Submitted by Wilbur Klein, President, SA Nationals

For many years now country families supported by groups including the Isolated Children's Parents' Association and the SA Nationals have lobbied successive federal governments to provide increased financial support to country students who need to relocate to the city or to regional centres to pursue tertiary studies.

The bottom line is that both the previous and the recently announced means tested "youth allowance" and "independent student" eligibility criteria severely disadvantage country students. I simply don't understand why successive Federal Governments have failed to recognise this fact and act upon it.

What is needed is a real increase in funding for country students. The introduction of a special "Country Study Allowance" for country tertiary students would certainly be welcomed by country families across Australia.

Families are simply asking that all country students be eligible to receive a living away from home allowance to help with the additional costs incurred when country students have to leave home (as they must) to continue their education. This assistance is needed to ensure country students enjoy the same access to tertiary study as for city kids.

Regrettably country students and their families have been ignored by successive federal governments. During the twelve years of the Howard Government, even with its record $38 billion budget surplus, there was no real change in the level of support offered to country students. Unfortunately this situation has served to perpetuate the gross under-representation of country students in our tertiary institutions, as was clearly identified by Professor Denise Bradley in her Review of Australian Higher Education.

With the coming of the Rudd Government and in spite of its massive spending spree and projected budget deficit peaking at $315 billion, many country students will have even less opportunity to access tertiary education. This lack of understanding by government of what families living in rural, regional and remote Australia are asking for and really need is nothing short of deplorable.

How can the Rudd Government justify making $900 stimulus payments to thousands of deceased estates and expatriate and other overseas residents, when so many Australian country students and their families have such pressing needs? Nor is it good enough as is now proposed by some Liberal politicians to wind back the clock and restore the inadequate levels of support in place prior to the recent Rudd Government budget announcement.

We sometimes hear politicians say they "accept full responsibility", but we don't hear anyone from either side of politics accepting responsibility for the low participation rate of country students in our tertiary institutions. What we do hear are excuses, more excuses, and politicians playing "catch up" on an issue that could and should have been dealt with years ago by the previous government. Country people are tired of being ignored on this issue. No more excuses please!