Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I had the opportunity to listen to the speech given by the member for Barton. It was an illuminating speech, where the honourable member said that Labor were not opposing the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Youth Jobs Path: Prepare, Trial, Hire) Bill 2016, but they were referring it to a Senate committee. Yet they proceeded to attack the benefits that would flow from the bill. One of the primary criticisms of the member for Barton was that, although the bill is loosely referred to as the PaTH bill, there was no 'A' in the full title of the acronym—a very interesting observation. The honourable member went on to say that there were concerns about labour being displaced by the use of the internships that the bill would provide.

I was in business for 30 years before coming into this place. I have employed apprentices on group training programs as a builder. I have also employed trainees in my practice as a barrister. In fact, many small businesses take great pride in providing young people with an opportunity to try to get their foot in the jobs door. None of us—not you, Mr Deputy Speaker, not me, probably not just about anybody in this room—would have got our respective feet in the door of the jobs market if someone had not given us a go. This bill does exactly that. It provides young people with an opportunity to get their foot in the jobs door. But it does more than that. It teaches them very beneficial job skills that many of us old enough to be in this House might take for granted.

The member for Barton quoted Interns Australia that it was expected that only one out of five internships would lead to a job. I do not know whether that is true or not, but what that observation overlooks is that you cannot put a price on experience. You cannot put a price on job skills. I put it to those opposite that this pathway program will help young people who have perhaps been long-term unemployed to get the skills that they need to get a job, whether it is with that host employer or with another employer down the track. They say that the definition of insanity is to keep doing what you have always been doing and expect a different result. This bill provides another tool in the government's kit to be able to provide jobs for young people.

The government will introduce up to 120,000 of these internship placements over four years. It is not a small program or the government simply putting its toe in the water—it is a significant attempt by the government to trial this program, one that is certainly very worthwhile. Young people will be assisted with the help of employment service providers. They will work out and design an internship of between four and 12 weeks duration, during which the job seeker will work 15 to 25 hours a week. Participation in this program is entirely voluntary for both job seekers and businesses. In addition to gaining valuable hands-on experience in a workplace, young people who are otherwise unemployed will receive an additional $200 per fortnight on top of their regular income support payment whilst they are participating in the internship. Businesses that take on these interns will receive an additional $1,000 and will benefit from the opportunity to see what a young worker can do and how they fit into the team before deciding whether to offer them ongoing employment.

As someone who has employed people—I would hate to put a figure on the number of apprentices that I have put through group training and the number of trainees that I have put on—I can say that this is a commitment that anyone who has run a small business would know. Small businesses do not just do this for their own benefit. They do it because it gives them the ability to see what a particular young person will bring to their business. They do not do it for the $1,000, let me assure you of that. In these sorts of programs, rarely does a young person bring the sort of skills, certainly within this period of time, that would enable the business to recoup its costs. But it does defray some of the costs involved in bringing a young person on board. It enables the employer to check the person's skills and see whether they are a good fit for their business. That is very important. Some businesses will allow that young person to go on; some will not. But even where the businesses do not continue that employment arrangement, those young people will have learned vital skills. For an unemployed person there is nothing like having the discipline of having to get up out of bed, get dressed, have brekkie and go to work.

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