Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the report from the committee be adopted.

In speaking to this motion I want briefly to indicate that the government moved a series of amendments which were the result of negotiations with the Greens and Senator Xenophon. We subsequently have a position where those amendments have not been carried by this chamber. As a show of good faith, the government will endeavour to bring a bill back into the House of Representatives this week to put into effect those amendments that the Greens and Senator Xenophon have negotiated with the government. If the chamber seeks to vote against the motion that I am now moving, there will be no scholarships for students next year.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Try the bullyboy in the union movement. You’re not in a union meeting now.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One hundred and fifty thousand students will have no benefits whatsoever. So I would urge senators: be conscious of what you are doing here. One hundred and fifty thousand students—

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President Marshall, I rise on a point of order: it is impossible to hear the minister because of the interjections from the coalition.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President—

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Try your bullyboy somewhere else.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have a senator on the other side who has obviously been engaged in a fair bit of bullyboy work today, but you ought to appreciate this, Senator Macdonald: your actions today will determine whether or not 150,000 students will have support next January. If this motion—that is, that the report from the committee be adopted—is lost on a tied vote it will mean that the Senate effectively has revolved that there will be no support next year for students. It will require one senator to vote in favour who is currently indicating support for the vote against it—Senator Fielding or one senator from the coalition to vote that the committee’s report be adopted. If you do not, 150,000 students will receive no support next January.

Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The opposition have made our position very clear, and it is this: retrospectivity to us is everything, and the extra pathway for rural students is absolutely vital.

Government Senators:

Government senators interjecting—

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Forshaw!

Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is absolutely vital. These amendments do not make another pathway for rural students, and that for the opposition is a non-negotiable issue. When the government understand that, they should come back and speak to us.

Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President, maybe you could bring that rabble to some sort of order.

The Acting Deputy President:

I will do my best, Senator.

Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have been consistent on this issue. I raised this during the debate on the scholarships bill when the government decided to take the scholarships away. They thought they could railroad it through the second time. They could have split this bill, making sure the scholarships went through. This is their doing. It is not on my head and it is not on the heads of the coalition. It is on their heads that there are no scholarships. They should not try and weasel their way out of it. They have been absolutely reckless and irresponsible. They have known about this for months and they have come in here a couple of days before the end and are trying to hold a gun against the Senate’s head. It is disgraceful.

Government Senators:

Rubbish!

Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, it is not rubbish. They have known about this for a while. I raised the issue when the first bill was brought in. They should have debated them together and made sure rural and regional kids were looked after and not sold out. It is wrong.

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

I think—

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Abetz interjecting—

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

When Senator Abetz stops, maybe I can speak. He is right in front of me.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Abetz interjecting—

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

You feel comfortable there do you, Senator Abetz! I think my party room would have a few things to say about that.

The Acting Deputy President:

Senator Hanson-Young, you have the call. Could you come back to the question before the chair.

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

What I think is really quite disappointing about this entire facade happening here today is that we have not been able to come to any agreement that will actually end up supporting students. The advice from the Clerk is that if we do not vote to support the reporting of this bill, it will be the first time it has been done in the Senate’s history. I am quite concerned that the result of this will mean that students around the country are not going to get the support that they deserve. I imagine that the coalition, Senator Fielding, Senator Xenophon and the government would all accept that we need to ensure that we offer students more support not less.

I am absolutely disappointed at the way this has been managed from day one—from budget night—all the way up to last night when the games started. My understanding is that if we do not vote to support the reporting of this bill, this bill will sit in limbo forever. It is not just that we do not get the scholarships; we do not get all the other positive things that we have all acknowledged are also in the bill. It is really quite concerning. If we do not vote to support the reporting of this bill, those families on $44,000 will not get one dollar of youth allowance support.

Honourable Senator:

Honourable senator interjecting—

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

Yes, it is. I am very concerned that we have not been able to come to an agreement across the chamber. Instead, we have been playing politics right from the word go. The opposition want to talk about the deal. Let us think about the dirty deal that was done today that gave $7 billion to the big polluters instead of $7 billion to students. I think we need to have a big think about what we are doing for students as of 1 January. It is really disappointing that the losers out of all of this will be students—across the board, city and country. Everybody around this chamber needs to seriously consider that.

If the bill is not reported, it does not mean that the amendments passed by the House get up; it means the bill goes down. I am absolutely concerned that the positive changes in this package, as well as the things that need fixing—that we have all acknowledged around this chamber—will not be passed. It is really quite disturbing. I cannot believe that after 12 years of ripping money away from students and ripping money out of universities, the coalition want to continue it for years to come.

