Pic source: ncsehe.edu.au BY Kate Thorburn COUNTRY students considered asset-rich but cash-poor are able to access youth allowance for the first time, after the eligibility test for the financial assistance program was loosened. A bill was passed in Canberra last week excluding farms and trusts from the eligibility test for youth allowance, which assists full-time…
Pic source: uwa.edu.au BY Andrew Trounson Access to Youth Allowance student support payments will be widened by new legislation dropping two asset tests at a cost to the budget of $263 million over four years. The measure will particularly benefit regional families who often face higher costs from having to move to attend university. It…
Pic source: uow.edu.au “For decades farming families have experienced unfairness in having their farm counted as an asset in their assessment for Youth Allowance. The Family Assets Test and the Family Actual Means Test, from January 1 2016, will be removed from the Youth Allowance Personal Test. This will give rural and regional families better…
Pic: ICPA members celebrate youth allowance changes. Source: ICPA/ABC Rural BY Anna Vidot The Federal Parliament has signed off on changes to Youth Allowance that will make it easier for rural and remote students to go to university. The Family Actual Means Test and Family Asset Test will be removed from the Youth Allowance Personal…
Pic source: businessfoundations.com.au Senator McKENZIE (Victoria) (17:09): I rise this afternoon to contribute to another senseless debate of legacy weeping by the Labor Party as they look over their failed tenure as the government of this country and their lack of investment and foresight and as they start to attempt to lay the blame for…
Senator McKENZIE (Victoria) (13:24): I too rise to put on record my views, my support and my praise for the Minister for Trade and Investment, Andrew Robb, for delivering, in race week, the trifecta of free trade agreements into the Senate. I thank the Labor Party for getting behind regional jobs right across regional Australia…
Senator McKENZIE (Victoria) (19:39): It gives me great pleasure as the Chair of the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee to stand here and speak to the government delivering on the Senate doing its work. That is what is so exciting as a chair of a Senate committee—when we work very hard on some of…
Pic source: dss.gov.au BY Katharine Murphy The federal government should impose a new national gaming tax and prohibit Australians from gambling with foreign operators through “banking and other tools”, Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has said. The Victorian backbench senator, who flagged her plan with the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, when he was communications minister, said…
•Women are driving the creation of digital technology in the food industry •Australia’s Food industry is more valuable than mining •Huge potential for economic growth: technology start-ups could add $100 billion to Australia’s GDP* Hackfood 2015 Liz Kaelin, Monica Wulf, Natia English With the future of Australia’s mining industry beginning to fade, a growing community…
Pic source: www.mdba.gov.au The Liberal-National Coalition Government is calling on irrigators, industry and potential delivery agencies to have their say on the design of a new on-farm irrigation efficiency program. Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Barnaby Joyce, and Nationals Senator for Victoria, Bridget McKenzie, said the Commonwealth On-Farm Further Irrigation Efficiency (COFFIE) program was…