Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

This bill makes it clear—as if there was any reason to doubt—that the Abbott government has learned few lessons from its manifestly unfair budget in 2014.

Sure, the government has engaged in a bit of reluctant backpedalling here and there—including in this bill. But, this bill, as the minister said in his second reading speech, includes measures which 'incorporate the reintroduction, with modifications, or the replacement of three 2014 budget measures'. Why would these measures require reintroduction, modification or replacement? There is a simple answer to that: because they were among the most unfair, unreasonable and unwarranted aspects of the Abbott government's first budget. These measures targeted vulnerable young job seekers. They were measures that were opposed by Labor. They were measures rejected by the Australian community.

Even in a budget widely regarded as the most unfair in 20 years, the rank unfairness of these measures in this first bill when it came before the chamber stank out. That was the 2014 budget of 'lifters' versus 'leaners'. It was a budget that attacked vulnerable Australians, a budget that poured the pain on low- and middle-income families, pensioners, students, Indigenous Australians, young job seekers and the sick. There were cuts to family payments, cuts to pensions, $100,000 university degrees. Billions of dollars were cut from health and dental programs and from schools. There were cuts targeting low- and middle-income families, pensioners, students, et cetera. There were cuts laser-targeted at those the government obviously considers 'leaners'.

What was in the original bill before this House? Some of the government's cuts targeted young job seekers. These included: pausing indexation of income test free areas for all working age allowances for three years from 1 July 2015; extending the one-week ordinary waiting period to all working-age payments from 1 January 2015; extending youth allowance (other) from 22- to 24-year-olds in lieu of Newstart allowance and sickness allowance from 1 January 2015. Perhaps the most egregious and disgraceful measure that came to best exemplify the rank unfairness of the government's 2014-15 budget was forcing young jobs seekers under 30 to wait six months before receiving an income support payment, and then, after they had received the payment for six months, denying it to them for another six months.

The National Welfare Rights Network estimated this last measure—a six month wait for income support—would affect about 43,000 young people, if introduced. The government knew this but continued to do it. Why else did it reserve an additional $229 million over four years for emergency assistance to young job seekers impacted by this measure? Because they knew there would have to be emergency relief for these people.

So let us consider how those original measures have transitioned to this bill. What has the government reintroduced? What has it modified? What has it replaced? Well, the government has reintroduced its measure to pause the indexation of income test free areas for all working-age allowances, other than student payments, for three years from 1 July 2015. For student payments, the government has modified the start day for the pause of indexation of the income test free areas from 1 January 2015 to 1 January 2016. That is the sum total of the modification to this measure: pushing back the start date 12 months.

These indexation pauses are a $134.8 million cut in support for job seekers and students. Labor rejected this measure in its original form and we reject the reintroduced measure in this bill. Secondly, the government has reintroduced its measure to extend the one-week ordinary waiting period to all working-age payments—excluding widow allowance—modifying the start date from 1 January 2015 to 1 July 2015. Again, the only modification to this measure was to push back the start date by six months. This is a $274.8 million cut in support for receiving working-age payments. Labor rejected this measure when it was originally introduced and rejects the reintroduced measure in this bill.

The government has reintroduced its measure to extend Youth Allowance (other) from 22 to 24 year olds, modifying the start date from 1 January 2015 to 1 July 2016. This is another modification of a start date which leaves the unfairness of the measure undiminished. Changing the age requirements of this payment is a $517-million cut in support for young job seekers. For the individual job seeker under 25 years of age, it is a cut of at least $48 per week, or about $2,500 per year. The explanatory memorandum accompanying this bill states that this measure is '...driven by the current high youth unemployment rate'. Punishing young job seekers seems a curious strategy to address this problem.

The government has reintroduced its measure to force young job seekers to wait before receiving an income support payment. The government has modified this measure so that it applies to those under 25, rather than 30, and will make them wait four weeks rather than six months. As a side-note, it is ironic this measure now mirrors the New Zealand model, given reports in The Australian newspaper last year on 16 May that 'cabinet arrived at the six-month no-dole rule after looking at the New Zealand model, which -involves a one-month no-payment period, and wanted to make it stronger'. Never mind. In its modified form, this measure is a $173.3-million cut in support for young job seekers. Thankfully, thanks to Labor's opposition, the government has scrapped its ridiculous plan to lock young job seekers into rolling six-month non-payment periods.

So the government says it will now make young job seekers under 25 years of age wait four weeks for income support. However, as this bill's explanatory memorandum makes clear, many young job seekers will be forced to serve the four-week waiting period prior to the additional one-week ordinary waiting period, meaning they will be waiting five weeks for income support. Young job seekers need support to find and keep jobs, not senseless and unfair measures that push them into poverty, crisis and potential homelessness. Then and now, this measure will place many vulnerable young people in my electorate of Blair in South-East Queensland in severe financial hardship. At the end of December 2014, 5,895 people, many of them under 30 years of age, were receiving Newstart allowance in Blair. This was an increase of 363 since March 2014. At the end of December 2014, 1,449people were receiving Youth Allowance (other) in Blair, an increase of 52 since March 2014. These are the people in the sights of the government.

