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

I completely understand where Senator Fielding is coming from with these amendments. I agree that it is young people from rural and regional areas who have an extra barrier to cross in order to get to university and start a university course, and of course the extra burden that puts on their families. You only have to look at the maths on this. To suggest a household in the country on one income can somehow carry the same cost in order to get their children to university as a household in the city on the same income is clearly not right. We know it is upwards of $18,000 or $20,000 per year to send a child from the country to the city to go to university.

Of course many of these students want to be independent. They have finished high school. They have applied themselves. They have got into university, and they see themselves as being able to be independent of their parents. That is why they move out of home. They are young adults. I completely understand where Senator Fielding is coming from, although, similar to the opposition, I believe the Greens amendment in fact deals with this issue in, perhaps, a better way. It applies that criterion to people who, say, do have to move out of home and need to travel X amount—we suggest 90 minutes. Then you should get that youth allowance. Our motion will follow.