Students, teachers and parents in Armidale and Tamworth will today be wondering just what it will take for the Member for New England to support them on youth allowance.

Today in the House of Representatives, Mr. Windsor and his Independent colleagues Rob Oakeshott and Andrew Wilkie supported Labor and the Greens to reject a call for urgent action to address an anomaly in the Independent Youth Allowance.

The Nationals Duty Senator for New England John Williams said the Shadow Education Minister Christopher Pyne moved a Notice of Motion calling on the same criteria for inner regional students as that applied to students in outer regional, remote and very remote areas.

He said that means students in Tamworth and Armidale would have the same opportunity to access independent youth allowance as those in Inverell, Glen Innes and Gunnedah.

“The review of independent youth allowance is due to report on the 1^st of July, and the Nationals and Liberals wanted the government to act immediately after this date rather than wait until January.

However, Mr. Windsor, for reasons only he can explain, voted against it which has left school leavers who had a gap year in 2010 in limbo. It’s despite him voting in favour of a similar motion late last year.

The Member for New England appears beholden to the Gillard-Greens government rather than looking after the interests of his electorate”, Senator Williams said.