SOPHIE SPEAKS OUT ON YOUTH ALLOWANCE CONCERNS

26-October-2009

Sophie Mirabella MP, Federal Member for Indi spoke in Parliament today on the Rudd Government’s changes to the Youth Allowance.

 “It is quite fitting that as young people in my electorate prepare to sit their first Year 12 exam on Friday, we are debating this legislation in Parliament which has the potential to decide their future,” Mrs Mirabella said.

 Mrs Mirabella said that despite the Deputy Prime Minister’s best efforts over the last few months to spin her way out of this issue, local people know that their kids will be worse off under the Government’s changes.

 Mrs Mirabella spoke on behalf of constituents who had contacted her concerned by the Rudd Government’s changes. Among the concerns Mrs Mirabella raised in Parliament were:

• That the ‘gap’ year option has effectively been closed to local students;
• Scholarships previously available to all students, will only be available to those receiving Youth Allowance;
• Students will now be forced to work more during the university semester – potentially affecting their performance at university; and
• The growing sense of disillusionment with the Rudd Government who promised to create an ‘education revolution’ at the last election.

 Mrs Mirabella referred to two key inquiries in her speech: the Victorian Education and Training Committee Inquiry into the Geographical Differences in the Rate in which Victorian Students Participate in Higher Education and the Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Hearings into the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Income Support for Students) Bill 2009.

 Both inquiries have received evidence to support the concerns of local people, that students from rural and regional Australia will be disadvantaged by the Rudd Government’s changes.

 Department of Education gave evidence to the Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Hearings into the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Income Support for Students) Bill 2009 that 25,000 students who are currently on their gap year will be denied Youth Allowance under the Government’s changes.

 Mrs Mirabella said that it is for this reason that the Coalition has proposed amendments to the Government’s new scheme:

• Under the Coalition’s amendments to the youth allowance, students from the North East will be better off and no student will have their weekly income cut;
• To maintain Budget neutrality, the Coalition has announced a reduction in the rate of the new Start-Up Scholarship. This is a new scholarship that currently no students are receiving, and as it is to be paid in a lump sum at the beginning of each semester, this change will not affect the proposed fortnightly payments to students by even one dollar – despite the misleading spin in the Minister’s press release;
• Under the Coalition’s amendments, all students on youth allowance will be better off, receiving for the first time ever a $1000 start-up scholarship, rural and regional students will have a clear route to tertiary study available to them, and no student currently on their gap year preparing to enter university next year and claim youth allowance will be disadvantaged.

 “I call on the Deputy Prime Minister to admit that the Rudd Government has got it wrong on the Youth Allowance changes. They must accept the Coalition’s amendments to ensure that rural students are not disadvantaged,” Mrs Mirabella concluded.