Government Youth Allowance backflip a win for Wide Bay students and families
14th September, 2011
More tertiary students from Wide Bay will be eligible for Independent Youth Allowance, following a major backflip by the Gillard Labor Government this week.Federal Member for Wide Bay, Warren Truss, today said the Liberal and National Parties had shamed the Gillard Labor Government into abolishing the discriminatory ‘inner’ regional classification for accessing Youth Allowance.
“In a major backdown, the Gillard Labor Government will now allow students from inner regional areas to access Independent Youth Allowance under the same rules that apply to students from outer regional, remote and very remote areas,” Mr Truss said.
“The changes will help Wide Bay students and their families but the need for a complete overhaul of the system of student income support is still very real.”
From 1 January 2012, students living in Wide Bay communities including Maryborough, Gympie and Cooroy will finally be treated the same as students coming from Kilkivan, Goomeri and Murgon.
“This is a win for families who supported the Coalition’s long fight to force the Gillard Labor Government to change its rules, which discriminate against regional students on the basis of lines on a map,” Mr Truss said.
“This has been a long and protracted but unnecessary fight. If the Gillard Government had listened to the concerns of regional students and their families, this mess could have been avoided. However, the system is still flawed and the changes don’t go far enough.”
Mr Truss said his main concern now is for ‘inner regional’ students who graduated at the end of 2009 and 2010 and applied for income support under the previous rules.
“Unfortunately, the Government’s back-flip is not retrospective and has come too late for those ‘inner regional’ students who graduated over the last two years,” Mr Truss said.
“I am concerned that the Government has discriminated against these students, after Julia Gillard, as Education Minister, made changes to the student income support system in May 2009. Now that she is Prime Minister, Ms Gillard should fix the mess and completely overhaul the system of student income support.”
“The Liberal and National Parties recognise that students from regional areas who are forced to move away from home incur significant additional costs,” Mr Truss said.
“Our plan for a Tertiary Access Allowance addresses the issue of inequity. It helps all regional students who are forced to relocate to undertake university studies receive support for accommodation and living away from home costs.
“The Coalition will support regional students who choose to go on to tertiary studies and encourage them to come back to our communities to fill the skill shortages that exist in areas such as engineering, health and law.”
