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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Wednesday, 31 March 2004) . . Page.. 1387 ..

is or is not doing. We need to get the facts right about what the states and territories are or are not doing at the same time.

Let’s look at some of the positives. The current federal government spends over $2.3 billion a year on youth allowance initiatives alone. It certainly shows a commitment there, I would suggest. Under the current system, close to 380,000 students are on youth allowance. The coalition government established the Austudy/youth allowance income bank. That is significant, Mr Speaker, because under the ALP students were far worse off. The amount of money that students could earn outside of Austudy payments, for instance, was calculated on a weekly basis. Hence, if they earned good money in any one week under the ALP system, they actually lost a percentage of their Austudy—a negating system if ever I heard one. Instead, under the coalition policy students have a bank of money—as I have said before, over $5,000—and can earn the majority of this money at any one time of the year, most particularly during holiday periods, which is, of course, when most students are available and free to work. It seems to me to be a very sensible plan.

The coalition government also refined the HECS system and introduced the PEL system for postgraduate study. This provides greater choice than ever before. The harsh reality is that it is a user pays system. Gone are the days of something for nothing. I was talking only last night to a very committed bunch of people in the TAFE system and they were in agreement with the need to pay our teachers more. In fact, in that debate it was mentioned that it is not always government, business or students that should come up with the money; it is a combination of all three.

I think that it is now quite possible and financially viable under the coalition government for mature age students to re-enter the education system. As I said, that was never the case under the ALP. We are now trying to break down those barriers even more. We are trying to make the workplace more accessible to mature age people returning to work. We are trying to make learning accessible and lifelong.

We have to make sure that people can hop into and out of education when they need it; having modules of learning is very important. Again, we look to our TAFE system for that. Certainly, the review that has been under way by the federal government has alluded to some positive things being put forward as recommendations, but again it is not always up to the federal government of the day. States and territories must start to take responsibility and show leadership in the area.

The coalition also established a student loan system with the Commonwealth Bank—at a very reduced interest, I might add—and a facility whereby students can enter the work force and pay off their loan over time at very reasonable rates. Again, it is that thing of not having something for nothing; it puts value to it. The people I was talking to last evening alluded as well to the fact that getting something for nothing is not the way to go and people do value things more when they have to pay for them. But I would agree that there is a balance there. Students who are in financial difficulties can obtain assistance through the student financial assistance scheme.

The point remains that the coalition government has provided more opportunities for students than any ALP government and has established a number of systems allowing students to pay their way through vocational and higher education. It really is important

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