Dana Wortley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Nash, you need to listen to this—that increased the age of independence from 22 to 25. They increased it. So the age of independence was increased by the coalition government from the age of 22, where it was, to the age of 25. This was in 1998 and it sat there. For the decade that those opposite were in government it sat at 25.

It has taken a Labor government to reduce it. The government’s $20 million Rural Tertiary Hardship Fund will operate from 1 January 2011 to 30 June 2013. This fund to assist rural and regional students under the age of 25 to undertake higher education studies is very welcome. So from the beginning of next year, young people from rural and regional areas who require financial help to take up an offer from a higher educational institution may be able to receive assistance through this fund. Those in need will have access to this fund. The government has also committed to the establishment of a rural and regional task force to consider and advise on eligibility criteria for assistance with the fund. The role of the task force will be to advise the government, and this is just one of the ways in which the government is helping more rural and regional students aged 25 and under to take on higher education.

The government reforms support the most disadvantaged students in regional areas. Disadvantaged students from remote, very remote and other regional areas are excluded from the changes to the workforce participation criteria provided they need to move away from home to study and their parents’ income is less than $150,000 per annum. This is a good move. The opposition agreed to this in March this year and now they are suggesting that these arrangements need to be extended. The opposition never negotiated to exclude inner regional students from the changes. (Time expired)