Labor opposed this punitive measure in its original form and we reject its modified form. Whether it is one month—or really five weeks—or six months, Labor rejects a measure that the government knows has the potential to lock young job seekers into periods without income support. Labor will not leave these young Australians with nothing to live on. The National Welfare Rights Network said this four-week waiting period will:

...place young people in severe financial hardship, leaving them without food, medicines, money for job search and rent. No income means no income — whether it's for six months or four weeks. There is no place in our social security system for such a harmful approach.

This is a government that seems drunk on ideology and blind to reality. It knows the measures in this bill will push young job seekers towards poverty, but it does not care; it could not care less. It could not care that it is denying income support for four or five weeks, potentially without food or rent or medicine or transport to even get to the job interviews they are required to attend.

It expects that young people, who are among our lowest-paid workers and who often are dealing with varying hours of casual employment and high rents, will go to their interviews and look for employment in circumstances where they have been left without the basic necessities of life. This is more and more a symptom of the reality deficit of this government, which is inflicting a Prime Minister who believes Australians want and deserve knights and dames, but does not believe they deserve income support to get into employment. The Treasurer tells people that poor people do not drive cars and tells young families struggling to afford their first home to 'get a good job that pays good money'.

This bill reveals the government believes the false premise that young Australians lack the will to work. In his second reading speech, the minister said:

We do not want to see a shuttle run from the school gate to the Centrelink front door.

This attitude, pervasive within the government, ignores the genuine barriers that young people face when seeking and maintaining work, including: a lack of available work, particularly entry-level and full-time positions; a lack of relevant skills and qualifications; and a lack of employers willing to employ young people. Only a biased and blinkered government assumes that every young person who fails to find a non-existent job lacks gumption and determination. There is no evidence that young Australians as a group lack the will to work, and it is an indictment of the government's attitude to young Australians.

Thankfully, Mission Australia has looked at this issue. Each year since 2002, the organisation has asked young people for their thoughts and opinions on a range of issues for the national Youth Survey. The 2014 survey spoke with 13,600 Australians aged between 15 and 19 years of age. Did these young people report they would rather dodge work for something else, to sit on the couch and do nothing? No, they did not. Eight out of 10 told Mission Australia that achieving career success was either 'extremely or very important' to them, but over 40 per cent though this success was only 'somewhat likely', 'less likely' or 'not likely at all'.

Further evidence of the barriers young people face finding work was outlined in the Australia Institute's 2013 Hard to Get a Break report. That report found that 54 per cent of people aged between 17 and 24 cite an inability to find work as the reason for their unemployment. When asked to identify the barriers they faced when re-entering the workforce, 36 per cent of those young people cited 'too few jobs' and another 31 per cent cited 'lack of relevant skills'. This is the reality facing many young people. The government shrugs its shoulders and ramps up the harsh and punitive measures and the harsh and punitive rhetoric towards these people.

But unemployment has risen under the Abbott government. When Labor left office in September 2013, Australia's unemployment rate was 5.7 per cent. It has been over six per cent and is now six per cent. For historical interest: Australia's unemployment rate last started with a six back in 2003, when the current Prime Minister was the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations in the Howard government. The 2015-16 budget predicts that unemployment will remain above six per cent over the forward estimates. In last year's budget address, the Treasurer said:

Unemployment is too high with over 700,000 Australians looking for a job.

In this year's budget address, he failed to mention the number unemployed.

According to the ABS data, there are currently 756,300 young people, older people and mature-age people looking for employment in this country. Nationally, as I said, unemployment sits at about six per cent. In my electorate of Blair, it is 7.4 per cent. According to the most recent available data, youth unemployment sits at about 13.65 per cent nationally and at 16.6 per cent in Ipswich, part of my electorate.

These are crisis numbers, and they are a crisis for the reality and experience of young people. Looking back at the government's 2014 budget, which gutted $2 billion from skills and training programs, shows just how short sighted this government has been in relation to jobs and skills and training. The government refuses to reverse these cuts, and the consequences to young people are devastating.

I call on the government to reverse the cuts it has undertaken and cuts which have made a big impact in my local community. The Trade Training Centres in Schools Program has been a complete success in my electorate. The Ipswich Region Trade Training Centre at Ipswich State High School provides training and support for students from schools like Bremer State High School, Bundamba State Secondary College, Lowood State High School and Rosewood State High School. The Riverview Springfield Trade Training Centre at St Peter Claver College, at Riverview, does likewise. That is a great trade training centre. I have been there on numerous occasions. It is the same thing with the Ipswich trade training centre at St Edmund's College and the West Moreton trade training centre at West Moreton Anglican College, in Karrabin, yet this government has cut the funding. This is emblematic of its attitude to skills, training and jobs and its lack of commitment to young people in this country.

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