Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

I can indicate to the chamber that the coalition will not be opposing the amendments, but in doing so I will make a few remarks. We certainly have a very strange situation here. On the one hand the government is making changes to VET FEE-HELP to remove barriers to education, while simultaneously increasing barriers for those wanting to access tertiary education by moving these amendments, which effectively abandons the indexation of the student start-up scholarships over the next number of years. It is an extraordinary situation, to say the least. When the government made changes to the Youth Allowance in 2010, while there were some components of it that the coalition was vehemently against, we recognised that there were some good measures in those changes. We are always happy to give credit where credit is due, and there were some good measures in those changes.

The start-up scholarships provide start-up funding to help with things such as books and specialised equipment for students, and that is a very sensible measure. To see the government now turn around and take away the indexation from the start-up scholarships is nothing short of extraordinary. We have a situation where the government say that they are trying to make things easier for students with the primary bill, yet with the amendments they are introducing they are making it harder. It simply makes no sense to those of us on this side of the chamber. Or perhaps it does indeed make sense: it makes sense because the government have got the nation's finances into such a parlous state that they are now simply having to claw back money from wherever they can find it, in what they deem as an appropriate place, to try and shore up the economic mess that they have created. On this side, we certainly believe that students are not the place that should be targeted to try and sort out this economic mess that the government have indeed created.

The Prime Minister talks about equity in education. How she can then sign off on the amendment for this legislation, which is going to make it harder for students, is nothing short of extraordinary. We have seen massive cuts of $2.4 billion to education and training in the MYEFO. Just to outline them for the chamber, we have seen: a freezing of the Sustainable Research Excellence program of $498 million; an end to the facilitation performance funding of $270 million from 2014; deferral of student support for masters by research degrees of $167 million; and the freeze on student start-up scholarships of $82.3 million. It is also alarming that we are seeing in regional areas only 33 per cent of students going on to tertiary education, compared to 55 per cent in the cities. I would say that there are some real concerns with this amendment, particularly in regional areas, because the government is saying one thing and doing another. The Prime Minister says she believes in equity in education, and yet we see this amendment to this bill indicates precisely the opposite. It is not surprising that people are becoming incredibly disappointed with this government. We now see the $140 billion debt is leading to measures, like we are seeing today in this chamber, which will provide a measure that is going to make things more difficult for students—quite extraordinary indeed.

While I indicated that the coalition will not be opposing this particular amendment, I think it is very important to place on record that the government has indeed made things more difficult for students. This follows on from things like the independent youth allowance parental cap of $150,000. How stupid is that! We have a financial assistance measure whereby students are to prove that they are independent of their parents, and the government is saying: 'If your parents earn $150,000 combined'—before tax, mind you—'you are completely ineligible for independent youth allowance.' That is just simply wrong. We are potentially talking about a school teacher and a police officer out in the regional areas whose combined income would preclude their student from being able to access independent youth allowance, having perhaps taken the provision to work hard for 12 months to prove themselves independent. It is just another example of the stupidity of this government, putting barriers in place for students in regional areas when it comes to accessing education.

I go back to the Prime Minister's continual comments about providing equity of access to students when this government is simply not. We have this amendment here before us and, in speaking to it, I am highlighting the fact that when it comes to equity in access to education for students, the government says one thing and simply does another. People across Australia, particularly in regional areas, are indeed very well aware of that.