Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. I know of her long-running interest in and passion for supporting young people, getting them into jobs and dealing with the many youth issues in her community, for which she has a great passion. This government has a national economic plan for jobs and growth, an innovation and science program for start-up businesses, a defence plan for local high-tech manufacturing and technology, export trade deals to generate new business opportunities, tax cuts and incentives for small business and hardworking families, a sustainable budget with crackdowns on tax avoidance and loopholes, and of course guaranteed funding for health, education and roads that is paid for—not pretending to be with funding sources that are not there and only let people down.

In this budget we have also ensured that we can put in place, as the Prime Minister was referring to, a new jobs plan for young people, called PaTH. It is one that has been worked up on the basis of listening to young people and listening to business. Businesses want to give young people a go and get them into jobs, and young people want to get that go so that they can stay in jobs. We have to get past the 'just keep them busy' training programs, which do not get the job done. This is a very important program where we have stopped funding elements of programs that we just do not think are getting the results, to put them into a program where we believe we will get the results. I am very disappointed that the union movement has come out in opposition to this plan.

This program will first invest in getting young people to the starting line of a job by getting them job ready, by teaching them the expectations that they will have to meet to get a job. Secondly, it puts an internship in place—real work for the dole—which means that when they are getting those support payments they are in a real business doing real work and getting the real skills they need to be able to keep that job. Thirdly, it gives a wage subsidy to create a program at the end where they can be in a real job, where they continue to get their income support payment and the employer tops it up so that they will be paid a proper wage when they are doing the real work. At the end of that period it is up to that business and that young person to take the next step. What we have done is to de-risk and de-cost the opportunity for business to take people on. We have removed that risk.

The members opposite heckle and speak against this plan. I remind them that when they were in government 12 per cent of children aged under 15 were growing up in jobless families. This program does something about that. They should support it, not their union mates.

See this speech in context