Second Reading Speech
Senator ALSTON (Victoria-Minister for Communications, the Information Economy and the Arts)I move:
That this bill be now read a second time.
I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.
Leave granted.
The speech read as follows-
This bill completes the legislation package commenced with the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Youth Allowance) Bill 1997. That bill gives legislative effect to the new social security payment, youth allowance. Youth allowance will be an integrated income support payment for young people that will be available regardless of whether a person is in education, in training, unemployed or sick.
The primary purpose of this new bill is to provide the consequential amendments for youth allowance.
The bill also incorporates some significant related measures flowing from the establishment of youth allowance. These related measures largely comprise the transfer of program elements for older students from the Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs portfolio to the Social Security portfolio. This will be done primarily by setting up a new payment, Austudy payment, in the Social Security Act 1991 for students aged 25 and over. There will also be new provisions in that Act for the pensioner education supplement, the Student Financial Supplement Scheme and for fares allowance.
Madam President, Austudy payment will replace the Austudy living allowance currently available under the Student Assistance Act 1973. The Austudy payment will be available to students who commence a course of study when they are aged 25 or over or who were not receiving youth allowance when they turned 25.
Generally speaking, the new Austudy payment,will incorporate many of the rules that currently apply for the Austudy living allowance. However, in many instances the rules will be simplified and modified to bring the new payment into line with other payment types in the Social Security Act. Examples of some of the changes that result from the restructuring include the application of the same income test that applies to social security beneficiaries under the Social Security Act; all Austudy payment recipients being subject to an activity test which can only be satisfied by undertaking either full-time or concessional study; and certain entitlements that are not currently available to Austudy living allowance recipients (for example, bereavement payments and advances of payment) but which apply to social security recipients being extended to Austudy payment recipients.
Students who receive social security or veterans' affairs income support payments because they are disabled, sole parents or carers cannot get Austudy living allowance. They can, however, receive the Austudy pensioner education supplement while studying. The supplement can be paid for study at either the secondary or tertiary level, and for study at either a full-time or a concessional load.
The pensioner education supplement under the Social Security Act will replace the same named entitlement available under the existing scheme. It will incorporate most of the rules that currently apply to the supplement under the Austudy living allowance. However, as with the new Austudy payment, the rules will be simplified and modified to the bring the new payment into line with other payment types in the Social Security Act.
The Student Financial Supplement Scheme currently in operation under the Student and Youth Assistance Act is essentially a loan scheme that gives tertiary students the option of borrowing money to help cover their living expenses while studying. Since the student population using the Scheme is essentially moving to the Social Security portfolio, the scheme will also move except in relation to Abstudy customers, who will continue to be dealt with under the Student Assistance Act.
Many of the details relating to the new Student Financial Supplement Scheme operating in the Social Security portfolio will be provided in a disallowable instrument rather than in the Social Security Act itself. However, the new Scheme, while differing from the current scheme structurally and in drafting style, will mirror the current scheme. The rights and obligations of students will be preserved in the transition between portfolios, although a student's new financial supplement entitlement may change because his or her rate of youth allowance or Austudy payment may potentially change under the new payment structure.
Madam President, the Austudy regulations currently provide for the payment of fares allowance for tertiary students. The allowance is essentially a payment to assist with the travel costs incurred by certain tertiary students in undertaking their study. It is a payment made, not on a regular basis, but on occasion, up to a certain number of times during an academic year.
Again, since the majority of the student population for whom the allowance is intended is essentially moving to the social security portfolio, the allowance will also move such that the Social Security Act will enable the making of a disallowable instrument in relation to fares allowance. Although the structural details will be different to accommodate the new payment arrangements, the entitlement will be basically the same as it has been under the Austudy Regulations.
A fares allowance will continue to be paid under current arrangements for Abstudy customers.
This bill provides the consequential amendments for the transfer of these elements as well as for youth allowance itself. It also provides the transitional arrangements for the package, the flow through to youth allowance of certain 1997 Budget and other measures contained in the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Parenting and Other Measures) Act 1997 and the Social Security and Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Budget and Other Measures) Bill 1997 and some minor refinements to youth allowance.
I commend the bill to the Senate.
Ordered that further consideration of the second reading speech of this bill be adjourned until the first day of the winter sittings, in accordance with standing order 111.