The Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education, Senator Fiona Nash, has accused the Greens of hypocrisy on what issues should be debated in the senate.
The Greens earlier this week sided with Labor and Independent Nick Xenophon to block debate on Senator Nash’s Private Senator’s Bill to make the Independent Youth Allowance criteria fairer.
The Coalition believed it was important to debate the Bill to give regional students certainty for the upcoming university year.
Greens Leader, Senator Bob Brown, accused Senator Nash of “queue jumping” by trying to have her Bill debated ahead of other legislation at the time, much of it proposed by the Greens.
He said at the time: “We need to get order into this process, not queue jumping for the purpose that Senator Nash has. It is simply a matter of proper process, something I think Senator Nash should think a little about.”
Yet today, in a move supported by the Labor government, Senator Brown did the exact same thing this morning, to immediately debate his Bill on euthanasia.
“In a stunning display of hypocrisy, the Greens have yet again shown they do not care about regional students,” Senator Nash said.
“This is at least the 40th time that Senator Brown has tried to “queue jump” to have the Greens’ Bills take priority above government and Coalition business.
“It proves the Greens only care about their own political agenda, not the needs of regional students.”
Friday, November 19, 2010 8:48 AM
This is a issue that will have a long term impact on the ability of our regional youth to be able to attend tertiery studies with any degree of independance and self worth. If these young people can earn the right to be elidible then that should be acknowledged.
This highlights the lack of understanding of metropolitan politians have on the addittional issues facing regional students.
I have 2 children who have been working 2 jobs all year who have to relocate over 300km next year to attend university courses that are not offered locally.
I applaude your efforts to date to rectify this injustice and encourage you and the National party to keep up the pressure.
Given these students are over the next couple on months trying to plan for their relocations. The timeframe for getting changes implmented are critical.
This makes the statments from the Greens about "queue jumping" quite unbelievable and shows how single dimensioned they really are.