Students expect little action on youth allowance – but welcome talks

Education minister Julia Gillard is convening a roundtable to discuss the proposed youth allowance changes with some of their youthful critics. But she appears unlikely to budge on the proposals – not without a quid pro quo, at any rate. The Canberra meeting scheduled for today (Monday) brings the minister face to face with gap year students and their federal MPs from at least seven mostly regional electorates, although admittedly six are ALP colleagues and the seventh is a NSW independent. The forum also includes Universities Australia chair Professor Peter Coaldrake, Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations president Nigel Palmer and National Union of Students president David Barrow. Announcing the roundtable late last week, Gillard put up a spirited defence of the proposals, including their most contentious aspect – the removal of workforce eligibility criteria which enable school graduates to qualify for youth allowance if they earn at least $20,000 or work part-time for at least two years. Until now these criteria have encouraged wannabe students to take gap years so they get income support once they reach uni. But Gillard said studies had shown that around 30 per cent of gap year students didn’t end up going to university anyway. She said the changes, which had been recommended by the Bradley review, would target the allowance to the students most in need. She said more than 100,000 would benefit from the new arrangements, with the reduced parental income test threshold meaning many students now wouldn’t need to take gap years in the first place. She said the changes would also make annual $2254 start-up scholarships available to around 150,000 students, and that over 14,000 students forced to move home would be eligible for initial $4000 relocation scholarships topped up by another $1000 each subsequent year. Students’ main gripe is that the introduction date for the changes – 1 January next year – means they’ll disadvantage people who’ve already begun gap years in the expectation of qualifying for support when they enrol next year. But Barrow said he wasn’t expecting much from the meeting, given that Gillard had shown she was very committed to the current policy. “We’ll represent students and see how we go. But it really shows the difference between this government and the previous one. It’s an act of good faith, at any rate, that they’re willing to have these discussions.” Palmer said Gillard’s hands were tied by the tight fiscal environment. “I expect she’s going to say, what we give from one area we’re going to take from another. She’ll say if you want these changes, it’s going to cost you. We’re not looking to take money from some other portfolio, so what are you going to give up?” Palmer said that while the workforce eligibility changes had no direct bearing on postgraduates, he’d be seeking some “nuts and bolts” changes to the new arrangements for his constituents. “They’re not headline concerns, and they’re concerns we expect the government’s going to be able to address. It’s a well-developed package and we commend the government for working to smooth out the bumps.” However, Opposition education spokesperson Christopher Pyne said Gillard was paving the way for a backdown on youth allowance. “The government didn’t think this through because the minister is a part-time minister and she is not giving her full attention to education,” he told ABC Radio.