Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

for six months. That is about changing the culture of business. In relation to younger people, we are for the first time extending the concessional loans system that is available to university students to people for diploma courses or sub-bachelor degree courses. That is an important step forward, because it treats everyone the same. We are also giving anyone who undertakes an apprenticeship a $20,000 loan during the course of that apprenticeship to help them stay in that apprenticeship during the course of their work.

The fundamental point is that we need people under the age of 30 to earn or learn. What has not worked to date are the legacy policies of the previous government that saw youth unemployment rise and saw the overarching unemployment levels of Australia rise. We left them an unemployment rate of just over four per cent; we inherited an unemployment rate rising to 6¼ per cent. And all the shrieking from Labor cannot make up for the fact that someone has to fix the mess, and we stand ready to do it.

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