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What is extremely disappointing is the fact that those amendments that the Greens thought were absolutely fine and terrific, and worth supporting just a couple of days ago, apparently, now have fallen by the wayside and are no longer worth supporting. That is what is extremely disappointing. This is about the future of our students in this country. The government have brought us a set of legislation that will have significant impacts on students right across this country, not just our rural and regional students but also our city students. For some reason, this government simply have no understanding at all of how their changes are going to affect rural and regional students. That is not just the point of view of coalition members on this side; it is because we have been listening to families and students right across the country. There has not been an issue before the chamber in a significantly long period of time that we have had this kind of feedback on from the community. People are desperately concerned about this.

This government and now the Greens are choosing to ignore it. If this legislation is allowed to go ahead there is no way back because these rural and regional students will have the avenue taken away from them. The government are only leaving one criterion for students to access independent youth allowance. Guess what the department told us? The department said, ‘That actually is not even targeted at those students.’ You might be surprised to hear this colleagues: it is actually targeted at people already in the workplace, not those students finishing school this year. If those students finishing school this year fall outside of the current legislation, which is highly possible, they have no other avenue to get any kind of assistance. While rural and regional students are facing an extra $15,000 to $20,000 a year compared to metropolitan students, it is appalling for this government to not give them another avenue to access some financial assistance. The government should be ashamed. They should be ashamed that they are putting our students in this position.

What we are saying is that those students currently doing their gap year should all be covered. I do not know how any senator in this place could say that it was fair for those students who, in good faith at the end of last year, took advice from school counsellors and Centrelink who told them, ‘This is an appropriate avenue for you to use,’ and they cannot now do it. The minister managed to do a backflip, pushed by—

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am glad I have you interested now because it is the first time you have been, Senator Polley. The minister did a backflip on 5,000 of those 30,000 students—only 5,000 of them. There are still the other students who entered into the gap year and now we are seeing the other criteria being taken away. It is simply wrong and the bill should not go ahead.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One thing that is required in a process like this is for party spokespersons to have their mind around the matter. What Senator Nash has just clearly shown is that she does not know what is going on. She has no idea. It is very clear that the Greens have negotiated a package with the government which would cover those people who took their gap year in good faith believing that they would get the subsidies required to enable them to pursue their tertiary education. Those subsidies have been restored. What the National Party and the coalition are doing, through this process tonight, is putting that at risk so that students will have nothing—students both from the country and from the city.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is your position. Senator Nash is now pulling the rug—

Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Joyce interjecting—

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Joyce, please come to order.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Joyce is upset because what is happening here is that the National Party is pulling the rug from under regional students and failing to give them—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We began this by trying to get rid of the retrospectivity which threatened those students, and that we have achieved. That having been achieved, to score a political point out of this, the coalition is saying: ‘Well, now we won’t support it. It is all or nothing with us and so students will get nothing.’ That is the position into which the coalition is putting students from regional and city Australia. Let them take the responsibility for it.

I remind the National Party and the Liberal Party that they are not in government. When they were in government, as my Senate colleagues said, compared to other countries, money was stripped out of public education and out of tertiary education. Now they are acting as if they are still in government and they are going to leave students with no support at all. You bear the responsibility for it. You take the responsibility for that and we will be out there telling students about the support we got for them, the retrospectivity we got rid of and the improved arrangement we got for them with the government and that you failed to get because you put politics—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

The Acting Deputy President:

Order! Senators should come to order.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The National Party, which puts the miners ahead of the bush, is now putting its political standpoint ahead of students. You live with it.

Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Carr. You have said that the government will endeavour to introduce legislation. Could you be more definitive about that? In other words, because the amendments have failed, will the government introduce legislation this week to attempt to get it through both houses as a matter of urgency?

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are not actually in committee, Senator Xenophon, but the minister may take the opportunity to answer your question when he is summing up, if he chooses to sum up.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Xenophon, I have indicated that we will introduce legislation in the House of Representatives. There is no guarantee we will get that legislation back to the Senate, given what we see here happening in the Senate right now. For the first time in the history of the Senate, a motion that a report from the committee be adopted is about to be defeated. This is the sort of thing, Senator Mason, to get you into Odgers but not necessarily under the most favourable of terms. This is a measure that will deny 150,000 students support of $2,154 in 2010. There are 21,000 Commonwealth scholarships which will not be paid to new students in 2010 because of the actions of the coalition and Senator Fielding. That will mean that there will be less support for students next year than there has been this year. There are 25,000 families with incomes between $32,800 and $44,000—

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! It being 6.50, we will now move to consideration of government documents.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a very brief comment.

Leave not granted.

The Acting Deputy President:

Please make the request again and we will do it formally so that even I will know what is going on.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It would have been handy to have all the senators in here. We will have to call them back again, but I ask that the question be put.

Question put:

That the report from the committee be adopted.