Independent youth allowance will be on the Nationals’ Tamworth campaign agenda tomorrow.
Nationals Senator for NSW and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education, Fiona Nash, and the Nationals candidate for Tamworth, Kevin Anderson, will meet with students, families and others concerned about the difficulty in being able to access the assistance.
Places like Tamworth and Armidale are zoned as `inner regional’ areas. Students living in these communities have to work full time for up to two years under changes the Labor government made to the eligibility criteria.
“The federal National-Liberal Coalition is fighting to have the original and fairer criteria reinstated, which applies to all other regional students,” Senator Nash said.
“Unfortunately, the Independent Member for New England, Tony Windsor, has to date supported Labor in stopping this from happening. He’s bought Labor’s story that the problem will be fixed after a review rather than now, which the Coalition has sought to do.
“The review’s been brought forward to July this year but Labor has given no guarantee as to what any changes to the independent youth allowance will be. In fact, the Tertiary Education Minister, Senator Chris Evans, made comments in this context at last month’s senate estimates.
“The Independent Member for Tamworth, Peter Draper, should say if he supports the decision of his federal colleague.
“In the meantime, the Coalition at federal and state level will not give up its fight in getting a fair deal for all regional students.”
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