Helen Kroger (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Nash, to her great credit, has tried to do that, but these amendments were defeated by Labor and the Greens. The exclusion of the inner regional zone has resulted in unfair eligibility criteria for regional students. All regional students who have to relocate to attend tertiary education should be treated equally.

I have to say it is really difficult to understand why the Gillard Labor government would deny vital assistance to regional students yet waste billions of dollars on pink batts and overpriced school halls. We saw in the first stimulus package cheques for $900 being posted to everyone, yet they are scrimping in the areas that matter. It is even more difficult to fathom how the Gillard government could publicly preach the virtues of being ‘equitable in education’, the importance of education in Australia, and offering everyone a ‘fair go’ in a spirit of so-called mateship. Yet, as we all know, actions speak louder than words.

We must never forget that the Prime Minister was responsible for these changes as the education minister. It is the Prime Minister who should now show leadership and fix this inequity that is hurting so many regional students. In early 2010 the Labor government, with Julia Gillard as education minister, altered the eligibility criteria for independent youth allowance, requiring students from areas identified as inner regional to work more hours for longer before being considered as independent. Clearly, the Prime Minister was not one of those aspiring kids when she was looking at her opportunities to go to university, and neither were her family, since she does not understand how difficult it is for students aspiring to go to university to take themselves out of the study stream into the workforce on a permanent basis and then get back into the mode for studying.

I would suggest that, by demanding that people work full time for 18 months, they are making it just that much harder for the kids to get back into the study stream. For those parents who have had to help, guide, encourage and nurture their children into getting back into university and into their course, I suggest that they would be most concerned with the Prime Minister’s views on this matter.

This new policy divides regions and electorates, with arbitrary lines on maps determining student eligibility for independent status. Two towns in the same area on different sides of the line will have different educational outcomes. Students may come from the same class in the same school but be discriminated against based on which side of the line their homes sit. This discrimination is unacceptable.

The coalition wants to encourage students to complete year 12 and support them when they move away from home to higher education. If the government agrees to the motion and implements the changes, inner regional students will be able to access the monetary based criteria and will only have to take a 12-month gap rather than that very difficult 18 months.

In speaking in support of this amendment I would like to quote Labor’s Senator Marshall, Chair of the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Legislation Committee:

I guess everyone would like to support this bill. In fact, we have had very little opposition to it. The only opposition to it probably comes from those who have to find the money to pay for it and fund it. That is always a dilemma.

To Senator Marshall and the Prime Minister I say, ‘Go back to the drawing board and look at the spending frenzy that you have been pursuing since you have been in government. This deliberation would not be on the table if money had not been flushed down the toilet on programs that have been clearly inefficient and have delivered no value for money.’