Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to recognise the resilience of Australia's youth throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and to recognise some of the ongoing challenges, especially with regard to employment opportunities, including particularly in my electorate of Higgins. I'd also like to highlight how the government, through a plethora of policies, directly and indirectly are benefiting young Australians and ensuring that the youth of Australia have every possibility to succeed in a post-pandemic Australia.

I praise Australia's youth for the incredible resilience shown throughout what was undoubtedly an extremely challenging period for us all, from having to do homeschooling and being separated from their school peers, to doing VCE exams in a very difficult year for year 12 students, to missing out on celebrating milestones such as 18th and 21st birthdays, going to schoolies, school formals or even just everyday social interactions. It hasn't been easy for the children and youth of Australia.

I know firsthand that it was tough for my electorate of Higgins. We have a disproportionately youthful electorate, with 31,644 constituents aged under 34—almost 30 per cent of my entire electorate. I've also got four adult kids, and they have told me some of the travails that they have dealt with in 2020. However, I draw inspiration from the sense of community demonstrated by my electorate throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, I've heard how the residents of Carnegie banded together via the Carnegie and Friends Kindness Community Facebook group, where they offered help with everything from grocery shopping for elderly and vulnerable residents and meeting those who lived alone for a walk or coffee, to organising teddy bear treasure hunts for the children of Carnegie.

I'd also like to acknowledge John Mainland, a constituent in Higgins who, together with a bunch of like-minded young university students, sent flyers out to the local people in Higgins in the early stages of the pandemic saying, 'If there's anything we can do to help, particularly for those who are older, with your shopping or with picking up medication, we're here to help.' It's those heartwarming stories that we need to tell to remind ourselves about the great Australian spirit and the community-mindedness of the people that we all live with.

Similarly, I endlessly admire the leadership of eight-year-old Higgins constituent Grace Halifax, who championed and conducted a virtual coding class to teach other Higgins students this valuable skill. Grace came to me in the middle of lockdown and said, 'I really want to start an "ABC of coding" club for kids aged eight, nine and 10. She provided a six-week course online called 'ABC of Coding', co-supervised with her mum, who is a data engineer. More than 200 kids signed up for this Zoom class. It was amazing to see. They did it every week for six weeks. We even got the then Minister for Education, Dan Tehan, to join this wonderful group of people. But she used what was a difficult period of lockdown to connect kids, and they enthusiastically supported her leadership on this point.

We know that since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic young Australians lost their jobs at a greater level than other age groups. Young Australians are over-represented in industries that were and continue to be heavily affected by COVID-19 restrictions, such as hospitality and the arts. In February 2021, unfortunately, the youth unemployment rate stands at 12.9 per cent. That's more than double the 5.8 per cent recorded for all persons. As Professor Jeff Borland told the Senate Economics committee, failing to target support to these young people now will not just hurt them in the short term but harm Australia's long-term labour force productivity.

This is about our future. This is about the youth of Australia stepping up to finding gainful employment. That is why the government is taking action to support businesses to create employment opportunities targeted at young Australians. The coalition government has a strong record of supporting young people to participate in the labour market and build their economic security. We know that the youth of Australia want to contribute, not only to shape their own futures and realise their goals, but also to give back to society. From speaking to my youthful constituents in Higgins I know that making a positive social impact is a fundamental career objective for many young Australians. To allow them to do so we must ensure the opportunities are there for them.

Our government is committed to helping these young people move into work or appropriate training, including through the JobMaker Hiring Credit. The JobMaker Hiring Credit is available to employers for each new job they create over the next 12 months for which they hire an eligible young person. In light of the stronger than predicted economic recovery the Treasurer has also left open the opportunity for flexibility in further tailoring this policy to better reflect the environment come budget time in May. The $4 billion investment in the JobMaker Hiring Credit is in addition to the $1 billion JobTrainer fund, which is jointly funded with the states and territories. JobTrainer will provide around 300,000 additional free or low-fee training places to help young people, including school leavers, and jobseekers have the skills they need to get a job. We know that if people don't get that first job, if they don't get that first foot on the ladder, then they do suffer in the long term.

Building on these measures, the government is also heavily investing in employment services targeted to help young Australians become job ready and obtain and stay in a job. This is because we understand how important it is to build a strong and future-proof skill set early on in one's career and to find one's place in the working world through real-life work experience. I know this myself, having been a medical researcher at the Murdoch, as so many young people come and spend time with me in a voluntary capacity. I'd get to know them, they'd get to know me, then I'd work hard to find some funds for them to have a part-time job and then hopefully to move into full-time employment. The government is doing this in a more formal way. It's investing $699 million in a successful Youth Jobs PaTH program over four years from 2020-21. The program helps young people gain skills and work experience. It includes the Youth Bonus wage subsidy of up to $10,000 to support the employment of young people.

We recognise that not everyone has access to the same opportunities when it comes to education and work. That's why we're investing $781 million in the Transition to Work service over four years to provide intensive support to help disadvantaged young Australians to move into work or further study. The government has also committed $50 million to trial industry training hubs in 10 regions with high youth unemployment across Australia. The training hubs aim to improve opportunities for young people and target year 11 and year 12 students.

For a long time now we've heard that our youth want flexible employment options. They understand that jobs of the future are going to have to have flexible and portable job skills. That includes other areas of education and training outside higher education. That is why I'm pleased that not only are apprenticeships a key pathway to employment for young people, with 64 per cent of apprentices aged under 24 years, but they teach many in-demand skills and help us to create jobs for people that will make them have a prosperous lifelong career. With this in mind, the government announced $1.2 billion to encourage employers to take on apprentices and trainees through the Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements wage subsidy that was rolled out in October 2020. This wage subsidy will help to prevent a future skills shortage and create opportunities for young people, including recent school leavers.

Lastly, the government is giving our youth the greatest chance of success by helping ensure that they re-address the issues of mental health. There is no denying that there is a very rapid increase in mental health illness right across the spectrum, but it does unfairly target our young, and that is partly because of the unique stresses that are facing us in a modern-day world. The government recognises that a person's mental health can have a significant impact on the capacity to build and sustain strong connections to the labour market, and that is why jobactive providers are required to have organisational strategies in place to provide individually tailored services for all jobseekers, including the provision of in-house counsellors or referral pathways to psychological support or other mental health services where necessary. There is a massive investment by the government going into our youth and into the future of our youth of Australia. We must ensure that this transformative investment helps to change the lives of our young so that they can face the challenges presented to them by the COVID-19 pandemic. I acknowledge the challenges that are still in front of us, but I have no doubt that our younger generations have the resilience to be able to deal with those and all the difficulties that are still to come.

I would like to finish by saying that the people of Higgins have put their faith in me and I'm very honoured to be their representative. A shout-out to the young of Higgins: keep on going.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for the grievous debate has expired and the debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 192B. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 18:42