Cost-of-living help for students visiting nation’s capital

The Albanese Government is taking the pressure off family budgets by boosting travel rebates for students who visit the nation’s capital in 2025.

The Parliament and Civics Education Rebate (PACER) program provides financial assistance for students to visit Canberra and experience our national democratic, historical and cultural institutions first-hand.

Rebates have been extended for 2025 and will range up to $2,040 per student, depending on the location of the school, with additional loadings for eligible schools in disadvantaged, regional, and remote areas. Home schooling families are also eligible for the rebate. 

These additional rebates, for example, take the rebate amount for a student from a remote, disadvantaged school in New South Wales, 500-999 kilometres from Canberra, from $45 to $165.

For a student from a very remote, disadvantaged school in the Northern Territory, 3,000 kilometres or more from Canberra, the rebate has increased from $510 to $2,040.

To further boost student knowledge of Australia’s system of government, legal system and Australian citizenship, a new online hub has been launched. 

The Civics and Citizenship Education (CCE) Hub contains more than 200 nationally coordinated, high-quality teaching resources that will save teachers time and support them to teach students from Years 3 to 10. 

Teachers have access to resources to help them run mock parliamentary debates and elections, quizzes, case studies and a range of other sources to support student learning.

The CCE Hub forms part of a suite of online resources and professional learning from the Albanese Government to support teaching and learning of the Australian Curriculum, with $34.6 million being invested over four years.

For more information on the PACER rebate including the eligibility criteria, visit www.pacer.org.au.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Education Jason Clare:

“It’s important to get out of the classroom and experience our historical and cultural institutions first-hand.

“To see and feel our history at the War Memorial and Old Parliament House, and see it being made in the new Parliament.

“That’s why the Albanese Government is helping families with cost-of-living by offering rebates to make it more affordable to come to the Capital.

“I want more Australian students, wherever they live, to do this and that’s what these rebates do.”