Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Youth Employment and Other Measures) Bill 2015. As a government, there are key services which members of the Australian public expect us to provide, and those are health, education and infrastructure. These are all vital to our future progression and sustainability as a nation and as a community, but the area where government has become increasingly relied upon are those policy areas which fall under the very large umbrella of social services.

As we are talking about employment, I would like to mention that recently I met with Community Employers WA, CEWA, which is a representative body of 130 employer organisations in the not-for-profit community services sector. Their objectives are focused around the sustainability of services, just as the government's focus is. CEWA was established in 2008 and the board comprises the CEOs of a number of large charities in Western Australia. The purpose of the meeting was for CEWA to share their perspectives on the not-for-profit community services sector, on the relationship with government, on the front-line opportunities and challenges many of their members are currently experiencing, and on the challenges of finding employees in Western Australia, particularly in times when there is a mining boom.

I also met with Tony Hagan, Executive Manager of VisAbility Guide Dogs WA. They have been running a community program, through a foundation called the Scottish Masonic Charitable Foundation, to support blind and vision impaired West Australians to achieve sustainable employment. The program exists to achieve better outcomes for people who are blind or vison impaired. As the existing DES system was not achieving the results that they wanted, they set up their own system. This is relevant in the context of the task force being set up by Minister Fifield to try to improve the disability employment system.

VisAbilty Employment has achieved a fantastic result in the first 18 months of operation. A recent cost-benefit analysis conducted by KPMG indicated that for every dollar invested in the program, $5.58 of economic value is achieved. In addition to this, there are obvious social benefits for the participants in the program and for those who gain jobs through the program, which is not government funded. It was inspired and driven by a not-for-profit and by the private sector and philanthropy. So there are other areas of support for people to gain jobs without relying purely on the government.

Disability support, age pensions and childcare subsidies are just a few of the support networks this government provides each and every day. But overall these social security or welfare measures are continuing to cost taxpayers more and more every year. In fact, in the 2015-16 financial year government expenditure will be highest for these policy measures, costing taxpayers $154 billion. This is vital expenditure as it is directed toward support services for our most vulnerable. It is a safety net for those who cannot afford a basic standard of living and where they would not have a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs and food in their mouths without this additional government assistance.

I would like to believe that people who claim these support payments recognise that they are for our most vulnerable and that they are able to assess their own circumstances to determine whether they are truly in need of that support. I would also like to believe that each member in this place lives in a country where these vital services are not taken advantage of. As members know, the reality is that society is not always quite so moral and there are those who will seek to take advantage of others when they can.

Before the House today we have a bill which seeks to address a particular type of social services payment which focuses on supporting our youth, who are the future of this country, to find and keep a job. The Liberal Party has always said that the best thing you can give anyone is a job. It would be completely unfair to say that every youth who does not have a job is what society often refers to as a 'dole bludger'. This is far from the truth. But there are those who are this way inclined, and there are those who want a particular job which may not be available at a particular time so they choose to not have one at all.

The Social Services Legislation Amendment (Youth Employment and Other Measures) Bill 2015 addresses this concept by taking the view that this coalition government is implementing measures to ensure young job seekers accept a suitable job—not just a job they would like to have. We take this view because it is not fair for every Australian taxpayer to support young job seekers who are not willing to take jobs that are available. In the first instance it is about having 'a job', not 'the job' and focusing on supporting those job seekers who are struggling to find work.

A key provision in this bill is therefore to extend the waiting period young people aged between 16 and 25 must serve before becoming eligible for the Youth Allowance or Special Benefit payment to four weeks. For clarification, the form of youth allowance this bill refers to is those payments made to job seekers, not the youth allowance which is paid to students and apprentices. It also specifically refers to those youths who are what the government deems 'job ready'. This means someone who lives in an area with good employment opportunities, who has reasonable language, literacy and numeracy skills and who has recent work experience. Because these are the people who should not be relying on government handouts, they are the people who should be working to benefit their future and the future of this country. During this first four weeks, young job seekers will not just be sitting on their laurels either. They will be doing everything they can to make themselves job ready. They will be meeting with a Jobactive provider; agreeing to a job plan; developing an up-to-date resume; creating a job seeker profile on the Job Search website; and providing evidence of satisfactory job search, with up to 20 job applications. In other words, they will be doing all the things that will make them a good candidate for employment.

Now I note that when extending the waiting period for these payments was debated in this and the other place previously there were those who suggested that no waiting period should apply. So, if a person does not have a job, they would straightaway be provided with government assistance. On that basis, I put this question to those members: do you really think young 18- or 19-year-old young adults are really going to try that hard to find a job if they know that all they have to do is walk into Centrelink and they will straightaway be given a handout by the government?

