October 4, 2010
The Nationals are challenging the new Parliament to make the Independent Youth Allowance fairer and more equitable for all regional students, according to Federal Member for Gippsland Darren Chester.
Mr Chester has been an outspoken critic of the system of student income support introduced by former Education Minister Julia Gillard because it uses lines on a map to discriminate between students in different country towns.
“Prime Minister Gillard made a complete mess of the changes to Youth Allowance when she was the Minister for Education and the hung Parliament provides an opportunity to deliver a better deal for all regional students,” Mr Chester said.
“Along with my Coalition colleagues, we are inviting the independents to support our efforts to improve the system.”
Mr Chester has seconded a Notice of Motion which has been introduced in the House of Representatives which requires the government to:
* Urgently introduce legislation to reinstate the former workplace participation criteria for Independent Youth Allowance to apply to students whose family home is located in inner regional areas as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics instrument Australian Standard Geographical Classification; and
* Appropriate funds necessary to meet the additional cost of expanding the criteria for participation, with the funds to come from the Education Investment Fund.
“The changes made by the Labor Party discriminated against regional students and effectively made it more difficult for many students to achieve independent status and receive the maximum amount of government support,” Mr Chester said.
“The Nationals strongly resisted the original legislation and forced several changes at the time, but now we want to go further and develop a fairer system for all regional students.”
Mr Chester said the Notice of Motion would see eligible regional students leaving home to undertake tertiary education able to achieve independence by working 15 hours a week or earning $19,532 over an 18 month period. Under the Labor Party’s system, country areas have been divided into ‘inner regional’ and ‘outer regional’ with more difficult workforce participation requirements.
“We need a fairer system than we have at the moment where lines on a map differentiate between inner regional and outer regional and require a workforce participation criteria which is very difficult for students in the inner regions to achieve,” Mr Chester said.
“Under the Gillard Government there are students who have to achieve a different criteria to their classmates to be eligible for the full rate of Independent Youth Allowance.”
Mr Chester said the improvements to Independent Youth Allowance were just the first-step in The Nationals plan to develop a better system of student income support.
“We understand the extra cost faced by regional families when students are forced to leave home to attend university and we are committed to developing a better system of student income support which doesn’t discriminate against regional students,” he said.