Page 3275 - Week 10 - Thursday, 25 September 2014
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If you go to the StudyCanberra website, it is fantastic. There is a whole section on accommodation and it has got a picture of the New Acton area where there is this lovely high rise and all this public art. But I just wonder how many students can afford to live in New Acton. The Nishi is in the background. It has got the large high rise there in New Acton. It states that Canberra is home to thousands of students from around Australia and the world and that, depending on your personal taste, budget, location and the length of your stay, there are a number of accommodation options. I just wonder how many students have the budget to live in New Acton. I suspect the answer is: not a great deal. I think that is to the shame of the government that they would just simply say, “We have got a website; people should look at the website,” and give this impression that somehow things were hunky-dory. At paragraph 2.13 from Shelter:
The research and policy officer suggested that student specific accommodation in the ACT was unaffordable for the majority of students.
They cannot come and study here if they cannot live here. The paragraph continues:
He explained that whilst the construction of Unilodges near ANU and UC have provided a large number of beds, a 2012 ANU Student’s Association survey found that the average Unilodge resident paid 52 per cent of their income towards their accommodation costs. In addition, a separate pilot study by Anglicare on student housing affordability indicated that share house students in the private market, were contributing close to 81 per cent of their income towards accommodation costs.
These are three simple areas—mental health and fitness, the arts, and student accommodation—which show that this government have got their priorities wrong. If you cannot address the basics, if you are not fit and healthy, if you cannot be creative, if you have not got a roof over your head, participating in education in the ACT is incredibly difficult. (Time expired.)
MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Disability, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Racing and Gaming, Minister for Women and Minister for the Arts) (4.27): I thank Mr Smyth for putting this matter of public importance forward today. It calls for getting priorities right. I have just listened to Mr Smyth for 15 minutes and there were no initiatives or priorities from the Canberra Liberals, but I should not be surprised about that.
I agree that it is absolutely vital that we get our education priorities right. I find it interesting that the Liberal Party have only just discovered education as a priority. I have to say this because, despite all their words on the matter, they have not put forward a single policy on early education and care. This is a party that even forgot, at the last election, the Canberra Institute of Technology. They forgot CIT. It did not feature in any way, shape or form. How can one forget the ACT’s largest training provider and still attempt to maintain any credibility when it comes to the issue of education priorities?
Mr Doszpot interjecting—
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