Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is my great pleasure to speak on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (More Generous Means Testing for Youth Payments) Bill. This bill is about standing up for rural and regional families, it is about fighting unfairness and it is about helping young people go to university or pursue other forms of tertiary study. It is about addressing a really terrible statistic that we have in our country at the moment where 25 per cent of young people live in regional Australia but only 18 per cent make it to tertiary education. One of the principal reasons that there is such a battle is the cost of moving to a metropolitan area to study, and it is not just the cost of study, it is actually the cost of living.

I reflect on the terrible situation of when I was a candidate for Corangamite in 2009-10 when the Youth Allowance was absolutely botched by Labor. I heard the very excellent contribution earlier from the member for Forrest who was one of the leading advocates against Labor's Youth Allowance. After many, many months of campaigning and pointing out the terrible unfairness of what Labor had done it was overturned. Of course the problem was not fixed. For me, as a candidate back then, working particularly in Colac, which is a very important regional centre in my electorate, as it is now, there were many families who were angry and who felt completely left out in the cold.

I am very proud of this bill because it demonstrates that, in contrast to members opposite, we place a huge priority on standing up for rural and regional Australia. I say that in the context of some of the debate we have heard in the House today, most particularly on the NBN. Now that we have announced our three-year NBN rollout, we are getting on with the business of delivering the NBN. Labor ran a hysterical campaign but the truth of the matter is that, under Labor's scheme, the rollout would have been delivered some six to eight years later. It would have cost around about $30 billion more and it would have left people in my electorate in the suburbs of Belmont, Highton, Waurn Ponds, Wandana Heights, Grovedale and Marshall out in the cold. When Labor's three-year rollout was announced when they were in government, the southern suburbs of Geelong—the biggest regional city in Victoria—was completely excluded. It was an absolute demonstration of a failure to care for those who most needed the government's help.

In the southern parts of Geelong there are many, many people and it is a very large growth area. There are many, many families who have not been able to access fast broadband. With the announcement last week that we are rolling out the NBN right across all of Corangamite and across all of the Geelong region, including the federal electorate of Corio, we are incredibly proud that we are getting on with the job of delivering the NBN. I want to make the point that the member for Corio has been, perhaps, a little bit fuzzy with the truth in relation to the representations he has made on this issue. He talked about parts of his electorate being on the rollout map. The former member for Corangamite Darren Cheeseman supported former Prime Minister Julia Gillard and then did the big U-turn and moved across to Kevin Rudd. So of course that caused a huge fiasco and left Corangamite out in the cold on many other issues. It was badly managed as not one contract in the federal electorate of Corio was signed, because any NBN contract that was signed was honoured. While there was some FTTP delivered in Armstrong Creek, not one contract in the federal electorate of Corio was ever signed. That is a really good example of families, seniors and young people being left completely out in the cold.

Another very telling example is our Mobile Blackspot Program with $160 million, and more to come, and we are investing in regional communities to fix mobile blackspots. I am incredibly proud that 10 of the mobile base stations are based in Corangamite. In relation to the carbon tax, not only was that a terrible tax for every household, but it was a shocking tax for farmers and manufacturers. It resonated so negatively throughout Corangamite, which is a fine agricultural region. Of course it is a great day in this House with the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement being passed. That is so symbolic of our government's focus on standing up for farmers, agriculture, agribusinesses, food processors, small businesses and exporters.

Finally, it is wonderful to see that Labor has come to its senses after a dishonest campaign by the union movement with the Labor Party was just bobbing along in its wake. It did not pull up the union movement on some of its claims. I have to say that a couple of members opposite also made some terrible claims. But this is so symbolic of our capacity to stand up for regional Australia and to look at our future jobs growth and the opportunity to explore new markets. It is a great day. It is also a great day for young people, because this is a very important bill and it is a bill being supported by those opposite. I am very pleased about that. It is a bill that demonstrates, as I say, that once again we are standing up for young people and we are standing up for those who want to attend university.

As we have heard, these measures aim to more closely align the parental means testing arrangements for youth allowance with the arrangements for family tax benefit part A. In introducing the measures, the government has recognised the need for a simpler, fairer youth income support system that focuses on families who need assistance. The measures acknowledge that low-income families, who were disadvantaged under the previous means testing arrangements due to duplication and multiple tests being applied concurrently, will no longer have that same level of disadvantage.

It was incredibly unfair to be including the assets of farming families in the test, families who may have had large or significant assets on paper—because of their ownership of a farm or a farming operation—yet who may have very little income and are struggling to meet the basics of raising a family. The new tests that are being put in place are very much welcome. We have heard that there perhaps is more work to be done, because we need to make sure that every young person—no matter where they live in Australia—has the same opportunities to go to university. Attending higher education is so critical. We must give our young people every possible opportunity.

As I mentioned, the family actual means test and the family assets test will be removed from the youth allowance parental means test arrangements. From 1 January 2016, this will make youth allowance parental means test arrangements consistent with those for family tax benefit part A, which has no family actual means test or family assets test. The family tax benefit part A family income test and the youth allowance parental income test do not apply where a parent is in receipt of an income support payment. However, the youth allowance parental income test includes additional exemptions, with youth exempted from the test where a parent concurrently hold to low-income healthcare card or is assisted via the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme.

There is no strong policy reason for these additional exemptions. They will be removed by the measure. Most lower income parents will have qualified for exemption from the family and youth payments income test because they were eligible for and receiving an income support payment. Accordingly, parental income test exemptions for youth allowance will be aligned with existing arrangements for family tax benefit part A. On 1 January 2016, also maintenance income will be removed from the youth allowance parental income test pending further reform of maintenance income on 1 January 2017. Similar changes will be made to the ABSTUDY parental income test in the ABSTUDY policy manual.

For those listening to the debate, some of these changes are difficult to follow because they are often very individually related to particular families. But the net result of this is that more young people will be able to access the youth allowance and that is absolutely fantastic. More young people will be able to go to university. It will mean the difference between thinking that they have missed out on a huge opportunity and going to university feeling that they have the support that they so deserve.

I do want to just add that from 1 January 2017, the treatment of child support will be further reformed by applying a maintenance income test to youth allowance parental income test, like that which is currently applying to family tax benefit part A. Child support payments are assessed differently for family tax benefit part A and youth allowance. The family tax benefit part A maintenance income test only takes into account the contribution of child support payers to the cost of children and young people attracting FTB part A for a parent.

This contrasts with the current rules for youth allowance, which can double count the contribution non-resident parents through child support in some circumstances. This is because child support of all children is included in the parental income test regardless of whether the child is in receipt of youth allowance or not. Similar changes will be made to the maintenance income test for the ABSTUDY living allowance in the ABSTUDY policy manual.

Once again, as I have spoken about, this bill demonstrates the government's focus on standing up for rural and regional Australia. I want to say that to all those families in Colac, Beeac and Birregurra, which are all parts of the west of my electorate. There is also a wonderful university my electorate, Deakin University, which is doing incredible work. It is being rapidly recognised as one of the best universities in Australia. It is dynamic and it is doing incredible work—particularly in future fibres—across all sectors of study: engineering, health sciences, law, commerce and medicine. I am incredibly proud of the university that I have my electorate and I am incredibly proud of this bill. I commend this bill to the House.

Debate interrupted.