Senator SANDY MACDONALD —My question is directed to the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs. Will the minister inform the Senate what budget measures were announced that reinforce the government's commitment to access and equity within education?

Senator VANSTONE —I thank Senator Sandy Macdonald for this question. Unlike the opposition, of course, this government is genuinely committed to expanding access to education for young Australians. Students from isolated areas, as Senator Macdonald well knows, are underrepresented in terms of participation rates at tertiary education. There fore, this government will double the value of the concession under the Austudy means test where a struggling rural family sends two or more tertiary students away to study for the second and subsequent child. This is on top of our 4,000 equity scholarships announced last year, which are already available to isolated young people to access education. This, of course, means more Austudy for hundreds of isolated and rural families. The benefit will be paid quickly. It will be paid in October and backdated to 1 July this year.

The other measure that will provide real assistance is the discount for partial up-front payment of HECS, removing an obvious inequity in the system inherited from the Labor Party. Until now, under Labor, somebody has had to have the full amount of HECS in order to take advantage of the 25 per cent discount. It is important to recognise that the size of that discount is very large so as to equate to the very substantial benefit people can receive from deferring their payment. So they get a benefit if they defer; they get a benefit from paying up front.

Nevertheless, under Labor the all-or-nothing aspect of the discount was unfair because it favoured the well off. We hear them chanting over there `helping the rich'. That is exactly what their previous discount on HECS did. The new arrangement will allow those who are less well off to take advantage of the 25 per cent discount. Those who do this will not be the wealthy. The wealthy will pay up front.

I was disappointed to see Senator Stott Despoja attacking this measure as being designed to help the rich. Clearly, the really rich are going to pay up front and we are trying to give a discount to people who cannot pay the whole lot up front. She says that it is to help the rich. The potential beneficiaries of this number over 400,000 or more students.

Senator Stott Despoja will have the opportunity to put her vote where her mouth is and vote against it if she chooses to do so. No doubt when she has to come and put her vote where her mouth is, she will think twice about it. I hope she will rethink very carefully the manner in which she throws around words like `wealthy' and `rich' when we are talking about paying for education.

As much as anyone else, Senator Stott Despoja ought to know that, simply because you went to a wealthy private school, as she did, does not mean that you or your parents are wealthy. It does not mean that, and Senator Stott Despoja knows it. Many parents scrimp and save to give their children extra advantages, and so it will be with the fee paying students next year at Australian universities. However, Senator Stott Despoja, having had the advantage of a parent who was prepared to scrimp and save to put her through a private education and to give her more, will now seek to stop, using any avenue she can, other students having that opportunity at tertiary level. This is a very selfish attitude on behalf of Senator Stott Despoja and the Australian Democrats.

Senator Hill —Madam President, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper .