Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I will not take up too much time. I do want to ask a question about Youth Jobs PaTH, and I also would like to remind the minister that I asked a question about the Employment Fund and I am very keen to get an answer on that. I am also keen to see if he will table the letter that was written by the Minister for Employment or the Department of Employment to NEATO, the Work for the Dole provider involved in the Toowoomba incident, outlining exactly what measures that provider was asked to take to improve workplace health and safety.

The next thing I would ask, in relation to PaTH, is this. The opposition has constantly outlined its concerns about the prospect of wage and job displacement triggered by PaTH. We have constantly had extended to us an assurance by the government that they would keep tabs and track the businesses that use these PaTH interns and would be able to tell us whether or not this is occurring. During estimates, we asked whether businesses enrolling in PaTH were large or small. The Secretary of the Department of Employment, on 29 May, had to take the questions on notice. It did not give us much confidence. The issue came up a second time when it was revealed that one business had already taken on seven interns. The department was asked again whether it was a large or a small business. The answer revealed inadequate tracking: 'We actually do not have that information on size.' What we want to know is: can the Turnbull government demonstrate that they have sufficient tracking and monitoring processes in place to make sure PaTH interns are not used to churn workers or exploit young people, and are the government actually going to hit their target of 30,000 interns a year and 18,000 to 20,000 businesses participating in the scheme?

See this speech in context