Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

There's a noticeable pattern with the Turnbull government's job programs, and success has nothing to do with it. There are loud announcements up-front, and mumbles and fudging about results later. The best examples revolves around the government's intern program, known as PaTH. It was announced in a blaze of glory in the 2016 budget. We were told that $840 million had been pledged over four years to help up to 120,000 young Australians. At the time, Minister Cash said the Youth Jobs PaTH was the core of the government's youth employment package.

Early on, we learnt that roughly 30,000 young Australians would be forced to do the mandatory part of PaTH, the 'Prepare' section, as it was known. They'd then be offered the chance to become interns. Apparently, up to 20,000 businesses would be signed up to take on an intern. We had a series of stage-managed announcements with industry associations, pledging to take on PaTH interns. In a June 2016 media release, Minister Cash said the government had 'received the backing of another major Australian industry group', the Australian Hotels Association, 'who today pledged to use the scheme to give at least 5,000 young Australians the opportunity to get into jobs and apprenticeships'. In that release, the public was told that just one agreement with the AHA would see 5,000 jobs created in accommodation hotels, resorts, pubs, bars and restaurants. These 20,000 businesses would be paid an up-front incentive to take on an intern, and a wage subsidy if they actually took the interns on. That was the hype.

Here is the reality that emerged in the course of 2017. The government boasted:

The results achieved to date demonstrate that PaTH is working—we've seen 6,654 individuals commence a training course—

that they're forced to commence—

1,015 internship placements begin and 7,539 Youth Bonus wage subsidy agreements signed.

But, six months into the program, only 1,000 young people had been placed as interns, at a rate of 200 a month, bearing in mind they needed to hit at least 2,500 per month to hit the yearly target. Concerns about job exploitation were realised. One young person was forced to work up to 58 hours in one week, despite the government pledging that no young person would be forced to work more than 50 hours a fortnight.

What did we learn at estimates, just recently? It was loudly announced that we'd see 30,000 interns a year under PaTH. In estimates, the true figure was 5,473. What they should have reached in two months took them 12 months to reach. It was loudly proclaimed we'd see 18,000 to 20,000 businesses sign up to help take on these interns. In estimates, the true figure revealed was 2,694, not 18,000. In terms of the training component—again, mandatory—30,000 a year should have gone through. In estimates, the true figure was 26,205. They couldn't even meet their target to get young unemployed people into the mandatory training component of PaTH. When this was announced in 2016 we were told boldly: PaTH would help 120,000 young people. Two years later at estimates, when asked if they'd reached that target of 120,000, the minister said, 'That was the upper end of what we were looking at.' We never had that fine print included in any Turnbull government media release announcing PaTH. You can understand why we're getting the qualifier now, because, at the current rate, the government might support 20,000 interns at the end of the program, not the 120,000 promised. Even if you accept their 50 per cent job-conversion rate, the best we'll see is 10,000 young people getting jobs under what is now a $974 million program—not $840 million, $974 million.

They might not be smart enough to get young Australians a job, but they're sneaky enough to fiddle with the figures to save their own jobs. When you test them on the results, they've worked out all sorts of ways to pump up the stats. Mandatory training? You're counted as a stat. If your business is paid a wage subsidy, that gets counted too. Mind you, these subsidies already existed well before PaTH came along. It's time to cut the hype and get some answers.

Is the woeful performance of yet another failing jobs program going to improve? Why is it that the Turnbull government said 30,000 Australians a year would participate as interns under PaTH and only 5,500 have? Why is it that the Turnbull government said 20,000 businesses would host interns and only 2,600 have? Are you going to be up-front about what's actually happening with the program? What concrete steps are going to be taken to fix another failing jobs program under the Turnbull government?

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