Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Listening to the member for Gorton's contribution, I have no doubt at all that he is as passionate as any other person in this place about seeing the unacceptable level of 13 per cent youth unemployment end in this country. Indeed it is not easy, and in the six years of the previous government the challenges were there as well, and this government is trying a range of measures.

It was interesting, when I elected to speak on this bill, to start looking through the safety nets to see all the considerations and all the exemptions to the four-week waiting period before there is eligibility for Newstart for those people under the age of 25. When you take into account all of those exemptions, the areas of disadvantage and the preconditions for being required to wait that month, really there are so many exemptions that it means the number of people who will be subject to this measure will be a modest number. Even if you look at the broad number of 13 per cent across the country, it does imply that the majority of people are getting on with their life like young people all around the country are getting on.

I think we are actually doing a disservice as much as anything else to the young people of our country, who in the main get on with life—whether they take up study or take up the sometimes difficult search for employment for the first time. But part of the reason why this four-week period is considered important is that it does provide an incentive, and it is a clear message.

The member for Gorton spoke at length about the concept of mutual obligation, and I think we all understand and appreciate that there is fundamentally in our welfare system a mutual obligation piece. But we must also provide the incentive for young people to see that it is just simply unacceptable to finish school and go straight onto Newstart, and get them to see there is a range of things that they might consider. For example, some of the exemptions include their access to Youth Allowance if they are going to take up study. The vast majority of young people do get on, and whilst 13 per cent is absolutely unacceptable, the vast majority of young people that get on with doing what they do.

There is a range of commitments that the government has made in terms of investments. One that I am particularly interested in work experience provision, where $18.3 million has been invested by the government to encourage young people to take up opportunities that already exist under the law as they stand today. In fact, there is potential there for three 28-day placements under work experience. I do not like the analogy of 'try before you buy', but it is a reality, particularly for small businesses. It is an absolute reality that putting on that first employee, and even to put on a second or a third, is a hurdle for a small business. To get somebody right for the job is critically important to employers, and, at the end of the day, it is to the benefit of the employees as well.

I am particularly interested in this area and I think it is something that we perhaps overlook sometimes. There is opportunity for young people if they have got a particular interest, whether it be in a mechanical trade, a printing area or working as a lawyer's clerk, or whatever it might be. If we are able to get young people who are looking for work into those placements, give them the opportunity to show what they are capable of and to show the employer that they are worthwhile and worth a job offer, the likelihood will be that there will be a higher proportion of employers that will give them that opportunity—and goodness knows, that is what we want to see.

There are challenges of course for young people at the moment, and particularly I think of areas in my electorate in the south-east, in and around Sorell and the Tasman Peninsula. There, that 13.1 per cent youth unemployment figure is actually a dream. I know in other parts of my electorate, on the north-west coast—and the member for Braddon would agree—there are enormous challenges, where the youth unemployment rate is well above the figure that is quoted there as an average, and it does not always give a clear indication of the difficulties that young people have in finding opportunities. But I think using that work experience model gives employers the chance to show those young people who show some initiative, who want to get into that work experience position in an area where they have interests and some passion, what they can do. It is something that we often underestimate.

There are safety nets, as I mentioned, in this bill. This measure will only apply to people that are job ready. Effectively, that means somebody who lives in an area with good employment opportunities, has reasonable language, literacy and numeracy skills and has had recent work experience. With the whole range of safety nets in place, the obligations that we expect those young people to meet during the first four weeks are: meeting with a Job Active provider, agreeing to a job plan, developing an up-to-date resume, creating a job seeker profile on the Jobsearch website and providing evidence of satisfactory job searches with up to 20 job applications during the four-week period. I am not a hard person, but I do not think they are unreasonable expectations of young people. As I say, we have safety nets and many people are not obliged to participate in that four weeks, such as all those people who will be taking on study, so I do not think they are unreasonable expectations to have of anybody. Also, 6.5 million young people under the age of 25 live at home with either one or both parents, so there is that support network. I do not have any big cities in my patch, but the cost of living for some of these people in these big cities can be a factor. It is a conversation as a nation that we are having at the moment, about the cost of living particularly in Sydney and Melbourne. But the family network is there as a support mechanism for, as I say, 6.5 million young people under the age of 25.

Further, as part of these measures we have made $8.1 million available in emergency relief funding to provide assistance to job seekers affected by the measure and for those who may be experiencing hardship. This funding will be available through emergency relief providers. The measure encourages young people to make every effort to look for work and maximise their chance of finding a job. That is all we are asking here—and, with the criteria I mentioned before and the exemptions, this is not unreasonable. Students will not be subject to the four-week waiting period. Further, in recognition of the importance of education and training in preventing future unemployment, young people who return to school or take up full-time vocational education or university study will be able to seek more suitable payments for their circumstances such as Youth Allowance for students and therefore would not be subject to the four-week waiting period.

On Friday last week I had the pleasure in Bridgewater, in the south of my electorate, of going along to meet with Adam Bone, who owns a business called the Tasmanian Cask Company. They import wine casks, sherry casks and port casks from all around the world. They come in deconstructed, and they are cleaned and used for the growing number of whisky distillers that populate the state of Tasmania. It was a real pleasure to meet Adam on Friday. The highlight for me was Trevor Percy, who had attracted one of the Tasmanian Jobs Program incentive payments to Adam, his employer. To be brutally honest, Trevor was the right man for the job. Adam would not have hesitated, I do not think, with or without the job incentive payment. I do not think Adam would have gone past Trevor because he clearly was the right man for the job. It was fantastic. I also met with Pat Kluver from Workskills in Bridgewater. As it happens, the Workskills office is right next door to the Tasmanian Cask Company in Hurst Street, Bridgewater. It was a particular pleasure to speak to four or five people employed in Adam's business, and particularly to speak to Trevor. He lost his job about 12 months ago, and during that time he had a marriage break-up. He has children, but he is a man who knows the value of work. He has worked all his life and he has had a tough trot in the last 12 months. It was fantastic to listen to him and to hear how pleased he was to again be back in the workforce.

This will be a fantastic opportunity—it is a great business; it will be a growing business. Adam is doing a fantastic job. There are other young people there—I met Jarrod, as well. It is a fantastic place to work, and I do not think they are going to be able to keep up with the demand that is growing around the Tasmanian whisky industry. The member for Gorton also talked a little bit about not just those people in the youth area but also those more mature job seekers. Trevor was one such more mature job seeker. Had he been 50 years of age—he was not—and unemployed for 12 months he would have been able to access the Restart program, which is part of this government's substantial investment in the Jobs and Small Business package, which has been so broadly welcomed right across the country, particularly with the focus the budget has had on small business. The Restart program of course, combined with the Tasmanian Jobs Program, would allow an employer to access up to $16½ thousand to employ somebody over the age of 50 who had been unemployed for 12 months.

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