Barry Haase (Kalgoorlie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to bring to the attention of the House the plight of children from the bush in attending tertiary institutions. Mr Speaker, as you would know, people in pastoral areas—certainly those in my electorate—are doing it tough. An amount of $6,396 is being provided by this very generous government to assist primary and secondary school students from the bush to attend metropolitan teaching institutions. However, when those students obtain the marks necessary to attend tertiary institutions in the city, they are not provided with any assistance to live away from home. City students, by comparison, have the opportunity to live with their parents at home. They have their board and lodgings provided for. They can use public transport. When a kid from the bush tries to get tertiary qualifications from institutions in the city—and hopefully go back to regional Australia and provide some sort of service there—they often cannot do it because they lack the financial resources. The result is that these students, who have battled to make a start in a city based institution, often drop out. And the overall result is a dumbing-down in the bush, which is very unfortunate. We have this situation—a continual loop—whereby fewer and fewer qualified tertiary students are from regional Australia. It is a major problem that the ICPA has been confronting— (Time expired)