Transcript of an interview with Steve Martin on ABC Ballarat regarding the Gillard Government's back down on Youth Allowance.
21 February 2011
TRANSCRIPT OF DAN TEHAN, MEMBER FOR WANNON
INTERVIEW WITH STEVE MARTIN, ABC BALLARAT
Subjects: Youth Allowance.
E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………
STEVE MARTIN:
To Youth Allowance payments. What happened was that there was a Bill that went through the Upper House – in the Senate – the government was arguing that that Bill was unconstitutional because it was a money Bill and it shouldn’t go through the Upper House first but it seems they’ve lost that argument and realised they didn’t have support in the Lower House for the changes to Youth Allowance. Apparently the Minister for Tertiary Education, Chris Evans, has now said he will bring forward a review to find the money to fund payments under the old scheme of Youth Allowance. I did speak with Dan Tehan, the Member for Wannon a little bit earlier this morning and this is what he had to say.
STEVE MARTIN:
Dan Tehan, we’re hearing in our news about a change of heart by the Government – a back down as being reported on the ABC, can you just explain to us what has happened with Youth Allowance and what it means?
DAN TEHAN:
Well it looks like that Julia Gillard has finally admitted that she got it wrong which is great news for country students. What the Government is being reported as saying its going to do is it will bring forward the review of Independent Youth Allowance which will now finish July 1 and then they will implement the old system as of January 1 next year. So that means the old eligibility requirements will come back in as of January 1 in what is a great win for Western Victorian students and regional and rural students across Australia.
STEVE MARTIN:
What does that mean for students this year?
DAN TEHAN:
Unfortunately it means that they will miss out unless the Government changes its mind and says that somehow they will back dates things, but I can’t see how they can do it. They’ve got in a complete mess on this – it’s good that they have going to admit that they got it wrong and backed down but unfortunately victims are going to be students from this year which is very sad for them.
STEVE MARTIN:
Is it just a case then that perhaps more students have to defer this year – if they haven’t already?
DAN TEHAN:
Well that will unfortunately I think be the only way around it for those students. We have to wait and see what the detail will be. Hopefully this will be all articulated by the Government when they make the announcement that they did get it wrong and that they have backed down and hopefully we’ll see all those details come out then, but it does seem it’s good news and it’s good news for all those students who are prepared to take the Government on and tell the Government that they got it wrong. The amount of petitions that went forward, we had country students going up to Canberra to meet with Julia Gillard – their persistence has paid off and it’s a fantastic reward for all those students.
STEVE MARTIN:
Dan Tehan, my understanding of what’s happened is that a private member’s Bill went through the Upper House – the Government objected about that passage because it was effectively a money Bill, but it sounds like the realised they didn’t have the numbers in the Lower House to stop the Bill – is that the politics of this?
DAN TEHAN:
That’s the politics – it did pass the Senate – a separate Bill – Private Members Bill, had already passed the House last year – the Government realised that given the votes on those two Bills that it had nowhere to go and Julia Gillard, although she’d been very stubborn about it, has finally admitted that she’s got it wrong and will implement the changes that these Bills require.
STEVE MARTIN:
The Government has also said that any changes back to the old system will cost the States quite substantially– in terms of the funding that goes out to the students. Your side of politics is always on about where the Government will find the money for these sort of things – can we afford this change?
DAN TEHAN:
We can and the last election we took forward a policy which found the money and so we said these changes could be made – it’s a $300m cost to the budget but we put forward where the savings could be made and I’m hoping that that’s where Julia Gillard will find it was a good policy which we took to the last election – we showed the Government the way on this and hopefully they will implement our policy from the last election.
STEVE MARTIN:
How soon do we need absolute clarity on this for all those students, some of whom will be preparing for University this year and O week – are we talking about later today?
DAN TEHAN:
Look, I would hope that the Education Minister will be out today clarifying all this. The Government knows – has known for a long time that it has to do something in this space – the fact that it’s taken them until now is just a disgrace, but hopefully we will get clarity by the end of the day.
STEVE MARTIN:
That is Dan Tehan, the Federal Member for Wannon and I managed to get hold of him just before he jumped on a plane – I think he was flying into Canberra. Now we do have calls in to Chris Evans, the Minister for Tertiary Education, and we are hoping that he’s going to be able to join us at some point between now and 11 o’clock this morning – his minders certainly seem hopeful that we will be able to get that clarity from the Minister directly on the programme this morning.
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