A roundtable meeting to discuss independent youth allowance will now be held in the NSW Riverina.
The roundtables are part of a review into student income support reforms including independent youth allowance.
Thousands of students living in `inner regional' areas are struggling to access the allowance because of the Labor government's changes to the criteria. That includes the Riverina yet no roundtable meetings were planned for the region, until now.
"After lobbying the Tertiary Education Minister and his department by myself and the Nationals Member for Riverina, Michael McCormack, I am pleased to say a roundtable meeting will now be held at Wagga Wagga next month," the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education, Senator Fiona Nash, said.
"There was no excuse to overlook the entire south of the State. The closest roundtables in NSW were at Dubbo or Sydney which are hundreds of kilometres away.
“I was advised by the Review Secretariat within the department late last Friday a roundtable will be held in Wagga Wagga in May with the venue and time to be confirmed soon."
The Member for Riverina welcomed the decision.
"Regional students have been left out of this process from the start," Michael McCormack said.
"They and their families now have the opportunity to voice their very real concerns about the current inequity with youth allowance legislation and I urge them to do so when the local hearing is held."
Students in Wagga Wagga, Adelong, Batlow, Coolamon, Gundagai, Junee, Mangoplah and Tumut in the Riverina electorate deserve better than to be treated unfairly in accessing independent youth allowance.
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