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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Wednesday, 10 March 2004) . . Page.. 1029 ..

(2) acknowledges that many A.C.T. students are having difficulty meeting the costs of living;

(3) notes that many students are forced to work increasingly long hours to meet the costs of living;

(4) acknowledges that the Federal Government’s Youth Allowance, Austudy and Abstudy payments are not high enough to meet the costs of living; and calls on the Federal Government to:

(a) review the amount students are paid in Youth Allowance, Austudy and Abstudy; and

(b) reassess the eligibility criteria of Youth Allowance, Austudy and Abstudy, to make it easier for students to obtain these allowances.

I would like to begin by acknowledging the presence in the gallery of the president of the ANU Students Association, Max Jeganathan.

Australian university students will be $10 billion in debt by the end of this financial year and that figure is estimated to blow out to $15 billion in four years time—$10 billion in higher education contribution scheme debt with an expected 50 per cent increase in four years time. That figure is astronomical but it still does not take into account the millions of dollars students owe in personal loans and credit cards. In 2003 there were more than 929,000 part-time and full-time students enrolled in universities across the country and more than 2 million involved in vocational education and training. Of the 929,000 university students, 513,618 were HECS liable; 97 per cent of HECS-liable students were undergraduate students; and around 21 per cent of HECS-liable students paid their HECS contribution up front in 2003, while the remaining 79 per cent deferred their payment. That equates to about 405,700 students.

Australia, including the ACT, is facing a crisis. Vocational and university students are finding it more and more difficult to meet the increasing cost of living while studying, and many have to decide between studies and work. Why? Because they simply cannot afford to study.

The estimated annual cost of living for ACT university students is between $13,000 and $15,000, with an additional $2,000 per year recommended to cover books, rental bond and other expenses. But the average student income is $10,630 per annum. This means that each year a large majority of students are living with a budget deficit of between $1,500 and $6,500.

The Standing Committee on Education’s inquiry into vocational education and training in the ACT found that the low wages of many VET participants, particularly those in the recreation industry, placed a considerable impost on students, especially where required VET activities did not take place in central locations.

The Recreation Industry Training Company advised the education committee that:

Not all recreational activities are based in the Canberra town centres, and trainees are sometimes required to travel significant distances to attend work and off-the-job training.

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