Independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott have bizarrely sung their praises for a government that treated regional students with contempt.
Mr Windsor and Mr Oakeshott also both took credit for the government’s Social Security Amendment (Student Income Support Reforms) Bill 2011 which passed in the Lower House yesterday.
The bill seeks to have inner regional students eligible for independent youth allowance under the same criteria that applies to outer, remote and very remote students. It’s what students and the Coalition’s been calling for all along.
“Tony Windsor, in his speech, said the independent youth allowance issue was raised when deciding whether he’d support a Coalition or Labor government after the 2010 election. The irony is had he and Mr Oakeshott supported a Coalition government, the youth allowance issue would have been fixed immediately,” the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education, Senator Fiona Nash, said.
“Instead they backed a Labor government, led by a Prime Minister who as the Education Minister ignored student concerns about youth allowance changes, and delayed fixing the problem until now.”
Senator Nash said it is disappointing that Mr Windsor and Mr Oakeshott continue to peddle mistruths that the Coalition supported the Labor government’s original changes to youth allowance.
“Far from it. The Coalition asked the Minister at the time, Julia Gillard, to split the bill as there were other positive measures in the legislation that the Coalition wanted to support. She refused to do so, so the Coalition had no choice but to pass the bill as a whole. Had it not, students would have missed out on other benefits. The Coalition then fought to remove the 30 hour work rule for inner regional students through an amendment to the legislation which was defeated in the senate by Labor and the Greens,” she said.
“Mr Windsor conveniently failed to mention Julia Gillard’s stubbornness at the time, just as he conveniently fails to acknowledge that the Coalition’s bill to fix independent youth allowance was deemed constitutional by both the President, and Clerk of the Senate.
“Mr Windsor and Mr Oakeshott will say anything to distract from the truth that they let regional students hang out to dry for far too long.
“They are the ones who should hang their heads in shame.”
NOTE: the Social Security Amendment (Student Income Support Reforms) Bill 2011 will now go to the senate this month.
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