Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I understand why the member for Batman made that point of order. If he knows which members I am casting aspersions on, I would refer him to the royal commission. He could report those names, and we could then get on with identifying how these payments are made and what they are for. We will see.

Returning to youth employment, which is what I am speaking about, the member for Batman could listen very carefully, because this is all intertwined. The Labor party is opposing this bill because it is 'unfair' to young people. It is unfair to tell able young people who can get a job that they have a lifetime of welfare ahead of them. It is unfair to say, 'There'll be a handout for you at all times.' The reality of life is very different, and it is Orwellian for the member for Lilley, who has created so much dysfunction in our economy and disadvantage for young people through his industrial relations policies and his economic mismanagement, to tell us that we are somehow sending people into a bearpit where they will be crucified. That is the kind of language that he uses. This is the real world.

When people leave school, they are expected to get a job not to rush down the road to go to the local Centrelink office. It is not what we want young people to do. Of course there are circumstances and there is the reality of life as well on the other side of the coin where people are genuinely disadvantaged, where they do need the support of government and where they do need to go to the Centrelink office for various actual reasons. That is why this bill is so good. That is why the Minister for Social Services consulted so widely, including with organisations like ACOSS, organisations that deliver welfare services for young people and organisations that employ young people and assist young people to get jobs.

I know many business organisations that are desperate for young people's labour. I know many organisations that need skilled young workers urgently. We know that unions continue to push for younger and younger people to be paid adult wages. When they recently won their case at Fair Work for 21-year-olds to be paid adult wages, they said they are going to push for even younger. These sorts of things do not help young people. Your first job is not your last job. In today's economy, we know young people are going to have many, many career changes. There is nothing wrong with that in the modern economy. It is flexible and dynamic. It is growing fast. It is changing fast. Young people need to be taught to train, to retrain, to compete and to do whatever they can to improve themselves to live with the pace of life that we have today. That is the reality that will face most people seeking work today. Your first job in a cafe or a fast-food chain is not expected to be your last job. It is the sort of job you have while you retrain or go to uni, or do the education work that you need to do to get the job you are interested in.

That is why it is vital government policy to support young people in this. It is not harsh for us to say that if you are able and willing to go out and get a job then we really would like you to do that. Take the work that is out there. There is of course work out there in many places around Australia. You can go to rural and regional Australia where they are desperate for young workers and desperate for labour, where nobody will turn up to do the jobs that are there. That is a complete mismatch of supply and demand in our economy.

There are serious challenges that we face as a government and of course it is the right starting point to fairly say to young people and to put in this amendment that, excluding all of the circumstances—and you will find a list of all the circumstances in the proposed amendment for the legislation—we will still provide a lot of support for all those young people who need it, including additional funding for people with mental health concerns.

In the first four weeks, young job seekers will be meeting with a jobactive provider, agreeing to a job plan, developing an up-to-date resume, creating a job seeker profile on the JobSearch website, providing evidence of satisfactory job search with up to 20 job applications. We have provided extra funding for hardship relief as well.

It is very strange that the Labor Party object to this four-week period considering that it is a reasonable and effective compromise that says to young people, 'We're going to give you a jobactive plan for those four weeks to go and get a job.' We are not going to abandon these people. We are not going to say 'law of the jungle,' as the member for Lilley tried to say. He referred many times to Ayn Rand. What we are about here is saying to a young person just starting out on the cusp of life: 'Don't go to the Centrelink office. Come and get a job plan. Come and get some training. Get started on the right track in life. We'll do everything possible as a government and as a society to stop you going over to Centrelink because it is not good for you ultimately.'

This is the key point that the Labor Party miss. Welfare is not good for people ultimately. It should not be something that we want people to go on. It should not be something that we force through government policy to put people on. It is not good for people ultimately. Welfare is supposed to be a safety net and a hand-up not a handout. However, in our society today we have a political party that, when in government, seem addicted to getting people onto welfare and keeping them on welfare—intergenerational welfare, poverty traps. The real property traps in our society come about from welfare traps. I think the synergies are all there for people to see.

It should be the objective of any right-thinking government to get people off welfare, to stop people going onto welfare, to do what they can reasonably to prevent it and to encourage an economy that is vibrant and producing the jobs. That comes down to the small business sector. It is why we have intertwined small business measures in this bill, because we have employment measures tied up in this. For the Labor Party to separate this legislation and this amendment, and say this is the worst thing for young people that could ever happen is exactly the wrong message to send.

As a government, we are saying: 'We're prepared to do anything possible to help you get a job. We'll pay for your education. We'll pay for your training. We'll pay for your retraining. We'll assist you with an employment plan, with a jobactive plan, with a JobReady plan. We'll assist you with your CV. We'll assist you to find a job. We'll assist you in any way possible to get out there and get that job if you are an able person.' Of course, we are taking care of those people in genuine need and those people who are unable to do so with more funding. We are taking care of them by allowing them immediate access. The categories are well thought-out from the minister. This is a very important reform. It will assist what the government is doing to get young people into work and off welfare. I believe it has the majority support of the Australian people to do just that.

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