Bob Day (SA, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

It has been said that any place you cannot leave is a prison. Well, you cannot leave the workplace regulation system. It is a prison. When I ask why we lock people up like this, I am told: 'Well, it is for their own good. We do not want them to be exploited.' This is a grotesque infringement on liberty, freedom and dignity. It violates a person's right to get a job and provide for themselves and their families. It is unjust and unfair, particularly to the young people of my home state of South Australia, where youth unemployment is over 40 per cent in some areas.

Why is it that a person over the age of 18 is permitted to get married, have children, drive a motor vehicle, buy a house, take out a mortgage, travel to some of the most dangerous places on earth, smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, serve in the Army and vote but is not permitted to get a job on terms and conditions which suit them and their family? Unemployment in South Australia remains the nation's highest. If state and federal governments genuinely want to fix this tragic problem, they should release people from this workplace regulation prison.