Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I know that there are some competitive tensions between Wyong and Gosford—I have been to the Central Coast. What is good for the Central Coast is good for the entire part of that economy. The expansion of the University of Newcastle in to a medical school with disciplines like nursing and health sciences and so forth will be a tremendous boon for those young people in particular on the Central Coast who are looking to be trained in areas that will be growth areas for the Central Coast given the demographic breakdown of the population there and, of course, in attracting people to the Central Coast because of the good level of services that will be available with the young people and others who are trained or retrained in the medical school and in the health sciences there, because of the good work of the member for Robertson. I am sure the member for Dobell supports the member for Robertson in the work that she has done in ensuring that jobs and opportunities are available for young people in the Central Coast.

My own colleagues have asked me some questions about various matters to do with this portfolio, which I would remind the House is not my own portfolio but Minister Cash's portfolio. The member for Fisher asked me about security of payments in the building industry. I can tell him that independent contractors are an essential part of the workforce. The government is sympathetic to the concerns of small businesses involved in subcontracting, where insolvencies and late payment issues can make or break these operators. That is why the government has announced a national review of security of payments laws. The government has also established a security of payments working group. The working group is focused on monitoring and improving compliance with current legislative requirements through the work of the ABCC. Together, the review and the working group will help to improve the level of protection afforded to subcontractors in the building industry.

On 21 December 2016, the Australian government announced a review of security of payments laws in the building and construction industry. The review is focused on identifying legislative best practice with a view to improving consistency in security of payments legislation across jurisdictions and increasing the level of protection for subcontractors nationally. So you can see, Acting Deputy Speaker Hogan, that the government is responding to the member for Fisher's concerns about security of payments in the building industry. The review is being conducted by Mr John Murray AM, who is a specialist in building contract disputations and security of payments legislation—as is the member for Fisher, who was a noted barrister and himself a builder in the part of the world where he now lives and represents.

The member for Swan asked me questions about ParentsNext and its national expansion. I can tell the member for Swan that the government is investing $263 billion to expand the ParentsNext program nationally to give more parents of young children tailored support to improve their work readiness by the time their children start school. From 1 July 2018, more than 68,000 parents across Australia each year will benefit from that program. I know that the member for Swan is particularly interested in this subject of how to support families in this situation because he himself is a single custodial parent and has raised his child as a single parent and has done so very successfully. Since April 2016, ParentsNext has been operating in 10 locations across Australia. Almost 13,000 parents are currently participating in the program. More than 6,000 parents have commenced in education or training, almost 4,000 have commenced in other assistance such as counselling, health related assistance and parenting courses, and more than 1,000 have commenced in employment.

The national expansion will deliver two streams: $150.1 million over four years to expand ParentsNext nationally to the most disadvantaged parents in the 51 jobactive employment regions, and $113 million over four years to provide a more intensive ParentsNext service in the 10 existing locations and a further 20 locations where a high proportion of parenting payment recipients are Indigenous. So you can see, Mr Deputy Speaker, as can the member for Swan, that we are certainly putting our weight behind the ParentsNext program.

The member for Dunkley asked me about the Youth Jobs PaTH. As I have only 20 seconds left, I might see if the member for Chifley wants to ask me a further question, and then I will get the chance to sum up at the end.

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