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

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker; I do appreciate that.

It is a generous incentive. One of the roles I think we have as parliamentarians is to make employers, as much as employees, aware of these programs. As I say, if the right person walks through the door, it is not going to be that job incentive money that is going to make the decision, and no employer in his right mind would choose the fellow that was not right for the job with the job incentive over somebody who was right for the job without the job incentive; nevertheless, it is a substantial incentive for employers to contemplate—the $16½ thousand for a Restart person over the age of 50.

As I say, this is a balanced measure. We listened, and we have made changes.

I think most Australians would understand that, particularly for young people, this is a critical area. We do want to see more young people in the workforce. They are our future. And this government is absolutely committed to supporting young people to either get into study or do the very best that they can, within the context of mutual obligation, to find work. At the same time, with the incentives that we have put in there for small businesses, and with other measures within the budget this year, there is the support there for employers to look again and consider putting on another employee, and that is what we want to see.

See this speech in context