Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Chandler for her question. We know as a government that young Australians have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting impacts on essential services, but Tuesday night's budget paved the way for a road to recovery. The coalition government has committed $4 billion to support young people into work through the JobMaker hiring credit, which provides a wage subsidy of $200 a week for up to a year to make an eligible position available for a young person aged 16 to 29 or $100 a week for those aged 30 to 35 who have been receiving the JobSeeker payment, youth allowance or parenting payment for at least one month within the last three months before they were hired.

The Morrison government has always focused on creating jobs. Since the election of the coalition in 2013 to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen the Australian economy create 1.5 million new jobs. The budget on Tuesday night further demonstrated our government's commitment to getting the Australian economy back on track and Australians back into the workforce, with young Australians being a key focus of that commitment. The JobMaker hiring credit will accelerate growth in employment during the recovery by giving organisations incentives to take on additional employees who are young jobseekers 16 to 35 years old. It's expected that the JobMaker hiring credit will support around 450,000 positions for young people to move back into employment. As the Treasurer outlined in the budget speech, having a job means much more than just having an income.