Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker Mitchell, it's one of those days when clashes between the Federation Chamber and the main chamber come into play, but thank you for giving me the opportunity to continue my remarks on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Student Reform) Bill 2018. I've run several forums in my electorate of O'Connor since my election to the seat in 2013. In 2015, Senator Bridget McKenzie came to O'Connor to co-host forums on this topic and, in 2017, Albany Senior High School and I co-hosted a forum regarding access to independent youth allowance. I also attended forums held by Professor John Halsey, who conducted the independent inquiry from which this legislation and reform have emanated.

Every forum I've held on this issue has been well attended by high school and gap year students, parents, teachers, educational professionals and others concerned about barriers that country kids experience in obtaining tertiary education. I commend all the attendees for sharing their personal and often heart-rending stories, and I acknowledge their welcome set of recommendations on how the federal government can address the obstacles they have encountered.

A common scenario told to me by students and parents across the years in O'Connor is that students who have worked towards youth allowance eligibility under the regional independence criteria only failed due to a parental income of $150,000. These students have to rely on either part-time work or their parents to finance their living expenses of between $17,000 and $25,000 per year while studying at university. Youth allowance is the main benefit regional students seek to access to allow them to live guilt-free from a financial burden otherwise incurred by their parents, many of whom are supporting other siblings at school and university. My personal experience is that I worked for two years to obtain independent status for youth allowance and was able to move to the Muresk agricultural campus of Curtin University to pursue my agribusiness degree. Thirty years on, I'm proud to be part of a government that continues to work to make it easier for regional students to access tertiary education.

I want the House to know that, in 2017, 86 per cent of students from non-metropolitan areas earned an offer for a place at university, compared to 81.7 per cent of metropolitan kids. Yet, in the same year, only 72 per cent of those country students would accept their offer, compared to 78 per cent of their urban counterparts. Of those that accepted, 17 per cent of country students deferred their enrolment, more than double the deferral rate of their city-student counterparts. These statistics do not take into account those who did not accept a place but chose to take a gap year and apply for a place the following year.

The independent review identified that young people in regional Australia are half as likely to have completed a university degree as their city counterparts. This is largely due to difficulties accessing financial assistance. In the year of 2017, there were approximately 1,400 year 12 graduates across O'Connor. Assuming they all pursue tertiary studies and all fall under the new criteria, just over 1,000 of them, or 75 per cent, will now be able to apply for youth allowance where they hadn't been able to do so before.

Despite the disparities regional families, students and schools often face, I want to congratulate our regional schools for their commitment to academic excellence. One of my local schools in Albany, the Albany Senior High School, celebrates 100 years this year and is a testament to the success of regional education. Among a long list of very highly regarded alumni, I want to mention one of the graduates, Alan Carpenter, who was the Premier of Western Australia for many years in the mid-2000s. In 2017, Great Southern Grammar was one of the top schools, based on the number of eligible year 12 students, that achieved a WACE completion rate of 98.8 per cent. In that same year, 2017, four schools in O'Connor were ranked in the top 60, based on ATAR median scores, with Manjimup Senior High School ranking incredibly at No. 8 and Great Southern Grammar coming in at No. 30.

This bill revolves around parental income, how to access independent youth allowance and how it should be tiered based on this. Some may think $150,000 combined parental income is high enough for families to be able to support their children while at university, but the national average cash income of a registered nurse is around $75,000 and for a policeman it's around $90,000. That means the combined national average income in the partnership of a policeman and a nurse is $155,000. Under the system, any child of a nurse and a policeman would not be eligible to receive youth allowance because the combined gross parental income of those two professions is above the $150,000 cap. People providing essential services to regional Australia have struggled to offer their children the opportunities for tertiary education under the existing system. The changes this government is proposing mean that, for an average two-child family of a nurse and policeman, their children will be able to qualify for independent youth allowance for the first time.

I applaud the quality of our regional students. They are distinguished by their excellent academic achievement, qualifying for university places only to be hampered in their aspirations by the tyranny of distance from their desired course and the inherent financial barriers to obtaining self-sufficiency. The Social Services Legislation Amendment (Student Reform) Bill 2018 and its proposed increase to the combined gross parental income cap is a welcome change and another step in the right direction to see regional students given equal access to tertiary education. I strongly endorse the legislation to the House.

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