Nola Bethwynn Marino has been the Liberal Party of Australia

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

 representative for the electoral division of Forrest

Division of Forrest

The Division of Forrest is an Australian Electoral Division in Western Australia. The division was created in 1922 and is named for Sir John Forrest, the first Premier of Western Australia and a federal Cabinet minister. It is located in the south-western corner of the state, including the towns of...

 in Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

 since the 2007 federal election.

Marino was born in Harvey

Harvey, Western Australia

Harvey is a town located in the South West of Western Australia along the South Western Highway, 140 km south of Perth, between Pinjarra and Bunbury...

and established a small business in 1972.

Youth Allowance

Nola Marino has been a vocal opponent of the Rudd/Gillard government’s changes to the Independent Youth Allowance Criteria, that she believes discriminates against young people. Marino believes that “Arbitrary lines on a map now define which students come under which Independent Youth Allowance criteria.”
The new criteria, Marino believes forces young people, who live in regional years, to take two gap years, so that they can complete the 18 months work required to get independent youth allowance. Nola Marino campaigns strongly that finding work for this period of time is very difficult in small towns and regional centres
Nola Marino’s main criticisms of the new criteria are as follows

• The legislation does not take into account seasonal employment sectors such as tourism and agriculture in regional areas, creating further barriers for regional students
• Regional students face significantly increased costs associated with relocating for study
• Many regional students have no choice but to relocate to study
• Australia's geography and demography pose heavy challenges for regional families, especially as they move beyond the rich educational experience offered by country school to secondary or tertiary education in the larger cities
• Students from regional areas are less likely to finish Year 12 than their metropolitan counterparts and are significantly under-represented in tertiary education
• Students from regional areas are much less likely to achieve a tertiary qualification
• Inner Regional students who wish to be Doctors have 6 years of study ahead of them, and should NOT have to have two years gap (medicine does not have mid year intake) just to become Independent, halting their important studies. Similarly with Engineering and Dentistry.

House of Representatives Motion

On 28 October 2010 Ms Marino introduced a motion into the House of Representatives, and was passed with the support of five independents, 74-70, with the Government and a member of the Australian Greens voting against the motion.
The motion called upon the House of Representatives to
“1. requires the government:
(a) Urgently introduce legislation to reinstate the former workplace participation criteria for independent youth allowance to apply to students whose family home is located in inner regional areas as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics instrument Australian Standard Geographical Classification;
(b) Appropriate funds necessary to meet the additional cost of expanding the criteria for participation, with the funds to come from the Education Investment Fund; and
2. Send a message to the Senate acquainting it of this resolution and request that it concur. “

Election 2010

The Coalition government led by Tony Abbott, promised to fund inner-regional students to be considered the same as outer-regional, remote, and very remote students under its $1 billion Regional Education Fund. This would give all students three options of attaining independent youth allowance.

Private Senators Bill 2010

On the 28 of October 2010, in parallel to Marino’s motion to the House of Representatives a private members bill was introduced to the Senate, to reverse the changes made to Youth allowance by the Rudd/Gillard Government. Labor and Green Senators refused to debate the bill, and it was sent to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (EEWR) Legislation Committee for inquiry and report. Report date is 9 February 2011.

National Broadband Network

Marino believes that her electorate of forrest “is a seriously underserviced area, one of the underserviced areas around Australia. It should be a priority under any broadband plan to deliver to areas where not only the technology has not been available previously but also where government services have not been available previously”. She believes that the NBN is not being delivered in a suitable way to meet the needs of regional australians, and that it poses a risk to National Security. This risk, Marino believes is underestimated by academics, politicians, business people and the general public. She also questions the advantages of having such a system, where “The NBN will facilitate instantaneous crime at a speed and frequency we have never experienced in this country”