Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Payments) Share this | Hansard source

I am speaking tonight on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Seasonal Worker Incentives for Jobseekers) Bill 2017. The trial that is covered by this bill will give jobseekers an opportunity to gain short-term seasonal work without the risk of losing their Newstart payment or other social security benefits. It is a trial that Labor will support. Trial participants will be able to earn up to $5,000 in eligible seasonal employment, such as fruit or nut picking, in regional or remote Australia without this impacting their Centrelink payment. Currently, single Newstart recipients without children can earn up to $104 a fortnight and young jobseekers receiving Youth Allowance (Other) can earn $143 a fortnight before their payment is reduced. Newstart recipients can earn $1,036 a fortnight before their payment reduces to zero. Youth Allowance (Other) recipients can earn $648.50 a fortnight before their payment reduces to zero. The trial would allow Newstart and Youth Allowance (Other) recipients to participate in specified seasonal horticultural work, such as fruit picking, and earn up to $5,000 in a 12-month period before their payments begin to be reduced. The existing income test will begin to apply to trial participants once they have exceeded the $5,000 limit. The trial will be capped at 7,600 participants. It is due to start on 1 July this year and will last for a period of two years. The bill also introduces a seasonal work living away and travel allowance, which is an additional incentive for jobseekers to travel in order to participate in the trial. The allowance will be administered by the employment service provider and is valued at $300.

Labor certainly does support the importance of helping jobseekers to find work. That, of course, is why we will support the trial. We want to make sure that there are appropriate safeguards in place so that employers and employment service providers will not be able to misuse the program. We would like to see the government make sure that the program upholds labour standards so that employers cannot rip off participants or undercut their competitors. We support evidence based policy making, so we will certainly be carefully reviewing the results of the trial evaluation.

We are also acutely aware that unemployment currently sits at 5.9 per cent—the highest it has been for more than 12 months. What is most concerning is that the rate of unemployment in Australia today is higher than in the United States, the UK and New Zealand, and youth unemployment is now at 13.3 per cent. Youth unemployment remains stubbornly high, particularly in regional and remote parts of Australia. In total, more than 650,000 young people were unemployed or underemployed, and that is defined as having some work but wanting more hours. That was in February 2017. Underemployment, at 18 per cent of the youth labour force, is the highest in the 40 years since the survey began. Underemployment—and this is a very serious issue facing this country—now affects more young people than unemployment.

As the latest Brotherhood of St Laurence report Generation stalled notes:

In the past 15 years the average gap has widened between the actual working hours of young underemployed people and the hours they would like to work.

The report makes clear that the growing number of young people combining study with work does not explain the rise in underemployment. On the contrary, the rise in the percentage of casual and part-time jobs has mostly been among young workers who are not studying. So clearly, as policymakers, all of us need to consider new approaches that address the problems of unemployment and underemployment.

Not only do these high rates of youth unemployment and underemployment create significant risks for the young people affected but Australia's economic future is also put at risk. We are all aware that as a nation we are ageing. Youth unemployment risks more than just the livelihoods of young people who cannot find work; it also undermines the income tax base we will need as a nation to support our ageing population. Labor believes that, as a nation, we need a renewed focus on supporting young people to find work and reach their full potential, for both the individuals concerned and our country to reach their full potential.

It is very easy in a debate like this to get caught up in the numbers and the figures, but, of course, we all have to remember that we are talking about young people—real people. I just want to give one example. Nineteen-year-old casual worker James Bowen was featured in a recent BuzzFeed article. He said he has been paying about two-thirds of his weekly income on rent. James currently works 10 to 20 hours a week in retail on the Gold Coast but is desperately trying to find a full-time job. He says he applies for about 30 jobs a month. It is not unusual for him to fill out a dozen applications a day. He says he rarely gets calls back from businesses after he has applied for jobs. He receives about $23 a fortnight from Centrelink, which covers the cost of a few meals. He is considering moving to Brisbane to look for work, but he has been put off by the cost of housing. I just want to say to those opposite that they really need to stop blaming people like James—young Australians who want to work but who cannot find work. They cannot find jobs that simply do not exist. Sadly, James' story is becoming increasingly common.

