Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Assistant Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

The budget that the government has delivered is a budget for confidence and it is a budget for families. It is a plan for jobs and it is a plan for growth. It is a plan for opportunity that will build a strong, safe and prosperous future for all Australians. Our economic plan is working. The economy is growing and jobs are being created in a fair and responsible way. Labor's projected debt and deficit have been cut in half, which has made Australia stronger and is allowing the coalition to invest more in better services for all Australians.

The coalition has a credible plan to get the country back to surplus despite tough economic challenges ahead. The budget is good for families, the budget is good for small business and the budget is good for jobs. It delivers a small business tax cut which will help drive investment and deliver jobs, creating prosperity for all Australians. It delivers a better childcare system that is simpler, more affordable, more flexible and more accessible. It provides parents with greater choice in balancing work and family, making life easier for working mums and dads.

The coalition's longstanding and ongoing commitment to jobs, particularly for young Australians, is also embodied in our $330 million Youth Employment Strategy. When I travel around the country, I meet with many young people who are having a tough time getting into work. I hear the same thing time and time again. Young people say, 'You can't get experience when you don't have a job, and if you can't get a job you can't get experience.' This is a simple and sensible proposition that young people put forward: 'How can I get a job if I don't have experience? How can I get experience if I don't have a job?' That goes some way to explaining that the youth unemployment rate is twice the national average, at 13.6 per cent. If you cannot get your first job, how can you get that experience?

The coalition acknowledges that the youth unemployment rate is too high and we are taking the problem of youth unemployment seriously because we know that the best form of welfare is a job. While the best thing we can do to create jobs is to build a strong economy, the government recognises that young people need extra help. That is why we have announced the Youth Employment Strategy in the budget, because it will take a work first approach to Australia's youth.

The coalition's $330 million Youth Employment Strategy has three key components. First is the $212 million Youth Transition to Work program, which will deliver intensive pre-employment assistance to young job seekers who are at high risk of unemployment. This program will assist around 19,000 job seekers every year with basic skill development that employers often report young job seekers are lacking. This includes mentoring and coaching to address personal issues; developing literacy, numeracy, teamwork and communication skills; providing access to work experience; and helping young people to get driver's licences, apprenticeships and traineeships. As part of this strategy, the coalition has also committed more than $105 million to support vulnerable job seekers, including young parents, young people with a mental illness, and refugees and migrants, as they make the transition to work. This includes an innovative youth program which will fund up to 40 community trials to explore better ways of getting young people who are at risk of welfare dependency into jobs.

In addition to this support, we are also raising expectations of early school leavers who are receiving welfare. Early school leavers who do not want to study will be subject to new job search requirements, and those who choose to study will be required to reach at least year 12 or certificate III standard, instead of the current year 12 or certificate II standard. This will substantially increase the employment prospects of early school leavers, because those with a certificate III or higher have a 4.9 per cent unemployment rate, as compared to those with a certificate I or certificate II, who have a 12.7 per cent unemployment rate.

In addition to the Youth Employment Strategy, the coalition is creating a $1.2 billion wage subsidy pool to make it easier for employers to hire people from disadvantaged groups. Tens of thousands of Australians, including mature age, young job seekers, parents, the long-term unemployed and Indigenous Australians, are expected to access this subsidy. The subsidy pool will kick-start another 2015 budget initiative, the national work experience program. This program supports job seekers, who can volunteer to do four weeks work experience for up to 25 hours a week in either a for-profit or a not-for-profit business. Employers that hire a new employee who is eligible for a wage subsidy through the work experience program can access subsidies through the $1.2 billion pool we are creating. This is a great initiative for all job seekers, because the existing work experience arrangements show job outcome rates of around 50 per cent for those people who participate in work experience programs. The new initiative announced in the budget will build on the existing coalition commitments to help Australia's youth get jobs. The coalition is committing $6.8 billion over the next four years to a new employment service model called jobactive, which reinvigorates Work for the Dole, reduces red tape for job seekers and reduces red tape for employment service providers and employers.

Since July last year nearly 24,000 people have commenced Work for the Dole in selected locations around Australia as part of phase 1. Come 1 July, the Work for the Dole program will be expanded nationwide. Job seekers, young job seekers in particular, can benefit from the Relocation Assistance to Take Up a Job program, which provides financial assistance to long-term unemployed who are moving to take up a job. They can also access the job commitment bonus, which provides cash bonuses to successful job seekers after they have stayed in a job and off welfare for 12 or 24 months.

Put simply, the Abbott government has committed billions to addressing unemployment, and youth unemployment specifically. This is a longstanding and ongoing commitment. It is in stark contrast to Labor. In his budget reply speech, the opposition leader, Mr Shorten, did not even mention youth unemployment, and to date the opposition have only committed some $21 million to help some 3,000 unemployed youth. Compared to Labor, the coalition has committed 15 times the money to help 15 times the job seekers into work. Through our Youth Employment Strategy, the coalition is taking a work-first approach to tackling youth unemployment, because everyone knows the best form of welfare is a job.

