Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Social Inclusion. Will the Deputy Prime Minister outline to the House the importance of the government’s student income support reforms and the impact of today’s vote on students?

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

I thank the member for Capricornia for her question and know that, as a member of this parliament representing a regional electorate, she cares about support for country children going to university. Unfortunately the Liberal and National parties do not. They continue their war against students; the war against students they started in government when they sat there as a government and watched the participation rates of kids from country backgrounds go down—something that they should be ashamed of, watching the participation rates of country students go down.

This is a government that is committed to supporting access to education and particularly access for disadvantaged groups including country students. That is why we have before the Senate a new and improved student financing arrangement which better targets money to those households and those students that need it the most. Who supports this new set of arrangements? Well, people who care about education do. Australia’s universities do. Last week I was joined by representatives of every university system in the country, standing shoulder to shoulder with me, calling on the Liberal and National parties to get out the way and pass this bill. Since that time the Group of Eight vice chancellors—the vice chancellors of our oldest and most prestigious universities—have issued a press release directed at the Leader of the Opposition and the Liberal and National parties. It is entitled Student income support is not a political plaything, and that is absolutely true. The Group of Eight has said in this press release:

The Group of Eight supports these changes because they target finite resources to the students most in need, including those in rural and regional areas.

All universities support this bill. Student organisations support this bill. So there are the Liberal and National parties, in their arrogance and in their war against students, having presided as a government over declining participation rates by country children, now setting their face against expert advice from universities around this country. There was a time when the Liberal Party had the decency to acknowledge that its student financing system was inequitable. Those days of decency were when the member for Casey was shadow minister for education and he slammed the old Liberal system—as he rightly should—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Another shambles.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Sturt is warned.

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

because the participation rate of country children was going down. That is the shambles, the management of the Liberal and National parties that saw that happen to country kids. Yes, the member for Sturt is right. Their administration was a shambles. And the member for Casey was right when he said:

… it has become too easy for students from affluent backgrounds to qualify and too difficult for students from modest backgrounds …

He was right when he went on, saying that the current system:

… particularly disadvantages many students—particularly those from the country—who have to leave home to study …

The member for Casey was right about that, but that sentiment is not reflected in the current actions of the Liberal and National parties, who are determined to stop a bill and are determined to rip money out of the hands of country kids at the start of next year.

We know that universities are opposed to the strategy of the Liberal and National parties. Students are opposed to the strategy of the Liberal and National parties. All universities are opposed. The member for Murray, ring your local vice chancellor and see if your local vice chancellor supports the strategy you are on, to rip out of the hands of country kids—773 of them in your electorate—scholarship money for next year. Vice chancellors do not support the Liberal and National parties. Students do not support the attitude of the Liberal and National parties. The former education spokesperson does not support the current attitude of the Liberal and National parties. When you want a guide to what the backbench of the Liberal Party is actually thinking it always pays to consult that great journal of record, the Daily Liberal. From the Daily Liberal last week we learned that, despite the pontificating of the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow minister for education, the Liberal backbench actually likes that trade training centres program. From the Daily Liberal we now learn, in the words of the member for Parkes, that they are hoping that this student financing matter is resolved. The member for Parkes in the Daily Liberal says he hopes agreement will be achieved so that rural and remote families know where they are heading. He goes on to say:

It’s not fair for students, parents and schools to be left dangling without clear guidelines on Youth Allowance.

The member for Parkes is right. What he needs to do is take the short walk and say to his shadow minister, ‘Stop trying to rip off country kids because no one supports you doing it.’