Senator Steve Fielding - Leader of Family First
Statewide rally for rural and regional students
Posted by Senator Steve Fielding on November 04 2009 | 3 Comments
The government needs to use its common sense and see how unfair its new Youth Allowance system will be on rural and regional students.
I am still fighting and I am still hopeful the Rudd Government will show some common sense and amend its Youth Allowance changes, and that is why I will be attending a support rally in Shepparton next Friday.
“A Black Day for Rural Education” rallies will be held across Victoria at major regional centres on Friday November 13 at midday.
The rallies, which I have been working on with Get REEAL: Rural Education Equity Alliance are a chance for rural and regional communities to show the government how their family is one of the 26,000 which will be worse off under the proposed changes.
This rally will put more pressure on the government to re-think its changes and I am urging everyone who will be affected by the new system to step up and show their support.
The Rudd Government has indicated it wants to boost the number of Australians aged 25 to 34 who have at least a bachelor degree-level of education from 22 per cent to 40 per cent by 2025, so why propose such city-centric changes that will mean 13,000 students miss out on youth allowance entirely?
A clever nation would be making it easier for our kids to go to uni not harder. But the Rudd Government’s proposed youth allowance changes are city-centric and force rural students to abandon their university dreams.
A new senate report into the Rudd Government’s proposed changes to Youth Allowance is further proof the PM has got it wrong when it comes to looking after rural and regional students.
The Senate report sends a strong message to the Rudd Government that it needs to come back to the negotiating table so rural students aren’t left at a disadvantage.
The Education Minister already admitted the government got their original youth allowance reforms wrong when they were forced into exempting this year’s gap-year students from their proposed restrictions.
Rural and regional uni deferral rates are three times higher than metro students, and this was before the new changes were revealed. This sends a clear message to the bush – university is unattainable, so don’t even bother aiming to get there.
It is already hard enough for rural and regional students to get into university with the extra cost of having to live away from home and now the government wants to put them two years behind their city counterparts.
Family First has introduced a 100 kilometre relocation amendment to the government’s proposed changes.
The 100km relocation clause would keep the current eligibility requirements for youth allowance for those students forced to move more than 100 kilometres away from home to study.
If you would like to know more or become involved in a rally, please email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
This youth allowance mess was of the Labor Governments making. (Please save us from a Prime Minister Gillard if this is the best she can do - youth allowance debacle, Industrial Relations legistlation in a mess, the BER program in a mess)
It had to be resolved - a batch of students had commenced 2010 and were left in the lurch.
In fact the Liberals/Nats managed to get Julia to back down on three important areas of proposed policy. Unfortunately they just could n’t achieve everything but there is the promise that the whole youth allowance scheme will be reviewed - actually another matter which had to be harangued about with Julia.
Unfortunately her policy is formed by her ideology which is not suited to the real situation.
Steve does a fantastic job and i think it is good to have people in the Senate who just don’t tow the party line - gee where were the Labor Senators speaking out for the remote and regional students SHAME ON THEM.
Good on yer Steve - keep up the good work
Comment by harry on 21 March 2010 at 07:15:56 PM
My main concern with the delay in dealing with this issue is that students who did a gap year last year in an attempt to become rated as independent by Centrelink, first had the goal posts moved when the amount needed in earnings was increased. This was reversed and they were promised several thousand dollars to assist with relocation and the purchase of the necessary books and equipment to begin studying. They enrolled, organised accommodation and moved, sometimes hundreds of km’s from home, only to find out that they were no longer eligible for the money.
In my son’s case, he could not get any sense from Centrelink, who would only tell him how much he would get from the new scheme, but when asked about qualifying for it was told he would have to contact the local Centrelink office after he had relocated. He did so only to find out that the previous act had been revoked and the new one not yet passed, so he was eligible for nothing and initially could only get the same level of support he had been getting while living at home. This has since increased slightly and he has received some back pay, but is still barely surviving.
Why can’t there be some intermediate support payment to meet these urgent needs as the courses have already started and the purchase of books, computers etc. has become urgent. There is a huge hole that thousands of students who have tried to do the right thing have fallen into because of no action in dealing with this bill and a complete lack of the release of any money even though it was promised. I agree it was not enough but at least it was something. Right now there is nothing….
Comment by Johng on 26 February 2010 at 09:47:33 PM
All the likes of Mr Rudd think that they are country bumpkins so why do they need a education.
My attitude is this as a X farmers son.
Would they work 7x24 would they put up with droughts and fires not of their makeing.
Would they travel 5x many miles just to get to a school shop or to get to a doctor as they can be many more miles away.
It okay for the likes of Rudd to judge country people who at least feed our bellies and the worlds stomachs.
Then red tape them and tax them to the eye balls because they need transport to get their products to the markets.
Now if you took their section of the gross domestic product out of government calculations,
I ask ? wold we be such a wealthy country.
No but you could say ha well we will export more millions of tons of CROWN not governments gold, silver, COAL, alloy and other mining products to compensate.
At what cost in power and co2.
Now they want to cut back on childrens education from the country by doing what they are trying to do. Education with the love for the land and country side go hand in hand.
With out it we will loose the sprite of the land and when that goes then so to does the plenty of the land.
The Russia and China found that out under the new religion called communism and collective farming with people who could not see the life IN the soil.
nurtured by people who work the soil and the land.
Albert Hopkins Shirley.
Comment by magnacarta on 22 November 2009 at 09:15:59 PM