic perspective on this. I have been contacted by many families and many students in distress over the Centrelink call wait times. They have blown out despite the minister's protestations today. They have blown out for students, with the average call wait time increasing from 31 minutes and 15 seconds to 35 minutes, and these are just averages. Ask any Australian who has had to contact Centrelink and they will tell you their own personal nightmare. The reality is that we've heard stories of people waiting hours just to speak to someone at Centrelink.

The median processing time for those on youth allowance is 28 days, but in many instances it has been well over a semester, placing enormous strain on those students. In two cases where I have spoken personally with the family, it has meant that students are living in absolutely substandard conditions or they have had to leave the course. Again, we know that many students, as I have said, have waited much longer. This is because the median times do not take into account the instances when Centrelink requests further information, which can further delay the approval process.

In June we heard the story of the 26-year-old student called Alex who had waited, at that point, 12 weeks for his youth allowance payment—12 weeks! That's three months, and even then he was still waiting. Because of these long wait times for youth allowance, students are living on the edge of their bank accounts and in many instances not coping. It is pushing them to the brink of desperation, if not into desperation.

Students shouldn't be forced to wait anxiously for their payments. They shouldn't be forced to choose between studies and welfare, between eating and not eating, between being warm and being cold. This not only affects the students but will also affect their families and immediate support networks. But this is the reality for students under this government: cuts to university, chipping away at the youth allowance and longer payment wait times.

Whilst Labor support this bill, we raise these issues in great seriousness. We also raise the issues, as I have said, in the terms of the amendment that I have moved. Families of remote and regional students won't forget the disregard that this government has shown towards students.

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