Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We have a discussion in this place from time to time about the issue of intergenerational equity, and I think this is a really important issue. I am very concerned that this generation has been letting young people down in all sorts of areas, whether it is housing affordability, the cost of education, or employment prospects. Young people are currently experiencing very difficult economic, employment and social circumstances. I believe that it is a fundamental responsibility and function of any government to help nurture, support and guide our young people to lead happy, productive and fulfilling lives. However, since being elected this Liberal government has been more than happy to take the axe to the support and resources that previous governments have provided for young people, and we have seen youth unemployment levels on the rise.

The measures in the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Youth Employment and Other Measures) Bill 2015 continue the Liberal government's attacks on young Australians by seeking to introduce a one-month wait period for Newstart allowance. This bill leaves young job seekers under 25 with nothing to live on for a month. It represents an abandonment of young Australians by this government. Labor will oppose this cut to young Australians, just as we opposed last year's attempt to leave young job seekers with nothing to live on for six months. Whether it is one month or six, Labor will not support a measure which pushes young people into poverty and hardship. How does the government honestly expect people to live during such a period? How do they buy food, pay the rent, pay for the train fare, maintain their dignity—pay to travel or dress for job interviews and the like?

This bill also seeks to change the eligibility age for Newstart, pushing job seekers between the age of 22 and 24 onto the lower youth allowance. This is a cut of around $48 a week or almost $2,500 a year. That is a very significant amount of money, particularly for a young person. Therefore, this bill has the potential to lock young people into a cycle of no income support at all, pushing many young job seekers into poverty and homelessness, with the prospect of mental health problems and quite possibly drugs and crime. It is not just Labor that thinks that this measure is cruel and unfair. Major welfare organisations right across the country have condemned the policy. The National Welfare Rights Network said that the one-month wait 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. The Parliament should reject this plan outright.

John Falzon, the CEO of St Vincent de Paul, said:

This change is a clear admission of the cruelty of this measure without actually abandoning it.

ACOSS said:

The government now proposes to reduce the six month wait for unemployment payments for young people to one month, yet neither policy has been justified, especially at a time when unemployment is rising.

Back in February, I held a Wills Youth Issues Forum, which was attended by many social service providers, employment networks and local community leaders. People at that forum expressed very serious concerns about the approach being taken by the federal government on the question of addressing youth unemployment and social welfare issues. With unemployment forecast to rise to 6.5 per cent, staying high longer than previously estimated, this type of harsh measure is unfair and bad for the economy. Since the federal election in 2013 the unemployment queue has grown by 56,500 more people, bringing the total number of unemployed people to 745,000 on this government's watch. According to the Department of Employment's March 2015 report, since Labor left office, unemployment in my electorate of Wills has increased from 6.1 per cent in September 2013 to 6.7 per cent in March 2015. In Brunswick, unemployment rose from eight per cent in September 2013 to 8.5 per cent in March this year; in Brunswick East, it increased from 5.7 per cent to 6.4 per cent; in Brunswick West, from 7.5 per cent to 9.1 per cent; in Coburg, from 8.5 per cent to 8.9 per cent; in Coburg North, from 5.8 per cent to 7.6 per cent; in Fawkner, from 7.8 per cent to 8.2 per cent; in Fitzroy North, from 6.1 per cent to 6.4 per cent; and across Glenroy and Hadfield it increased from 6.4 per cent to 7.2 per cent. In Pascoe Vale South it rose slightly, from 5.4 per cent to 5.6 per cent; and in Strathmore it rose from two per cent to 2.1 per cent. This is a pattern right across the electorate of increasing unemployment. Indeed, unemployment in Broadmeadows, just to the north of my electorate—an area with which you are personally familiar, Mr Deputy Speaker Mitchell—unemployment has risen from 21.9 per cent to 23.5 per cent. Really, that is a terrible result. The level of unemployment just to the north is really in Spanish or Greek terms.

Right across the nation, long-term unemployment is at its highest rate in 16 years. Yet, in the context of such high unemployment levels, the Liberal government wants to make it harder for people not only to get a job but also to make ends meet when they do not have a job. This is harsh and insensitive to young people who are experiencing very difficult economic and employment circumstances at the moment.

Youth unemployment is around the highest level since 1998. Young people accounted for 29.8 per cent of the long-term unemployed pool in February 2015—well above the 22.5 per cent recorded in September 2008—and youth unemployment in Melbourne's northern suburbs, as of April, is at its highest level since the 1990s, at more than 14 per cent. According to the Brotherhood of St Laurence, the number of young people facing long-term unemployment in Australia has tripled since the global financial crisis. In 2008, there were 19,500 long-term unemployed young people aged between 15 and 24; but now that has risen to over 56,000.