I hosted a jobs and skills forum in my own electorate just last week in West Heidelberg, and this issue of youth unemployment and underemployment was a particular focus. People at the forum particularly wanted to discuss better ways to help young people transition from school into further study or work. I am very sorry to say that, unfortunately, those opposite really have not been doing enough to make a difference for these young people's lives.

Of course, we all remember that back in 2014 the government axed the terrific Youth Connections program. This was a highly successful program that helped vulnerable young people to transition through education into work. Intensive, case-managed support helped these vulnerable youngsters become job ready. Unfortunately, the Abbott government axed it—they just got rid of it. In that same 2014 budget, the Abbott government tried to introduce a six-month wait for Newstart for young jobseekers under the age of 30. This became probably the most reviled measure from the 2014 budget—the government telling young jobseekers that they would have absolutely nothing to live on for six months.

To this day, this government is still trying to introduce a five-week wait for young people under the age of 25. I say to the government again: how on earth do you think young people are going to live with nothing to live on for five weeks? But that is what this government still wants to pursue through this parliament. Then, of course, there is the other cut to young people that the Treasurer has recently told us he is still going to pursue. He wants to push young people aged between 22 and 24 off Newstart onto the lower youth allowance. This is a cut of around $48 a week—almost $2½ thousand a year. That is what this government wants to take out of the pockets of young unemployed people. It was good that the government could not get that cut through the parliament last week, but the Treasurer has made it clear he is to going to pursue it. These cuts are still the policy of the Turnbull government.

We know the government also still wants to deregulate Australian universities, making it harder for young people to afford to go to university. Fees for university of up to $100,000 would leave our young people trying to get a higher education with enormous debts. We have had attack after attack on young people from this Liberal government. Of course, most recently we have seen the Prime Minister's refusal to do anything about protecting weekend penalty rates. We have a Prime Minister who is happy to see a pay cut of up to $77 a week for retail and hospitality workers—people who are working in pharmacies, chemists. Many of the people facing a cut to their penalty rates are young Australians—young people who cannot do without their penalty rates. They really depend on their penalty rates to get by. The Prime Minister has made it clear that he does not care at all about those young people. He is not going to do anything to stop the cuts in penalty rates.

We on this side know that it is incredibly difficult for people who are trying to manage on Newstart or youth allowance. We have even had the Business Council of Australia come out and say that the current level of Newstart is too low, but all this government does, through whatever method it has, is continue to say that all income support recipients are either criminals or rorters. The government wants to do anything it can to cut the incomes that these people are trying to survive on. These are very, very serious cuts that the government is still saying is its policy.

One of the most extraordinary contradictions is that, right this minute, we have had the government vote to freeze the income-free areas for jobseekers. So a few minutes ago everyone in the Liberal and National parties voted to freeze the income-free areas for jobseekers. They just voted for that. They did a deal with Independent senators to push through these cuts to jobseekers, which mean that with each year they can earn less and less in real terms before no longer qualify to receive their payment—Newstart or youth allowance, for example. It is a cut to the same income-free area that this trial would actually relax for participants. Talk about not knowing what they are doing! This is a really important point. On the one hand the government is saying to unemployed people that you are going to make it harder for them to earn a dollar, and then in this bill you say that you are going to give them some relief. The evidence is in the government's own figures. The changes that would freeze the income-free area would actually see 264,500 Australians on the lowest incomes—the absolutely lowest incomes—have their thresholds being frozen. The thresholds are already incredibly low.

That is what everyone over there just voted for. Just to give one example, the parenting payment threshold after which the payment is reduced is $188 a fortnight. Everyone over there just voted to freeze that. Then they come in here a minute later and say they want to put forward this trial that proposes to relax the same income-free area for participants in the trial. We support the trial and the improvements to the income-free area. But, honestly, you can hardly expect a pat on the back for attempting this trial while at the same time you are freezing the income-free areas for these very low-income and vulnerable Australians.

So while we support the trial today we certainly will not be forgetting the government's record of targeting young Australians. This is a small trial. It is worthy of support and we will support it today. For that reason I commend the bill to the House.

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