Dear Editor,
The Independent Member for New England, Tony Windsor, will evidently go to any length to save face on an embarrassing policy position that he has taken.
He yet again misleads your readers about youth allowance in the story `Grubby deal overturned: MP’, published in the Northern Daily Leader recently.
He claims the Coalition did a deal with the Labor government in 2010, that made it harder for inner regional students to qualify for independent youth allowance.
The fact is, the Coalition had asked the Minister at the time, Julia Gillard, to split the bill as there were other positive measures for students 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 or regional students would have been further disadvantaged.
The Coalition immediately fought to retain the original, fairer criterion for inner regional students. It moved an amendment at the time the legislation was debated, opposing the 30 hour workforce rule for independent youth allowance for students in inner regional areas and requiring all regional students be treated equally.
Mr Windsor is well aware of this and the proof is in Hansard. But he continues to peddle mistruths to cover up for the fact that he abandoned regional students by supporting Labor in blocking the Coalition’s consistent efforts to fix the problem.
This is the MP who went against his electorate by installing a Labor government. This is the MP who helped the Labor Government introduce a carbon tax which is going to hurt regional Australians, but will not change the climate one little bit.
Mr Windsor is the one with the credibility problem.
Yours sincerely,
Nationals Senator for NSW
Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education
Sunday, November 20, 2011 4:55 AM
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