Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State and Scrutiny of Government Waste) Share this | Hansard source

I do want to speak briefly on this, and I will speak briefly during the opposition’s amendment. Let us be absolutely crystal clear about this. The coalition was presented with a legislative fait accompli which would have completely and utterly ripped the guts out of non-metropolitan students. We were presented with a proposal that would have ripped the guts out of regional and rural kids. This started off with a government who proved again it did not give a damn about rural and regional kids because it is a government that does not understand regional and rural kids. For the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, who is at the table today, to be talking about this being a pantomime is an indication of what his view is of this bill.

This is just a political game for the minister. It is just a pantomime that you play with because you do not care and you do not understand. You have viewed this as a pantomime. You have viewed regional and rural Australia as a pantomime from the very moment you stepped foot in this place. You do not care. You view this as a game. You do not understand the pressure on regional and rural families and their kids. Your pantomime involves coming in here and attacking others when you are quite comfortable living in your big house in Melbourne and making the occasional foray into marginal seats. That is the minister’s interest in regional and rural Australia: the occasional foray into a marginal seat. You do not understand it. You live in your McMansion in Melbourne and do not understand regional and rural kids.

I will tell you what it is like, Minister—someone who lives in Melbourne and does not give a damn about it. I will tell you what it is like to have to make choices about whether your kids do or do not get higher education. What a fantastic choice that is! This government embarked on this because it does not understand what it is all about. It does not understand what it means for a husband and wife to sit down and make a decision about which of their kids is going to be given the opportunity to go on to university or other higher education. That is the decision country parents have to make. That is the decision they have to make. As I said in this place two months ago or whenever the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Income Support for Students) Bill 2009 last came up, when I was the member for Ballarat—and the minister, again, has no understanding of this—I had a family from Stawell come down to me and ask, ‘On what basis do I make a decision about which of our kids is going to go to Melbourne to study?’

It was on the back of that that the previous government made changes to give kids a chance; to give country families a chance. You tell me what is equitable about country kids and country parents having different options to those of metropolitan parents. What is fair about that? This piece of legislation, as originally introduced, was going to be the damnation of rural and regional kids. We have had to claw it back. I might not actually disagree with some of the things Senator Fielding said. We are being presented with a fait accompli whereby a decision has to be made; hence the reference to the letter from the shadow minister for education.