Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

You need look no further than the Herald Sun of 21 June 1992 to expose the hypocrisy of the Australian Labor Party and the hypocrisy of this motion. The editorial of that day was titled ‘A National Disgrace’ and recounts the economic climate that existed at that time:

Welcome to the lucky country. University graduates are begging for unpaid jobs just to get experience in the workplace ... Sacked apprentices are offering their services for nothing for a chance to finish their trade training ...Welcome to the lucky country. Youth unemployment is an open sore on the face of Australian society, its odour touching everyone. Yet Paul Keating and Joan Kirner are distracted in a nit-picking exercise over the nature of statistics ...Welcome to the lucky country. A desperate father is offering to pay an employer $100 a week for three years to give his son an apprenticeship. Yet still there is no taker as youth unemployment hits 46% in Victoria ... welcome to nothing.

That was life under Labor for our youth. And this is an undergraduate-standard motion that ignores the reality of 21st century Australia.

This motion refers to the impact on young Australian workers, but that is the point: they are in fact young Australian workers. Under Labor, they were the young unemployed. This motion feigns concern for young people, for ‘teenagers who find themselves employed’, and that is the irony: they are finding themselves employed. Under Labor, they were finding themselves unemployed. The motion calls for ‘action to restore employment protections for 2006 graduates’. I say to you: the best protection for year 2006 graduates is a coalition government.

Under this government, the opportunities for youth have been dramatically expanded. Youth unemployment has virtually halved, and over the last 10 years some two million young Australians have started apprenticeships and traineeships, compared to a virtual trickle under the Australian Labor Party.

We have heard the never-ending stream of lies from Labor and the union movement. We heard that the sky would fall in, and it did not. We heard that there would be mass sackings, and there were not. In fact, unemployment is at 30-year lows. We heard from Labor that wages would fall, yet they continue to rise. We heard that the Fair Pay Commission would cut wages, yet they delivered a $27 a week wage rise for Australia’s lowest paid workers. We heard that there would be mass industrial unrest, but industrial disputes are now at record lows.

I refer again to the same Herald Sun editorial of 1992, which goes on to state that luck has well and truly run out for the Lucky Country. It says of Labor politicians:

They should look at Australia’s lost generation and weep, for their hypocrisy is to blame for much of what has gone wrong and why so little has been done. Above all else they should stop talking and act, for the hot air they expel is blinding them to the need for meaningful strategies ...

And what did Labor do? Labor did nothing. All the dogma, all the rhetoric—and Labor did nothing. It took a coalition government to act and put in place the policies that have given our young Australians opportunities.

The member for Adelaide was probably in primary school in 1992 when this editorial was written, when young people in my electorate and around the nation had little chance of a job, let alone a career or an apprenticeship. The member for Adelaide did not experience the despair and the dole queues that were part of life for youth under Labor in the early and mid nineties. Perhaps if she had been a job seeker back in 1992 this motion might have never appeared on the Notice Paper.

This government has given our youth hope. This government has given our youth opportunity. This government has given our youth self-esteem. The ALP wants to preside over the roll-back of policies that have delivered prosperity. The ALP wants to roll back prosperity to meet the demands of its union masters. The Australian people do not want a return to the policies of the last century. The Australian people believe it is not for all Australians to pay the union dues of the parliamentary Labor Party. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in 1997: ‘Fairness in the workplace starts with the chance of a job.’ The member for Adelaide would be well placed to heed the wisdom of his advice. This government believes in opportunities. This government is creating opportunities. The Australian Labor Party is merely protecting its union masters.

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