Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

I will answer the member for Barton's questions inasmuch as she asked about the relationship between Centrelink and the Department of Employment. Of course those organisations talk with each other. They always do. They do with the coalition in government, they did when Labor was in power and they will continue to do that. That is just a given. This youth employment package was announced in the 2016-17 budget. It is an $840.3 million investment over four years to assist young people to develop the ability, skills and real work experience they need to get a job.

The member for Barton, coming from Whitton as she does, would understand the importance of young people getting a job. I know she does. I know she served in the New South Wales parliament. I know she had a fine record of service to that state parliament. I know that she, like me, as the small business minister, wants to see as many young people in jobs as possible. This package represents just that; it is a substantial investment in our youth. There could be no finer investment by a government than in our youth. It will ensure that young Australians receive job ready skills, which will enable them to obtain a foothold in the job market. It will build on initiatives introduced by the government under the Youth Employment Strategy. And it will work to further boost young people's job prospects by helping them to be better prepared for the workplace.

The member for Barton asked whether it would lead to an intern after intern, after intern situation. I can understand the member for Barton asking that question. But I know as an employer, before I got into parliament, as an editor of The Daily Advertiser newspaper at Wagga Wagga and then as a small business owner, if you have a good intern and they prove they were job ready—once they prove that they are capable of doing what you want them to do—you gave them a job. If there was a job there, you gave them that job. I am sure that employers across Australia will relish the opportunity to get good, young people job ready, focused on what they need to do, trained up and understanding the whys and wherefores of a workplace. If a job becomes available, they will get that position. It just makes good sense. It makes good business sense. It is what good bosses do. These measures, combined with existing initiatives, including the Transition to Work Service, Empowering YOUth Initiatives and the ParentsNext Project, will be putting young job seekers on a pathway to finding and, most importantly, keeping a job.

At the core of the youth employment package is the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Youth Jobs Path: Prepare, Trial, Hire) Bill 2016, the bill that we are considering in detail now. It is a $751.7 million initiative. It maximises the chances of jobseekers under 25 years of age getting a job. That is the age group where many of them leave school and many have seen their parents unemployed and their grandparents unemployed. We, as a government, want to get those young people into jobs because the best way out of welfare is into a job. The best way to a better future is a job. I understand that, as the Minister for Small Business. I know the members for Barton and Chifley and all those opposite get that. We on this side, of course, get it, because we are the side that understands how important getting youth employed is.

The youth employment package also includes measures on encouraging entrepreneurship and self-employment, designed to encourage young Australians to start a business and to create their own job. The package provides a step-by-step pathway to work, which directly deals with the major challenges to employment faced by young people—particularly in regional areas.

Whilst we are talking about regional areas and young people, we should also mention the backpacker tax, and why we want to make sure that the backpacker tax is fixed at 19 per cent, not 10½, so that foreign workers are faced with young Australians who are going to be paying a higher level of tax. We want to make sure that we get that fruit picked, make sure that those abattoirs are serviced, make sure that those pubs have the hospitality staff needed. There are many provisions, not just this one. There are many pieces of legislation that are so important and so critical to get through in these final few days of the 2016 parliament, to ensure that we get youth employed. And we must ensure that this particular legislation is carried.

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