Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

In relation to this year's budget, in particular the Youth Employment Strategy, intensive support and Youth Transition to Work, I note that $212 million will be—as it states in the budget—provided over four years to establish a new support service. The questions that I have of the minister or, indeed, either of the ministers—whoever feels responsible to answer this particular question—are as follows. Firstly, where is this money coming from? Is it new money or is being reallocated from existing expenditure? Is it from the Department of Employment? Is it arising from the department's budget allocation? If so, is it offset? If not, where has the money come from? Has it been offset? Is it new money? I think these are important things for the public to know. Clearly, when the government announced this and when the Treasurer on budget night presented this particular initiative, the impression was left for those listening that this was a measure that was above and beyond the existing expenditure. I think it is important for the government to explain fully where they have funded this amount of money.

I note also that funding will be provided to a network of community-based organisations to deliver the support. In doing so, we ask for some answers to the following questions. How will the organisations be selected in terms of the network of community-based organisations? Is there a tender process or is it by way of another process? When will the selection process begin, if it has not already? How many organisations does the government estimate will bid for such a service? Which areas or electorates will these services be provided to? How will the government determine those areas? Also, when will those areas be known to the public?

The government, as we know, abolished what we would argue was a very successful program—Youth Connections. In fact, as a local member and as the shadow minister for employment, I have received many submissions from interested parties about the loss of that program. In light of the loss of that particular initiative, which I think was really showing some great success in terms of connecting young people to the labour market, we ask the following questions. How does this program that I have just referred to differ from Youth Connections? Was any analysis done between Youth Connections and this program? Youth Connections, for example, assisted 25,000 people per year. How many does this program support? Why did the government not re-establish Youth Connections given its obvious success?

Finally, the government refers to its program as assisting 'disengaged young people' who are between the ages of 15 and 21. How did the government arrive at that age category, given that the definition of people who are unemployed under the definition of young people is different to that? Was any modelling done? Is the government targeting a certain age range within the 15 to 21 bracket? How long will a participant be involved in the program? Will the participant receive support after completing the program? How, if at all, does this program interact with the government's National Work Experience program? How will it be determined who is in the program?

I note that this particular program is designed to support people who are at high risk of long-term unemployment and welfare dependency. As a result of that, I ask what measure it is that will be used to determine if the people are at high risk of long-term unemployment. Can people who have already been considered to be long-term unemployed access the program once it is initiated? These are some of the questions the opposition has of the minister. We invite the minister to respond to those questions.

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