Senator COONAN (3:14 PM) —The extraordinary thing about Labor's sustained attack on the youth allowance is that it is an attack on an initiative which is actually designed to assist young people. What never fails to amaze me is why it would be suggested that we as the party in government would set out to deliberately make things more difficult for young people. It is pretty obvious that the youth allowance is actually assisting young people or else we would not have this sustained, ongoing and unjustifiable attack.

The salient and the very good features of the youth allowance, which it is necessary to repeat once again, include the most attractive feature of it, which is that it simplifies income support arrangements for young people by combining five payments types and by reducing 13 different rates to just five. The complicated previous system that Labor had pursued left so many people falling between stools and not getting any assistance at all that it was necessary to actually look at how this youth allowance could be streamlined. It will now align both rates and qualifications for all young people up to the age of 21 and remove that incentive for young people to leave education early or to choose unemployment over education or training. It is blindingly obvious that those young people who get education and training will have better opportunities to get jobs.

Parental means testing of students and unemployed people aged up to 21 will also be aligned. You have heard the minister say today that young people with the lowest income families will continue to qualify for maximum rates of assistance under the parental means test. There is nothing unfair about that. Access to rent assistance for students and for unemployed 16- to 17-year-olds who live away from home for education or employment reasons is also a significant advance under this policy. Rent assistance is also available to independent young people who live away from home. What a relief it must be for young people who are not living at home and who need rent assistance to actually have that assistance available to them. A flexible activity test allows young people to undertake a variety of activities without having to change payment type.

The abolition of the education leavers deferment period will ensure continuity of income support between leaving school and commencing full-time employment. Students will have access to a higher fortnightly income free income and an income bank of $6,000 designed to accommodate student work patterns for full-time casual employment over vacation periods. That is a significant advance compared to the old policy, under which casual employment actually disqualified people from their benefits; they went on, they went off and they did not know where they were with 13 different rates. The changed independence criteria are, of course, more lenient for students and tighter for some unemployed young people. All youth allowees will have access to the $500 loan advance currently made available under Newstart. That is a great benefit for young people.

There are many winners from the youth allowance. Of the 560,000 young people who will be covered by youth allowance, 416,000 are students and 144,000 are unemployed. Payment for 358,600 will remain unchanged and payment for 153,750 young people will increase. All young people will benefit from the simplified income support system, which provides incentives to remain in education and training and which has the flexibility to cater for a variety of activities undertaken by young people in their transition from school to employment. Students not only gain from the availability of rent assistance but all under 18-year-olds who have to live away from home gain from the increased rates. This is a significant advance and a superior initiative to assist young people into employment.