In response to these growing community concerns about rising unemployment and youth unemployment levels, I will be hosting a Wills unemployment forum next week, on 30 June, at the Coburg Concert Hall from 7 pm. I believe that providing people with sustainable job opportunities is fundamental to building a prosperous, socially resilient and happier community. The fact that we have seen economic conditions deteriorate and employment opportunities diminish is a matter of real concern in my community. I am committed to reducing unemployment for local people and I intend for this forum to provide a platform for discussion, ideas and solutions. I will be bringing together a panel of experts to discuss and identify solutions to address the economic and social issues associated with unemployment and how we as a community can reduce unemployment for our residents. Members of the panel will be: the Hon. Brendan O'Connor, the federal shadow minister for employment, who is well known in this place; Councillor Meghan Hopper, the Mayor of Moreland; Melanie Raymond, the Chair of Youth Projects Ltd; David Kennedy, the Executive Director of the Inner Northern Local Learning & Employment Network; Professor Eoin Killackey from Orygen; Nik Filips from the Salvation Army Crossroads program; and Tony Coppola, from the Northern Melbourne Regional Development Australia Committee. I would imagine, Mr Deputy Speaker Mitchell, you are familiar with Tony. He is very well known in Melbourne's northern suburbs and has a long history in terms of promoting employment growth and industry growth in the north of Melbourne.

I look forward to reporting the outcomes of the Wills unemployment forum to the House, just as I have done previously with the Wills youth issues forum. When you mention people like Tony Coppola, it brings to mind the importance and significance of manufacturing in providing jobs for young people in my electorate of Wills and in neighbouring electorates around Melbourne. The National Institute of Economic and Industry Research modelled the prospective impacts on unemployment following closure of automotive manufacturing as far back as 2010. They developed models which gave estimates for the loss of jobs as a result of the closure of a major automotive manufacturing firm. At the time there was not an indication that that would actually happen, and the exercise was undertaken to demonstrate just how important the presence of Ford was to the regional economy of northern Melbourne. But, sadly, this scenario is now a reality. Under the scenario, Geelong residents, given their high level of employment capture locally, faced the greatest impact. For Hume the reduction in resident jobs was around 2,000 positions in the fourth year of closure. For Whittlesea, the peak was also reached after four years, with the best part of 1,000 fewer resident employment positions, and for the city of Moreland after four years they estimated more than 700 fewer positions.

The strategic issue is that the impact of the closure is long term, with regional economies struggling to replace the jobs lost. The issue is even more complex in that replacing jobs is one thing but replacing jobs with equivalent positions, in terms of skills and salaries, is quite another. The National Institute of Economic and Industry Research concluded that retrenched workers with lower qualifications would find it hardest to find equivalent employment and that the lowest-skilled workers would be stranded in casual work or long-term structural unemployment, particularly in Hume and in Whittlesea. So we face very serious unemployment issues in the northern suburbs, both the issues that we have right now and the issues that we have in prospect with the automotive industry being relocated. Kate Carnell, who is the CEO of ACCI, said that:

… unless the youth unemployment issue is addressed—and it will need to be addressed quite aggressively … we will end up with a generation of young people on the fringes of the economy.

I think that is absolutely right.

I mentioned before the Inner Northern Local Learning and Employment Network. It is an independent local community organisation that has been undertaking important work, creating and implementing strategies to support young people across Moreland, Darebin and Yarra. I want to take this opportunity to commend their work. They have found that Melbourne's northern region has significant disadvantage and high levels of youth unemployment between the ages of 15 and 24. They say that to tackle youth unemployment we need concerted action from stakeholders across multiple fronts. They have brokered the establishment of the Youth Employment Taskforce, a group of key leaders that will drive the development of a comprehensive strategy. They have 30 cross-sector members with representation from local leaders from business, local government, schools, educators, TAFE and university.

David Kennedy, the chair of the taskforce states:

We need to support young people to develop the skills and attributes required in the 21st century workplace, this is everyone's responsibility and must be seen as a priority by our whole community or else we will have a lost generation of young people.

The local youth employment strategy has been developed by a very broad coalition, recognising that young people in this region are finding it increasingly difficult to gain entry to the labour market and, as a result, unemployment and under-employment are increasing at a significant rate.

I mentioned earlier the Wills Youth Issues Forum that I held earlier this year. It dealt with some of the serious issues on the sharp end—things like the drug ice, alcohol, crime, mental health, homelessness and unemployment. I think everyone at that forum understood how important employment is in tackling those social problems and everyone understood how important education is in enabling people to achieve jobs. So we need to have a focus in this country on education, on manufacturing and on employment, because these are the things that will help solve our problems—not the bill before the House.

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