Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

We do know that young people who leave school and don't get a job or who complete training in the years after school and don't get a job tend to then be in receipt of welfare for prolonged periods of time. We also know that, in the current coronavirus context, for people aged between 15 and 34, from March to September this year there was a 6.1 per cent decrease in the number of jobs, or some 307,000. In contrast, in the same time period, the decline in jobs for those aged 35 and over has been 1.4 per cent, or 109,000 jobs. If we look just at what has happened during the pandemic, without contemplating another year of school leavers, another year of leavers from the vocational system and another year of leavers from universities, we see that the most profound impact already has been on young workers. It's the old adage—last in, first out—that seems to have applied. When we add together the different analyses, be it from the last recession—yes, about the fact that youth unemployment took much longer to recover—be it from this pandemic or be it just the ongoing analysis, the fact is that if we don't get young people into some form of work and activity quickly, it has far more longer term consequences. That's not to downplay the consequences for older Australians. That's why we have the range of the other measures in place.