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

Based on the motion before us from Senator Nash, the Greens will support this motion; however, we are of course quite concerned that any type of review of the youth allowance eligibility criteria for access from rural and regional students must be something that deals with the overall inequities and the disadvantages. We want to make sure that the government does this review with a view to having a permanent solution and not just cherry-picking based on the motions and various different bills that come before them.

We have been dealing with this issue for over two years now. It is time that the government comes up with a comprehensive permanent solution to ensure that rural and regional students are not disadvantaged. What Senator Nash is putting forward is calling on the government to fix the current inequity, but it is only a short-term fix. The government must accept that by the end of this year they need to have some new legislation on the table for a long-term solution.