457 visa school fees cut again
Almost one-quarter of overseas families in WA on 457 temporary work visas will be exempt from paying fees for their children to attend public schools.
The Barnett Government yesterday said anyone earning less than $75,000 a year would not have to pay the $4000 fee.
More than 3305 families on 457 visas have children at WA public schools and the Government expects 760 families may qualify for hardship provisions - which will put a $3 million hole in the revenue it initially expected to get from the fee.
In last year's Budget, the Government moved to raise $120 million over four years by imposing the fee on about 8000 students.
Premier Colin Barnett later watered down the plan, delaying it until next year and halving the fee for younger siblings.
It also emerged the number of affected families had been overstated by more than 4500.
Education Minister Peter Collier said yesterday that though families on 457 visas needed to contribute to their children's education costs, the fees must be reasonable. Families would pay $4000 regardless of how many children they had, but only if their gross household income exceeded $75,000.
Mr Collier said exceptional circumstances would also be considered under financial hardship provisions. "Full or partial fee waivers will be considered, based on evidence of unforeseen changes in a family's circumstances such as illness, unemployment, family breakdown and death," he said.
Shadow education minister Sue Ellery said though she welcomed the hardship provisions, it was unfair to change the rules and impose a fee on families after they had already decided to bring their children to a new country.
She said the move was still a money grab and questioned what the Government planned to do about the hole left in its Budget.
Greens MLC Lynn MacLaren said the change did not go far enough.
"For many larger 457 families living in metro regions, $75,000-plus is not much and $4000 out of that is an unreasonably high percentage of their income for a State school education that they should be accessing for free as taxpayers," she said.
