Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We can now resume normal transmission, I think. This is a critical piece of reform. For far too long too many people have languished, trapped, in the social security system, and the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Youth Jobs Path: Prepare, Trial, Hire) Bill 2016 is the beginning of a long and arduous journey to change the status quo.

Having run my own business, I know the challenges that businesses face when employing people they do not know, particularly those who have never worked before. To a small business, the cost of not getting it right can be expensive in terms of time and money and, most importantly, in lost opportunities. Employers often attempt to contain that risk by choosing to employ people with work experience and a proven track record. Unfortunately, this traps those who are trying to get ahead, trying to break out of the welfare system.

Over the last 24 hours I have borne witness to the Labor Party lecturing the rest of us on inequality in Australia. The member for Lilley was particularly illuminating on the issue. Never once did he mention microeconomic reform as a key platform to alleviating inequality. Never once did he talk about breaking the cycle of welfare dependency and unemployment. But we do. We talk about reform. We care about breaking the cycle of poverty and we care about employment, because the awful truth is this: that, after nearly seven decades of government-funded poverty programs, we have hardly moved the needle.

Many social programs during this time have done nothing more than entrench poverty from one generation to the next. It is simply a fact that, if you are solely reliant on the welfare system in today's Australia, it is highly likely that your health and education outcomes will be substantially lower and you will have a shorter lifespan. At the same time, the chances of you forming a household are very low, while the likelihood of the system passing these outcomes onto your children is very high. This system costs $154 billion a year. In truth, the money is a second-order issue, because the Turnbull government is about saving lives, not money. When we on this side talk about reforming welfare—we are talking about saving lives, not money.

Those opposite typically provide two solutions to alleviating inequality: the first is increased spending on welfare; the second is a more distributive tax system. Despite dedicating hundreds of billions of dollars to decreasing inequality, those opposite say things have got worse, and yet their only answer is to keep doing more of the same. Labor can talk ad nauseam about inequality, because they need people to feel like they are victims and supplicants of the state. Under no circumstances will they talk about the inequality of opportunity that their own policies have created.

Of Australians aged under 20 who are on income support, 67,000 have, or have had, a guardian who has been on welfare for the last 15 years. Our lifetime welfare bill has now reached an estimated $4.8 trillion dollars. That is not an amount we should try and grasp in terms of dollars and cents, but rather as a sum total of human misery. But numbers do not paint pictures. This is the story of a never-ending cycle of poverty passed on from generation to generation.

On this side of the House, we believe in standing up for hardworking Australians who aspire to a better future for their friends, their families and this great country—a modern and dynamic society that believes in helping people up, not dragging them down—with government as the great enabler, not the great enforcer. I am proud to be part of the Turnbull government that recognises that a new approach is urgently required. We cannot underestimate the urgency of the now. The Youth Jobs PaTH is part of our government's $840 million project to improve people's chances of making a go of life, of getting and keeping them out of welfare and helping them to achieve their aspirations. The package, which is part of the Australian Priority Investment approach to welfare, provides a new, cutting-edge approach to youth employment. It will help 120,000 vulnerable young Australians over four years take advantage of job opportunities as our economy diversifies and transitions to broader based growth. It will help young people to get ready for meaningful work by giving them the tools they need to have a go and get a job.

The Turnbull government is seeking to improve employment outcomes for Australia's young people in a real, meaningful and tangible way by making it easier for them to enter the workforce. Young Australians should have the personal and financial opportunities that come with having a job—the independence, the experience, the self-esteem, the excitement and the chance to hone their skills. This aspect of employment is too often ignored by those on the Left of politics. The simple sense of achievement on someone's mentality has transformed lives and entire communities. Our future prosperity as a nation will suffer if we do not persistently tackle high levels of youth unemployment. Young people who cannot find a job are more susceptible to long-term unemployment and, from that place, it is a short trip to a cycle of welfare dependency.

I welcome the reductions in the youth unemployment rate that this government has seen so far, but the numbers are still too high. We have identified that it is often a lack of experience that keeps young people out of the workforce, so we are implementing a measure that will facilitate young people getting exactly that experience so they might find it easier to gain meaningful employment. The Youth Jobs PaTH program will help and encourage young Australians to learn new skills, become job ready, get a job, and stay in a job.

