Increase Austudy Payments

Most people are aware current Austudy payment is insufficent to cover weekly costs of living and of study. Since not all students are eligible for scholarships, they rely heavily on Austudy to support themselves during their student lives. However, every student knows, especially those living alone, that even on Austudy they are unable to support themselves and thus still need to find work to cover living expenses, which often means cutting short their hours devoted to study, and reducing their chances of getting high marks, and of being eligible for scholarships later on. 

Though scholarships are available most of them cater to young adults who live at home with kind parents.  The Department of Human Services has overlooked the fact, that more than half of all tertiary students are mature aged workers attending university to enhance their career prospects.  Some of these have lived in difficult circumstances growing up, and would not have been able to work towards excelling in secondary school and gaining scholarship eligibility.

Please join in this march towards acheiving equal opportunities in education funding.