Additional Comments by the Australian Greens
At a time
when young people are under increasing financial pressure, students need to be
better supported if they are to stay on and excel in their chosen path.
The need for
adequate student income support is particularly acute for those who have no
choice but to leave home to take their place in higher education and fulfil the
potential they have demonstrated by earning that university place.
The
Australian Greens agree with Senator Nash in wanting to see a fairer student
income support system which eliminates discrimination against country students,
but believe that this Private Senator’s Bill does not go to the heart of the
problem.
While we
understand what this bill is trying to achieve, and agree that the current
system of student income support is discriminatory – it unfortunately only
offers a band-aid solution which still discriminates against country students.
Forcing
students to defer their studies for a year in order to get proper support to
access tertiary education is not the right approach.
Last year, after a prolonged stand-off in Federal
Parliament, the Greens were able to successfully negotiate a better deal for
students with the Government’s Youth Allowance package.
We achieved:
- The removal of the retrospective part of the legislation to ensure
that all 2008/2009 gap year students were able to secure the independent rate
of YA.
- The establishment of a Rural Tertiary Hardship Fund worth $20 million
to help prevent the barriers to rural and regional students attending
university.
- Relaxing the rules to allow young people to work an average of 30
hours a week, rather than 30-plus hours EVERY week under the remaining
workplace criteria
- A formal review of the package to measure the impact of the changes
on students.
However, despite achieving many key
concessions, an agreement struck with the Coalition meant that the old system
of Youth Allowance was returned only to those students from outer regional,
remote and very remote areas, whose parents’ combined income was less than
$150,000.
The problem
with this agreement was that the determination of who qualifies as outer
regional, remote or very remote depends solely on lines on a map.
Towns in
Inner Regional areas were not eligible because of their perceived lack of
remoteness. Numerous regional centres, including some which are long distances
from tertiary education institutions, are listed as inner regional. Key
regional centres and towns which miss out under the current model include: Mt
Gambier (which is more than four hours from university campuses in Adelaide and
between four and six hours from campuses in Victoria), Albury, Wagga Wagga,
Orange, Dubbo, Port Macquarie, Tamworth, Mackay, Rockhampton, Launceston and
Bunbury.
While I
understand that Senator Nash’s Bill would deal with this problem by putting
Inner Regional towns back to the old workforce participation criteria - it
would still unfortunately force country students to defer their studies for up
to two years.
One of our
key concerns is the fact that only 30 per cent of country students who defer
studies go on to university.
Instead of
going back to an old, flawed system, the solution is to remove the need for
young people to defer their studies and work full-time to meet the criteria to
secure the necessary income support. There needs to be a commitment from
government, to allow students who have to move out of home to access courses to
get the independent rate of Youth Allowance.
The Greens
have an alternate policy that would use a simple test – students who have to
relocate more than 90 minutes out of home to study, and whose parents have a
combined income of less than $150,000 would qualify as independent for the
purposes of Youth Allowance.
Treasury
costings on the Greens policy show that for just over $200 million a year over
the forward estimates, we can have a system of student income support that no
longer works discriminates against young rural and regional Australians from
getting a tertiary education
Our policy would provide access to Youth Allowance to an
additional 23,843 students who did not previously qualify, plus 15,779 students
who already were eligible for Youth Allowance under the current system, but who
received a lesser amount under the current system.
Recommendation:
The Greens recommend that this Bill be amended to reflect
our fully costed proposal.
Senator
Hanson-Young
Australian Greens' Spokesperson for Education.
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