Craig Thomson (Dobell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about and congratulate the work that Hand Brake Turn do on the Central Coast. Hand Brake Turn is an employment agency that offers a chance for young men, usually, to come and work for 12 weeks and do their certificate I in a range of automotive areas.

The young men who are attracted to these courses are people who have had bad experiences in life. They often come from very disadvantaged areas. This course gives them a start in some training but also gets them used to the idea of turning up regularly to a job. For many of these young men it is often the first time they have had to attend something on a regular basis. Many of the people who attend Hand Brake Turn have been involved with juvenile justice; many of them have not even completed year 10 at school. Hand Brake Turn is the sort of program that needs to be supported because it gives these young people a start in life.

Since 2003, 485 people have gone through the program, with 75 per cent of them receiving their certificate I at the end of the course. Recently I had the great pleasure of going along to one of the graduations, talking to the young men who had just completed their courses and looking at the great confidence and the skills they had gained by participating in this program, which will get them jobs in the future.

The very important thing about the program is that it has often led not just to employment but also to people taking up apprenticeships in the industry through the work that they have done there. They spend 12 weeks doing panelbeating and electronic work on a car and at the end of the program they have a car that they have completely done up. They then donate that car to a citizen in the area who is down on their luck and needs assistance. So not only does Hand Brake Turn provide these young men with a great opportunity; in the end it also provides someone who is struggling in the community with a car.

Hand Brake Turn runs on a shoestring budget, obviously subsidised by the federal government. It is the sort of program that the government needs to continue to support and one that I am very happy to lend my support to because of the tremendous work that they have been doing on the Central Coast.