Rural students and families worried about youth
23 Feb 2010
Media release Coalition MPs and Senators are hearing directly from students and families in rural areas and they are worried about the Government's changes to youth allowance, Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education said today.
"Rural students and parents are genuinely worried that Labor's changes to the gap year provisions that will destroy the pathway for rural students to reach university into the future," he said.
"The Isolated Children's Parent's Association who represent 3,300 of the most isolated rural families said in a letter to the Minister:
Where will some students residing in rural and remote Australia find full time jobs for a two-year period? The short answer is they won't. The scenario will be that students will be forced to move away from home to seek employment to fund university studies for which they need to relocate - and cannot afford to do so. How will they therefore afford to relocate for employment purposes?
"Similarly the Country Education Foundation of Australia representing 38 local education foundations across rural Australia also wrote in a letter to Ms Gillard:
It is imperative that any changes that are put in place are not retrospective and that rural students not be required to defer their university offers for two years in order to qualify for the Independent level of Youth Allowance. Anyone who has spent any time in rural communities will understand that for the vast majority, providing part time or full time jobs for unskilled youth in the numbers required will be impossible.
This is just two of the many grass-root organisations that have raised these concerns with us.
Julia Gillard has stated a desire to increase university participation amongst rural and regional students. I challenge Julia Gillard to show where youth in rural areas are meant to find the 30 hours of work a week for 18 months required under Labor's changes,"" Mr Pyne said.
February 22, 2010
MEDIA CONTACT:
Adam Howard
0400 414 833