Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very happy to support the government’s amendment here and I note that my friend and travel colleague the member for Boothby has listed for consideration other amendments whilst not refusing to give assent to this bill.

I notice, as part and parcel of what you would regard as predictable comments by those opposite, that this government allegedly stands condemned for rising youth unemployment. What I did not notice in the preamble to the shadow minister’s statement was that in fact we have gone through and are still experiencing a worldwide recession. Australia in comparative and relative terms has done much better than comparable economies throughout the world, but that does not deny the fact that we have had rising unemployment and unfortunately, as part and parcel of that reality, that sad fact, young people are those that suffer most. It is not just those that are unskilled or not highly trained. We also know that it is affecting those that are well trained and, indeed, university trained as well. That is the reality. But to claim that this government somehow or other is the cause of this is ridiculous and I am sure that those in the gallery today would be tired of these types of arguments that have been going on in this parliament since cocky was an egg and decades since. We know the realities. The question is: what do we do about increasing employment opportunities and in the meantime in training and skilling up our young people as well as those already in the workforce? We need to carry out constructive proposals to assist them.

The Social Security Amendment (National Green Jobs Corps Supplement) Bill 2009 is designed to assist young people, most notably vulnerable young people, first and foremost to skill themselves and, secondly, to do that by gaining confidence not just in what they are doing but in themselves while, at the same time, adding to our environmental capital and stock by involving themselves in green corps activities. We regard this as an important contribution both to educating themselves, gaining confidence skills and life skills, and at the same time, as I mentioned, adding to our capital stock for the environment.

To comment again on the amendment moved by the member for Boothby, I remind all members in this place, and indeed the public generally, that this government has sought—along with its jobs compact with Australia through the COAG agreements, or with our Commonwealth partners—to introduce more incentives for people to take on young employees in particular. Indeed, ‘Christmas bonus for apprentice takers’ is heading my Christmas edition of The Bottom Line, which is my newsletter. What we have done, for the record, is triple the bonus for employers who put on an apprentice essentially this summer. Under the Apprentice Kickstart program—that is a good name for it—employers who put on a new first-year apprentice in a traditional trade will receive $4,850 which consists of a $2,350 commencement bonus—up from $1,500—plus another $2,500 at nine months.

It is not the be-all-and-end-all, it is not the bee’s knees, but it is a significant contribution to employers as an incentive to take on young people, particularly at this difficult time in the economy. We are still recovering; we have a long way to go. Having travelled recently, I can tell you that the US economy, which drives so much of China’s exports, is still in the doldrums. We have to remember this. I believe we have two years of cautious optimism to look forward to. The important thing is that we offer incentives to employers. And what better time to do it than now? We have got kids coming out of schools; we are encouraging them to be better educated—what better time for employers to take on these young people? But they have got to be quick because there are only 21,000 places at this stage up for grabs nationwide. It is first in, best dressed to take up these incentives. The bonus comes just in time for the end of the school year, as I mentioned, enticing employers to consider hiring an apprentice. For the record, Kickstart is open from 1 December 2009 until the 21,000 positions nationwide are taken up. It will be available to employers who take on a traditional trade apprentice aged between 15 and 19 years. I encourage anyone who is interested in this to check out our website at www.australianapprenticeships.gov.au. I think this is a great incentive to try to assist employers to take on young apprentices, particularly at this time of the year.

In the little bit of time I have available to me before I am rudely interrupted by question time, I would like to enlighten colleagues on more of the content of this very important bill before us. What is the purpose of the bill? The purpose of the bill is to amend the Social Security Act 1991 to enable the temporary payment of a $41.60 supplement per fortnight to participants in the National Green Jobs Corps program who are in receipt of youth allowance, Newstart allowance or a parenting payment. The supplement is to be payable to those people who participate in the National Green Jobs Corps between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2011. The National Green Jobs Corps complements the government’s compact—as I mentioned earlier—with young Australians. It guarantees a training place for those under the age of 25 who are not employed, to ensure that they have the skills needed for the economic recovery. The majority of the participants, when they complete the program, will have attained at least a certificate level II qualification. This is also consistent with the compact with young Australians in which job seekers aged under 20, without year 12 education, are encouraged to attain a year 12 equivalent qualification.

The package is intended to serve two main purposes. Firstly, as I mentioned earlier, it is to help combat youth unemployment at a time of economic downturn in which young people—unemployed people in particular—are typically the worst hit. Secondly, it is to assist in tackling environmental problems and the impacts of climate change. So it has a double purpose: to assist those people most vulnerable, particularly unemployed young people, and give them training and skills, including confidence skills and life skills, at a most difficult time—we have gone through one of the worst economic recessions the world has seen, but of course that is rarely recognised by those opposite; and, secondly, to tackle the important area of green jobs and support the environment by combating what many on the opposite side claim does not exist at all—climate change and the negative impacts of that.

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