Ms Scott interjecting—

I hear the member for Lindsay say 'of course'. Really, I know that cash-splashing is about the only thing those opposite are good at, so I cannot really say that I am surprised they would think this is a great idea. However, the reality is this: while there are people who would hate even the idea of being provided with this form of government assistance, there are also those who would sit back and take full advantage of this type of payment system. I can refer back to my experience with my own son. His first job out of school was to be an AFL rookie, which provided him with a job and a lot of hard work as well. Unfortunately, when he was delisted after two years with the AFL club he was with, he had to go and find himself another job. One of the things suggested to him was that maybe he should enrol for unemployment benefits while he was looking for a job. Thankfully, I had instilled in him that he should not rely on the state, that he should rely on himself or rely on his parents and that it is not the state’s responsibility to look after him until he finds himself a job. He had the same attitude and said that he did not want to sign up with Centrelink. Eventually, he found a job by working in about five different types of jobs. He took any job he could until he found the job that suited him. Now I am pleased to say that he has a job working as an apprentice bricklayer. He has become an important part of the community and a taxpayer to support those who are really in need. I was proud of him for having the morals and the values whereby he thought he did not need to rely on the state and that he should rely on his own abilities to go and find any job that he could until he found the job that he really wanted.

I now turn back to the measures before the House. By introducing this four-week waiting period, the government will save $200 million. However, we are not extending this waiting period without considering the need to provide additional employment opportunities for those who are job ready—quite the opposite. As members on this side of the House know, the coalition is a government which focuses on creating jobs and providing the necessary building blocks to ensure Australia remains a prosperous country. One of the ways we have achieved this in the 2015-16 budget is through our Jobs and Small Business package. As I said earlier, this is about investing in our nation's future, and this government recognises that in order to achieve this we must invest in our small businesses and we must invest in those who will be the taxpayers of the future—our children, our teenagers and our young adults. So what this government has done through our Jobs and Small Business package is invest: $18.3 million in additional work experience places; $55.2 million to run intensive support trials for vulnerable job seekers; $19.4 million to provide new support for youth with mental health conditions; $22.1 million for vulnerable young migrants and refugees; and $8.9 million to support parents prepare for employment. Each of these funding measures will create new job opportunities, will support our youth and, most importantly, will focus the government's attention and expenditure on our most disadvantaged, which is the exact purpose of all social services payments. It is also important to note that under this measure the government has also implemented an $8.1 million emergency relief fund which will be specifically dedicated toward assisting job seekers who may experience hardship as a result of the measures before the House and which will be available through emergency relief providers.

In my electorate of Swan, we have six Job Services Australia providers at eight sites which support both adults and our youth to find employment opportunities. In relation to these eight sites, $52.6 million excluding GST has been spent by the Australian government to assist these job seekers between 1 July 2009 and 28 February 2015. This includes service fees, job placement fees and 13- and 26-week employment and education outcomes, and Employment Pathway Fund expenditure. Although these are significant funding measures to support job seekers, particularly in Swan, this coalition government, when developing these policy measures, has also taken into consideration those who may be assessed as having significant barriers to finding a job. Specifically, this refers to those youths who have been assessed as stream B and C Jobactive clients. These people will be exempt from the four-week waiting period. There are also a number of additional exemptions, including those who have already served a four-week waiting period in the last six months and whose job ends through no fault of their own; someone who has a disability or an activity test exemption; and those jobseekers who have left state care within the last 12 months.

Lastly, I take this time to note that the bill before the House also reintroduces a number of measures previously passed in this place but not the other place under the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014 Budget Measures No. 1) Bill 2014 and the Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (2014 Budget Measures No. 2) Bill 2014. This includes extending the one-week ordinary waiting period which currently applies to Newstart Allowance and Sickness Allowance to Youth Allowance and Parenting Payment from 1 July 2016 and increasing the age eligibility to 25. I note that this measure does now exclude Widow Allowance claimants from this waiting period, which was part of the previous bill. The maximum age of eligibility for the Youth Disability Supplement will also be increased to 24 for recipients of Youth Allowance from 1 July 2016. The bill will cease the Low Income Supplement from 1 July 2017 and it will maintain the income-free areas for all working age allowances, other than student payments, and for parenting payment single at level for three years. Lastly, it will maintain at level for three years the income-free areas and other means-test thresholds for student payments, including the student income bank limits, with a new start date of 1 January 2016.

Overall, the bill before the House continues the work of this government to create new jobs and implement vital savings measures that will put this country's economy back onto a sustainable path. It will remove this concept of entitlement and instead refocus our support payments back to their original intent—providing a safety net for those who need it most. Each of these measures has been appropriately considered by government as necessary to make this $154 billion worth of social services expenditure sustainable in the future, and they are measures which I will be joining with the minister in commending to the House.

It is interesting to note in the employment figures that were released recently that, since the beginning of the year, over 111,000 new jobs have been created, or more than 22,000 new jobs per month. The labour market has continued to perform strongly in the first five months of 2015, after a strong 2014. In 2014, under the coalition, we saw jobs growth of nearly 4,000 jobs a week, which was quadruple the rate we saw in 2013, under the previous Labor government. So the coalition is on track, as I said before. The best thing we can give anyone is a job, and that is what we are focusing on. We are making sure that the system provides those who are vulnerable with the safety net that they need. As I said before, I join with the minister, and the rest of my colleagues, in commending this bill to the House.

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