Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think I heard Senator Williams mention some reference to regional South Australia. Obviously it has been some time since he has been into regional South Australia, because the people I talk to in regional South Australia tell me that what they were concerned about in relation to the previous government’s position on the youth allowance was that they were required to establish the issue of independence. That issue of independence generally was established because those students took a gap year. In other words, they artificially gave up their year after secondary school to go out and establish that issue of independence.

The key fact about Labor’s policy in this area is that there are something like 100,000 students who can now qualify for the youth allowance and who no longer have to establish that issue of independence. In other words, they do not have to go out and artificially try and establish that they are taking that gap year. Under the measure announced in the budget, young people can no longer prove that they are financially independent from their parents by working part-time or by earning $19,500 a year and then receive eligibility to the youth allowance after 18 months. Instead, they need to work at least 30 hours a week for 18 months out of 24 months since leaving school.

In an article in the Australian on 3 June, academic Professor Bruce Chapman states that the wide-ranging changes to student income support represent the most significant reforms to the system in 15 years. So here is Professor Chapman saying that the reforms made by this government, the Labor government, the government that does not fake emails, are the most significant reform in 15 years. His conclusion is:

The result is increased fairness in a system established to allow greater access to higher education for poorer students.

So that is what the system is all about; that is what Labor is all about. We heard Senator Carr talk about that in question time.

This is all about establishing a fairer system of youth allowance—removing the artificiality of the gap year system and establishing a fair system for young people to receive youth allowance. Professor Chapman went on to say that, under the old independence criteria, students could receive non-means tested income support after taking a gap year, even though being employed for an exceptionally high wage for a short period of time by a family member or a friend. That is all about the artificiality of the old system. We are putting an end to that artificiality. We are providing the youth allowance to 100,000 people who previously would not have qualified under that independence system.