But we also know that the best way to grow jobs is to have a strong economy and we know that a thriving small business sector is the centre of a strong economy. That is why the coalition's budget is great for small business, particularly for small businesses in my electorate of Cowper. On 1 July 2015, all small businesses, even those that are not incorporated, will receive a tax cut. Incorporated small businesses with a turnover of up to $2 million will benefit from our cut to the company tax rate by 1.5 per cent to 28½ per cent. Unincorporated small businesses will get a five per cent tax discount, with those businesses with an annual turnover of up to $2 million receiving up to a maximum tax discount of $1,000. From budget night until 30 June 2017, small businesses will be able to immediately deduct every asset that they acquire which is valued up to $20,000.

As the member for Cowper, I have seen small businesses in my electorate grow and evolve over time, creating more jobs and opportunities for the people in the area that I represent. Through the Growing Jobs and Small Business package, the coalition is freeing up small business to create more jobs in my electorate and across the country.

When I meet with mums and dads in my electorate, time and time again they tell me that our childcare system is too complicated, too expensive and too hard to access when they need it most. Having two parents in work has become essential for most families because of changes to society and the economy in recent decades. Many families, in particular mothers, now have to juggle caring responsibilities with paid employment. This juggling act is made all the more difficult with the challenges they face in accessing affordable and suitable child care. That is why the coalition's $4.4 billion Jobs for Families package is such a great initiative. It will deliver a childcare system that is simpler, more affordable, more flexible and more accessible for Australian families who want to work more and set themselves up for the future. The coalition's families package will provide greater choice to more than 1.2 million families, including many in my electorate of Cowper. It will put downward pressure on the price of child care—a very important measure, as the cost of child care is a major inhibitor to people getting into work.

The budget will not only deliver for families and small business, but also continue the upgrade of the Pacific Highway at a pace. Since the coalition has come to office, the rate of work on the Pacific Highway has increased significantly. The previous government had backflipped on its commitment to 80-20 funding for the Pacific Highway, instead insisting on a 50-50 funding mix. Had the Labor government been re-elected at the last election, the Pacific Highway completion date would have been delayed by some seven years. So, as a result of the election of the coalition government and the continued funding that is available in this budget, the Pacific Highway will be completed by the target date of 2020—some seven years sooner than it would have been completed under Labor. We have a range of projects currently underway in the electorate. Frederickton to Eungai section is being completed at a pace. Kundabung to Kempsey is underway; Urunga to Nambucca Heads is well on target; and we have new work recently started on the Warrell Creek to Nambucca Heads section and the Arrawarra to Ballina section. These are huge infrastructure projects, creating thousands of jobs—many local jobs and thousands of indirect jobs, which are important for the local economy as an employment generator and important to our national interest to ensure that freight can move quickly and efficiently around the country.

Local roads are also vitally important. Whenever I speak to constituents, they often raise the issue of the importance of local roads. This budget will deliver record local road funding for councils in my electorate through the Roads to Recovery program. Following on from the Deputy Prime Minister's announcement that Roads to Recovery funding would be doubled in 2015-16, more than $8 million will be given to five local councils in my electorate. Great work is being done by my local councils in delivering with Roads to Recovery funding. We have also continued funding for the project at Riverside Drive in Nambucca Heads—an important local arterial road that has become unserviceable due to geotechnical problems. Five million dollars from the federal government allows the local council to repair that important piece of road infrastructure.

The budget has important measures in health, providing the continued funding for $80 million redevelopment of Kempsey Hospital. The new hospital will ensure that the Macleay community has local access to a new emergency medical unit and new integrated community care. It also ensures new medical equipment, such as X-ray, ultrasound, medical imaging, as well as new acute hospital beds, an expanded coronary care unit and new operating theatres, will become available. The development of Kempsey Hospital is being done in partnership with the state government, and this budget delivers the Commonwealth contribution to that hospital. It builds on the commitment by the New South Wales coalition government of $50 million for the redevelopment of Macksville Hospital—a project very passionately supported by the new state member for the seat of Oxley, Melinda Pavey. Kempsey and Macksville redevelopments are both examples of the coalition delivering on health and hospitals in regional Australia.

There is an important new program in the budget—$45 million for the Stronger Communities program. My electorate of Cowper will receive $150,000 a year over two years to support local projects to deliver social benefits. This is vitally important to support the many organisations that do great work in our local areas. In conclusion, this government inherited from Labor a multibillion dollar deficit problem; it inherited a budget that was out of control—

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