Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) | Hansard source

The coalition will not be supporting this disallowance motion. The current arrangements strike, in our view, an appropriate balance between supporting young workers and limiting additional costs for employers.

This motion would require compulsory superannuation contributions for employees under 18 regardless of the number of hours they work. Businesses are already preparing for the implementation from 1 July, today, of payday super. That means updating payroll systems, changing payment processes and adapting to a significant new compliance requirement. Many small businesses are focused on managing those changes alongside broader cost pressures. We could talk about those all day, but we've already traversed much of that ground in this chamber over the last couple of weeks. This motion would add further employment costs at the same time as small businesses are dealing with all of this.

Now, the Greens argue that this change is designed to benefit young workers, but I think it is important to consider the impact that the changes they have proposed could have on youth employment opportunities. Increasing the cost of employing younger workers might make it harder for some businesses to offer entry-level jobs and additional shifts. First jobs provide valuable experience and allow young Australians to build skills and confidence for the future. We know that youth unemployment remains well above the national average. In that environment, policymakers should be careful not to introduce measures that could discourage the employment of younger Australians, and it is our fear that this measure being proposed here today by the Australian Greens has the potential to do that. The coalition believes the priority should be supporting both opportunities for young people and the viability of small business, and for those reasons we will be opposing this motion.