Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The minister has failed to answer the question. How many young people will be affected by this government's harsh changes? How many of them will be forced to live in absolute poverty? How many of them will be affected? I know at least three in my electorate who will be affected. There is Kate, whose rent is $180 a week. She spends $20 a week on petrol, $45 a week on her electricity and gas, $25 a week on her phone, $10 a week on car insurance and $5 a week on medication. Who is going to pay those bills if she is forced to live on nothing? Will the minister be paying those bills? How will this young person pay for the basics? This is the party that stands for homelessness and starvation. They are the starvation party forcing young people to either starve or be homeless.

These are young people who have gone to university, who have got their degrees and are now actively looking for work. There are lots of them. Youth unemployment in my area is up to 16 per cent—that is, 16 per cent of young people who are actively looking for work. The three people that I know of in my electorate—Kate, John and Lee—who would be hit hard if these changes came in, when they first started looking for work when they finished their university degree, finished their TAFE degree, like so many others, how do they start to look for work with no means? How many people are like these people?

How many people who are about to finish university or about to finish TAFE will be hit hard by these changes? How does the minister expect them to live? How will they ensure that they do not starve? How will the government ensure that they do not become homeless? Who will help them pay their bills and ensure that they can actually get to those job interviews? These are people who are actively looking for work, trying to get to job interviews, applying for what jobs exist, but quite frankly there are not enough jobs.

The minister needs to be honest and tell the Australian people how many young people will be affected by this change. If this change had come in, as I said, when Kate started looking for work, when John started looking for work and when Lee started looking for work, who would have paid those bills? That rent figure of $180 a week—how would Kate have paid that bill? How would she have paid her rent if this measure had been in place? The minister needs to come clean. He needs to stand up and tell the Australian young people how many of them will have to beg or borrow from their parents or from their families to be able to support themselves because of this harsh measure. How many people will be affected by this change? How does the minister and the government expect them to pay their bills? How do they expect them to get to job interviews if they do not have the money to put petrol in the car? Be honest with the Australian people and tell us how many people will be affected by these changes?

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