Labor amendments don't go far enough

The Labor Government has begun to bend to Coalition and cross bench pressure on youth allowance, circulating amendments to their legislation late last night that would slash the start-up scholarships to pay for removal of some of the retrospectivity in the Bill, Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education said today.

"It's ironic that the Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, has been lambasting the Coalition over its proposed amendments to reduce the start-up scholarship to ensure youth allowance changes are budget neutral, and now she is proposing an almost identical savings measure," Mr Pyne said.

"The Coalition welcomes the fact that the Government has begun moving in the right direction on this legislation. However there remain two threshold issues for the Coalition:

1. The Coalition cannot support legislation that cuts out the 'gap year' pathway to Independent Youth Allowance for students who must leave home to attend University, unless a realistic alternative provision is put in place.
2. The Coalition cannot on principle support legislation that is retrospective in its effect. We are pleased that the Government is moving towards a reasonable position on this issue with their new amendments, but we still cannot support their legislation while they are seeking to change the goal posts on any students who made a good faith decision to take a year off in order to earn Independent Youth Allowance based on the advice of centrelink officials and their schools' careers advisers.

"When the legislation is reintroduced into the Senate the Coalition will insist on our amendments to remove retrospectivity and ensure rural students can attend University," Mr Pyne said.

"The Government ignored our warnings earlier in the year about separating the legislation abolishing the Commonwealth Scholarships and they have now placed in jeopardy the existence of any Commonwealth Scholarships in 2010. We have told the Government that should they maintain their position of being unwilling to accept the Senate's amendments, the Coalition will be happy to give precedence to the consideration of legislation the Government may wish to introduce this week that will provide for scholarships in 2010.

"The ball is now in the Government's court. It's up to Labor to work with the Opposition to achieve the best possible outcome for all Australian students.

November 24, 2009

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