October 20, 2010
The Nationals are raising the pressure on the Gillard Government to fix the mess surrounding the Independent Youth Allowance.
Federal Member for Gippsland Darren Chester has seconded a motion in Parliament, challenging Labor and the Independents to make the system of student income support fairer and more equitable for all regional students
Mr Chester has been an outspoken critic of the system of student income support (introduced by Julia Gillard when she was Education Minister) and helped to force changes to the government’s original plans which would have discriminated against regional students undertaking a gap year.
The motion supported by The Nationals and Liberal Party 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.
Mr Chester said the current Parliament presents a real opportunity to work together to achieve some positive outcomes, particularly on behalf of regional students.
“Today we have a chance to take some real, positive steps to fix the mess that has been created in relation to student income support in this nation,” Mr Chester told Parliament.
“As Education Minister, Julia Gillard was prepared to pull the rug out from under students’ feet without any consultation whatsoever.
“Some changes were made and students on a gap year at the time were protected from the retrospective nature of the legislation. But the Minister’s insistence that the changes were cost neutral created more problems.”
Mr Chester said the concept of ‘inner regional’ and ‘outer regional’ classifications as part of the eligibility criteria for Independent Youth Allowance was discriminating between students in different country towns.
“We have the ridiculous system where two students attending the same school, going to the same class but living just a couple of kilometres apart have to achieve different standards of workforce participation to achieve independence and become eligible for the highest rate of Youth Allowance,” Mr Chester told Parliament.
“There needs to be fundamental reform of the student income support system to address the inequity of access which currently exists.
“This is a chance to help make it a little bit easier for all students in regional areas to achieve their full potential.
“The motion deals specifically with one section of the student income support system and I believe it is only the first step… an important first step but we must do a lot more to give country kids a fair go.”