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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Wednesday, 10 March 2004) . . Page.. 1032 ..

Austudy is available for eligible students aged 25 and over who are studying full time or part time. The basic rate for an Austudy student is also $318.50 per fortnight—$318.50 not per week but per fortnight.

The maximum amount students can receive on youth allowance, paid to eligible under-25s, is $410 per fortnight. But many students find that they are not eligible for youth allowance because their parents’ income is taken into consideration. Currently, students up to 25 years of age are considered dependent on their parents unless they can prove otherwise. For many, this is impossible to do so a large majority of 23 and 24-year-olds completely miss out on government support.

When looking at those fortnightly amounts of $318.50 for Abstudy and Austudy and $410 for youth allowance, it is no wonder that Australian students are in a crisis situation. To put it in a clearer context, the average rent paid per week in the ACT is about $120. When we deduct that fortnightly amount of $240 from the student allowances, it leaves $78.50 per fortnight for Austudy and Abstudy students to survive on and $170 per fortnight for youth allowance students. If we take food, clothing, books, material, travel and other costs out of the remainder, it becomes evident why 78.2 per cent of Australian university students live in a budget deficit situation.

The amount Australian students are currently paid on the different student allowances means they are living in an untenable financial situation. The ACT Council of Social Service recently revealed that of the 25,000 Canberrans living in poverty, a significant proportion are students. As reported in the Canberra Times on 28 February this year, ACTCOSS director, Daniel Stubbs, said:

The fact is, if you live on Austudy, you are below the poverty line ... it’s impossible to make ends meet on Austudy.

The poverty line, as defined by ACTCOSS, is about $400 a fortnight. The National Union of Students, the Australian Vice-Chancellor’s Committee, the ANU Student Association and ACTCOSS are all in agreement that the federal government needs to review student support arrangements immediately and reassess the eligibility criteria to make it easier for more students to obtain relief. They are also united in saying that student poverty—and having to work long hours in paid employment in order to pay the bills—is a massive issue for Canberra students.

Professor Di Yerbury from the AVCC commented in an article on 12 February 2004:

More students are being forced to work, and for longer hours. This affected their time spent studying, which led to failures and drop-outs.

She also said:

We need a review of student income support from top to bottom.

(Extension of time granted.)

The AVCC has argued that the federal government should restructure the student income support system so that it is effective in reducing the need for students to work excessive

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