Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do apologise. Next time Prime Minister Kevin and his 747 plane are flying over regional Australia he should look down and make sure he recognises how important those people are to this country. What is most important about regional communities is the young people in those regional communities. They are the ones we should be supporting. We should be doing everything we can to ensure that they have a bright and sustainable future and a bright and sustainable future actually in those communities.

What happens if regional Australia simply ceases to exist? The way this government is going there is a pretty fair chance of that happening. How are we going to feed ourselves? Where is the food production going to come from? How are we going to make sure that we can feed and water the nation? This government’s complete disregard for regional Australia is getting nothing short of breathtaking. Keep in mind that none of the changes made in this deal, which the government has backflipped on, would have happened if it had not been for the National and Liberal parties saying, ‘No, not on.’ I certainly commend the member for Sturt, Christopher Pyne, on being absolutely resolute in saying, ‘No, we will not let this happen as is.’ It would have happened if we had not stuck up for people, particularly in regional Australia, and the original legislation would have simply gone through.

The gap year students would have been forgotten. They would have had no chance of having any assistance this year, and they would have taken their year off thinking they could. They would have been absolutely hung out to dry by this government. The regional students that want to access independent youth allowance would have been completely hung out to dry—nothing, nada, for them. This deal is not perfect—far from it. At least some of those regional students are now being taken into account where they were not previously. Quite frankly, how did the government think it was the slightest bit appropriate that they not take into account all regional students, that they not take into account every single regional student that needs a pathway, every single regional student that needs support, every single regional student that needs some assistance to go onto tertiary education, because they should be supported? How on earth did they think picking some regional students was all right but then thinking, ‘Gee, we will leave these ones out of the bag over here. We won’t worry too much about them. It doesn’t matter as long as we have covered some regional students’? It is rubbish. They should have simply made sure that they had included all of them—every single one.

My guess is that it is all about dollars. We know that we need to be economically responsible in this country. But when this government has blown billions of dollars on school halls—some of which the schools did not want—and billions of dollars on pink batts that have gone into ceilings, it has probably created the worst governmental debacle in terms of running a program that this country has ever seen. Billions and billions of dollars have been wasted. What are they saying now? ‘Let me see, those regional students that fall outside our lines on our maps—we’re expecting them to be the ones to cough up for the budget neutrality.’ Well, that is not on. How can they possibly sit there on the other side of this chamber knowing about all the waste, knowing about all the billions of dollars that have just gone up against the wall, and then turn around to those regional students who are going to miss out on the opportunity of getting independent youth allowance and say: ‘Too bad, so sad. We’re going to leave you out because we’ve got to be budget neutral and you’re the losers.’ It is just extraordinary. It is the most arrogant display from a government and shows the complete disregard they have for regional students.

What makes Mrs Smith’s daughter or son in one part of the country, in the regions, different to Mrs Jones’s daughter or son in another part of the country? I will give you the answer to that: absolutely none. So why has the government gone down this road of picking a line on a map and saying, ‘This regional student living on this side will be okay, but the one on the other side we actually don’t care about. By the way, chat to each other across the lines on the map because you’ll probably be able to see each other.’ It is stupid. The lines on those maps are just wrong because it is not about those regional zones; it is about how far the regional student is from the university. That is the issue. It is not about where in a region they live; it is about how far they live from the university that is the important thing. That is why, quite rightly, the coalition is going to—as my good colleague Senator Mason has already flagged—move an amendment to include the other inner regional zone on that map.

Do you know what I think, colleagues? I think, if the government do not accept that amendment, then the people of Australia are going to think: ‘Why not? Why aren’t they accepting that amendment? The coalition are putting forward that all regional students should be able to access independent youth allowance if they have to leave home to go to university.’ Maybe I am a little bit biased about all of this but I think that most Australians are pretty sensible people and they think pretty clearly. When the coalition say to them, ‘We tried to get all regional students taken into account,’ and the government do not pass our amendment, then the government are effectively saying, ‘We don’t care about all of the regional students; we will just do some.’ Let me tell you what the people of Australia are going to think—I could be wrong but I do not think I am: ‘Why is this Rudd Labor government treating regional Australians unfairly? Why is the Rudd Labor government creating a divide between regional Australians?’

Let me be absolutely clear on this. If only some regional students and not all of them from this point on are able to access independent youth allowance it is the government’s fault. It is nobody else’s fault but the Prime Minister’s and Minister Gillard’s. It is nobody else’s fault but theirs. Do not let anybody tell a different story, because that is where the buck stops. It is a bit like health. Apparently the buck stops with the Prime Minister when it comes to health. But what sort of buck was that? It certainly did not stop there very long. He promised the people of Australia he would fix the hospitals but he neglected to tell them, ‘Not for a very, very long time.’

The responsibility for fairness and equity lies with the government. The Liberals and Nationals have done everything that they possibly can to get the right outcome for regional students. After all of this, if regional students and their families want some fairness and equity they will throw out Kevin Rudd’s Labor government and they will put the coalition into government, because it is the only way we are going to get any fairness or equity not only for regional students but for regional families across the country from one side to the other. This government is never going to do it.

If the government does not agree to this amendment and regional students miss out on getting access to independent youth allowance, it will be on the government’s head. Those on the other side will have to live with it. Every time one of those students cannot go to university because they cannot afford it and this government does not give them any financial assistance, all of those on the other side of this chamber and in the other place should hang their heads in shame because it is entirely their responsibility. They can fix it, they can agree to this amendment and they can make sure all regional students are covered. They should do it; it is the right thing to do. If they do not, it just shows their negligence when it comes to regional Australia.