Senator MARGETTS(11.51 a.m.) —Before I start, I was interested in the comment made by Senator Carr that he had difficulty finding information from the budget papers. Welcome to opposition! The budget papers are not designed to give information. There is a whole lot of information that is given in various forms, it generally changes each year and it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to directly compare one year to another. As I say, welcome to opposition.

I am debating the disallowance motion from the ALP in relation to Austudy regulations which reduce rental assistance for singles sharing accommodation. This is a budget 1996-97 measure. At the moment, rental assistance is only payable to homeless Austudy students, although we acknowledge that the youth allowance changes will pay rent assistance to more students.

Rent assistance is currently payable to around 2,500 homeless students on Austudy. If they are single, they normally get a maximum rate of $37.30 per week. The government wants to reduce that by one third, to $24.90 per week for those who share accommodation. The Greens are fundamentally opposed to the assumptions behind this measure. Students do not necessarily cut costs if they share. That is a very middle-class notion. This is a question of economic survival. It is not as if poorer students who would be eligible for Austudy—and we are talking about homeless students here—have the option to live by themselves and suffer the costs. This is simply a crass attempt by the government to cut costs and steal from the poor once again.

The government also wants to nip this reduction in rent assistance in the bud because it has given rent assistance to 70,000 other students under the youth allowance. That is a sweetener, giving assistance to more students while cutting off some 60,000 16- and 17-year-old unemployed young people, leaving them with no income whatsoever if they are not in education or training.

The Greens oppose the reduction of rent assistance to all eligible students, and to homeless students in particular. For the past four years I have been calling for rent assistance for all Austudy recipients. Just to live near the universities and get to campus—especially in Sydney and Melbourne—students have to pay very high rents. Additionally, we believe the youth allowance should provide a rent assistance component. This should be accompanied by a restoration of benefits to all 16- and 17-year-olds, whether or not they are studying. Not to do this is to abrogate social responsibility, create a multitude of social problems and discriminate against young people. The Greens (WA) will be strongly supporting this disallowance motion.