FED: Cabinet poised to endorse Abstudy shake up: report

AAP General News (Australia)
12-14-1998
FED: Cabinet poised to endorse Abstudy shake up: report

SYDNEY, Dec 14 AAP - Cabinet is reportedly poised to endorse a shake-up of the $200 million
Abstudy scheme in a contentious move likely to inflame tensions between the federal government
and indigenous groups.

The plan would see Abstudy payments discontinued and indigenous students provided with
financial assistance throught the Common Youth Allowance, a report in The Australian Financial
Review said today.

It said Prime Minister John Howard was understood to be backing the plan.

Senior government sources last night confirmed that cabinet would consider the plan
tomorrow and said it raised questions about Mr Howards commitment to making Aboriginal
reconciliation a second-term priority, the paper said.

It said several ministers and sections of the bureaucracy were understood to be irate over
the proposed changes, and some ministers were understood to have raised concerns that the
changes would provoke a backlash among Aboriginal groups and the general community.

AAP rat/ao

KEYWORD: ABSTUDY

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