Show us the figures Minister Evans

06/09/11

Senator Fiona Nash
Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education

The Labor government must release the full detail of youth allowance payments after its repeated claim that regional students are now better off.

The Minister for Tertiary Education states recent figures show there was a 10 per cent increase in regional and remote students attending university in 2010 and links it to the government’s youth allowance reforms.

“Conveniently the Minister fails to tell us how many of these students are from inner regional areas and are actually receiving `independent’ youth allowance,” the Coalition’s Regional Education spokesperson, Senator Fiona Nash said.

“It will also be interesting to know how many of these students come from outer regional or remote areas who don’t have to meet the unfair 30 hour work rule that applies to inner regional students, and also how many students are receiving `dependent’ youth allowance. Many students do not receive the full rate of the dependent youth allowance because of the parental income threshold test. Yet again, these details are missing.

“The government still appears to be in denial that so many inner regional students are struggling to qualify for independent youth allowance, are being forced to defer their studies for up to two years, or cannot afford tertiary studies because of its changes to the eligibility criteria.

“It makes one wonder if the government is truly genuine in fixing this injustice. We will see when it releases the report from the recent review into student income support reforms that’s due within days.”