Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also have a number of questions for the Minister for Small Business, or the person representing the minister—and we are not quite sure who that is at the moment. Perhaps it is the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, who is sitting at the table, who is now representing the minister on this issue. Hopefully whoever is going to answer these questions is listening closely, because on this side we have raised a number of serious questions that we believe the government needs to answer, and our friends on the crossbench have also raised questions in relation to this program.

Since I made my speech on the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Youth Jobs Path: Prepare, Trial, Hire) Bill 2016 in the second reading debate, the government still has not responded to the concerns that I and many others raised. I reiterate the concerns about occupational health and safety. Where do these interns fit with regard to occupational health and safety? What happens if they are injured on a worksite? Do they complete a claim form? Are they entitled to workers compensation? Are they entitled to days off in payment of that? What happens if a worker is injured? We have already seen what has happened in the Work for the Dole scheme. There is no responsibility whatsoever if somebody is injured, we have heard—and we know that a young person tragically lost their life while involved in a Work for the Dole scheme. We need the government to guarantee that that will not happen with this system.

We have heard—and again the government has not responded on this—about the issue of pressure being applied to wages. This scheme says that somebody will get their youth allowance payments and $4 on top of that. What happens if they work on a weekend? Will they get an extra top-up for penalty rates? Is that being accounted for? What will this government do to ensure that these interns are not being used late at night, in the evenings, on penalty-rate days? Also, what is the government doing to ensure that these people, who will effectively be on a payment of Newstart plus $4 an hour, are not undercutting jobs and workers in these places? What about in places where there is a collective agreement in place that pays much more than this? Will the government guarantee that workers are not displaced in terms of shifts or hours? Will it guarantee that these interns will not take hours away from casuals who are relying on shifts to make ends meet?

The government has also not been clear about how these interns will intersect with, and what rights they will have under, the Fair Work Act. Again, the government has not been clear with the Australian people and with the prospective interns about how the Fair Work Act will apply to these young people. Will they have access to the unfair dismissal provisions? The reason the government is twisted in so many knots is that, currently under the Fair Work Act, there is no classification for an intern—none whatsoever. So, if a young person who is engaged in the program is dismissed, what happens to their payments? The government has said that they need to be able to prove that it was not their fault. That is so arbitrary. Who decides that dispute if an employer says, 'You're gone,' and the intern says, 'That's unfair'? Who is the arbiter? Who gets to decide that? If you are a worker, you are protected under the unfair dismissal provisions. In this particular situation, we do not know.

Also, the government have still failed to prove that these are not $4-an-hour supermarket internships—a concern that has been raised not just by the union movement but by young people themselves. The government still have not convinced us or the Australian people that this will not cut jobs. For a government that rant a lot about jobs and growth, they have failed to demonstrate how this program will not take jobs away from young people, and they need to come in here and make that clear. It used to be considered a bit of a rite of passage that a young person's first job would be in retail or hospitality. The government need to guarantee that, with this internship, they are not taking away jobs that otherwise would have gone to young people. They have failed to address that question. They have failed to answer that. They should come in here and address the concerns that have been raised not just by people in this House but by people within the community.

See this speech in context