"That ICPA Qld lobbies the Department of Education (DoE) to urgently increase the Remote Area Travel Allowance (RATrA) within the Living Away from Home Allowance (LAFHAS) for all students travelling between home and boarding school during school holidays.”
Rising cost-of-living pressures, increasing fuel prices, ongoing airline schedule changes and significant weather events across regional and remote Outback Queensland have substantially increased the cost of transporting children to and from boarding school during school holidays.
Prolonged flooding and road closures throughout Outback Queensland required many families to travel hundreds of additional kilometres by road to safely deliver or collect their children from school. Some families were unable to drive out of their properties necessitating expensive helicopter charters to access the nearest town and then having to incur excessive last-minute airfares to the destination. Frequent alterations to flight timetables have further increased expenses, with some families having to travel to towns the day prior to flights and pay overnight accommodation costs, to ensure their children make it to school on time. Current RATrA funding levels no longer reflect the true costs associated with transporting children to and from boarding school for their compulsory education.
