More on Budget 2018:
Migrants aged under 18 will have five years, instead of one, to apply for their 510 hours of government-funded English lessons after they arrive in Australia.
Adult migrants already have five years, and the reasons for the discrepancy were unclear, even to government officials.
A spokesperson for the Education Department told SBS News the change, announced in the 2018 Budget, was “correcting an anomaly in the legislative instrument”.
The extension will not impose any new cost on the Budget bottom line.
It will take effect in October without the need for the government to pass a new law.
