Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move Australian Greens amendments (6) and (7) on sheet 5957:

(6)    Schedule 2, item 13, page 26 (lines 31 and 32), omit “to the extent that the payment does not exceed the person’s threshold amount for that year;”.

(7)    Schedule 2, item 14 page 27 (lines 19 to 34), omit subsection 8(8AB).

This is the last set of amendments after a marathon run, as I think we would all agree. These amendments seek to address an issue that affects those postgraduate research students currently in receipt of a scholarship. I stress that the Greens welcome the government’s commitment to extend the exemption of scholarships other than the Commonwealth scholarships when it comes to assessing income support for students. In December last year the House of Representatives handed down a report into how we can better support postgraduates in research training places. We believe that the amendments before the committee today address this issue of equity in ensuring that those research postgraduate students who may be in receipt of a parenting or carer payment will still be able to receive their income support without it being docked. Clearly this is an important issue for postgraduate students. By virtue of being postgrads and being an older generation, they face extra issues.

We already know that research students are a group of students that already struggle. By removing the threshold amount that the government has set, this small but important change could really assist the postgrad students who are in receipt of a parenting payment by exempting them from losing their income support. I think this is an important amendment. It was overlooked in the government’s legislation. I would like to take this opportunity to rectify the situation.