Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, and Social Inclusion. Why are the government’s student income support reforms important? What impact would any delay in implementation have on students?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Cunningham for her question. I know she is someone who has dedicated a great deal of her life to supporting education and supporting students getting through school and into options beyond school. We have inherited from the former government a student income support system that is failing country students. Under the current student income support system, the participation rates of country students and poorer students in higher education are falling—the percentage is falling. At the same time, the student income support system we inherited from the Liberal Party and National Party government is one where some of Australia’s richest families end up with a benefit. In particular, three per cent of the so-called independent students who actually live at home live in families with incomes of more than $300,000. That student income system is telling you something about the values of the Liberal Party and the National Party and the character of the people who were in leadership positions in those parties and could have made a difference to this gross inequity. It is a system where country and poorer kids’ participation was falling and some of Australia’s richest families were getting a benefit. We are determined to change this. Who is, of course, defending this inequity? They are the same old characters: the Liberal Party and the National Party.

I had thought, in the time that the member for Casey was the shadow minister for education, that we were going to see an outbreak of reason in the Liberal Party. He actually said—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know—I am a dreadful optimist but a romantic optimist. He said a couple of sensible things. He said, ‘Overall, the evidence seems to suggest that it has become too easy for students from affluent backgrounds to qualify and too difficult for students from modest backgrounds.’ He was right about that. He said, ‘This means that students from a family earning an average weekly income cannot effectively go straight from school to university and be supported. It particularly disadvantages many students—particularly those from the country—who have to leave home to study.’ He was right about that. Our student income support system is about providing scholarships and support to students: providing 150,000 students a new scholarship of $2,254 each year—28 times more scholarships than when we came to office—providing a $4,000 relocation scholarship to students who need to relocate, and changing the parental income test to benefit more families.

But what do we see from the Liberal Party and the National Party? We see obstruction. We have amendments that the member for Sturt, the now shadow minister, wants to move which would—and can you believe this—tear $700 million out of scholarships. It would reduce the scholarships that students are getting from $2,254 per year to $1,000 per year. Remarkably, this scholarship rip-off is a permanent rip-off. To finance what the shadow minister says is a transition problem, he is going to rip students off from now until the end of time. No wonder these amendments from the Liberal Party have been characterised by the National Union of Students as ‘scabby and sloppy’. I think we need to say this to members opposite: these scabby and sloppy amendments should not be proceeded with. The Liberal Party and the National Party should expedite passage of this legislation. This is what will guarantee for students next year the benefits of the new system. It is time to end the gross inequity that members opposite stood by and supported over 12 long years. We want to benefit country kids; we want to benefit poorer kids; we want to make sure taxpayers’ dollars go where they are needed the most. It is time that the Liberal and the National parties actually got out of the way and endorsed a decent student income support system for Australian students.