Having had open and frank conversations with the businesses of Australia, looking at the preliminary findings of the 'investment approach' actuarial analysis, and studying best practices both here and abroad, we have designed an innovative program that will make a real difference to young Australians. The prepare, trial, hire pathway will encourage employers to take a chance on young people by enhancing their employability, providing them real work experience, and increasing incentives for employers to take them on.

Importantly, the program will give vulnerable young people that are trying to better their lives and create a future for themselves the confidence they need to transition to, find and retain work. We need to understand that what many of us in this place take for granted for some people is simply unknown. Vulnerable young Australians have no, or virtually no, experience of what work looks like, of what the expectations are in terms of practice, behaviour, what to wear, what is done and, more importantly, what is not done at work.

The Youth Jobs PaTH is divided into three stages: prepare, trial and hire. To help young people gain a foothold in the labour market, young jobseekers will participate in intensive pre-employment skills training within five months of registering with jobactive. The first three weeks of training will focus on skills such as working in a team, presentation, and appropriate IT skills, like limiting your use of Facebook. A further three weeks of training will centre on advanced job preparation and job hunting skills.

The government will introduce up to 120,000 internship placements over four years to help young jobseekers who have been in employment services for six months or more gain valuable work experience. Jobseekers and businesses, with the help of employment services providers, will work together to design internships of four to 12 weeks duration, during which the jobseeker will work 15 to 25 hours per week. Participation in an internship will be voluntary for both jobseekers and employers.

In addition to gaining valuable hands on experience in a workplace, young people will receive $200 per fortnight on top of their regular income support payment while participating in the internship. People that take on interns will receive an upfront payment of $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 a permanent job.

Stage 3 of the new Youth Jobs PaTH provides increased and streamlined wage subsidies for young people. Australian employers will be eligible for a youth bonus wage subsidy if they hire a young jobseeker who has been in employment services for six months or more. Businesses will have the flexibility to employ young jobseekers either directly, through labour hire arrangements, or combined with an apprenticeship or traineeship. As part of these reforms, existing wage subsidies will be streamlined, making them easier for employers to access. In our modern and dynamic economy, highly entrepreneurial and flexible firms with dynamic mindsets will proliferate.

Yesterday I heard from Bernard Salt that five of America's top 10 companies were formed within the past 40 years. In Australia, our top 10 most valuable companies were founded before 1929. We need business leaders with new ideas. And, as much as it pains me to say it, young people are the source of most these bright new ideas. The Turnbull government will also encourage young people to start their own businesses by fostering their innovation and interest in self-employment.

It is interesting that in the United States some of these innovative companies were formed by people still in their 20s—people like Mark Zuckerberg. Bill Gates was only 19 when he started Microsoft and created the DOS operating system that IBM bought. Even Warren Buffett started his funds management company when he was only 22. In Australia, this sort of entrepreneurship needs to be both encouraged and developed. This government will be part of enabling that to occur. It is this sort of stuff that not only helps young people find jobs that they love and that they want to be involved in but also builds our economy. It also helps create companies that pay taxes, that create jobs, that create wage growth, that create more competition in our marketplace and ensure that all of us, all consumers have the benefits of competition in the marketplace, so governments do not need to regulate as much, so that we can get out of the way of the market and allow people to enjoy the benefits thereof.

This bill, along with all the other reforms the Turnbull government is implementing, is about people's lives. It is about making a real difference to vulnerable members of our community. It shows that if you are willing to work hard, to put yourself out there, this government will support you no matter what your circumstances. This bill is not about the soft prejudice that says that people from tough backgrounds cannot aspire to something better, that they are victims now and will forever-more be victims. This says that the human potential inherent in all of us will be supported and encouraged, that no person is not worth something, and that everyone can make a contribution. It is about saying that we believe that everyone can make a difference for themselves and for their families, and that if they are willing, this government, the Turnbull government, will support them. And we will break the cycle of poverty that has endured in this country for far too long.

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