Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to speak on the Economic Recovery Package (JobMaker Hiring Credit) Amendment Bill 2020, a bill that's designed to incentivise businesses to hire young people. The COVID-19 recession has hit Australia hard, and my electorate of Mayo is no exception. It's no secret that it's more challenging for young people in the regions to find employment than it is for their peers in metropolitan areas. Add to this regional disadvantage, the effects of recent bushfires and then COVID-19, and one can safely say that the unemployed young people in my electorate of Mayo well and truly need some support in finding employment opportunities in our region. Mayo has approximately 13,000 small businesses, many in retail and hospitality, who've had a very difficult year. Talking with my small business owners, already I'm hearing that JobMaker will provide them with the incentive and confidence to hire, and that's what we need to do; it's about reinstilling confidence.

In September this year, the national youth unemployment rate was 14.3 per cent, more than double the national unemployment rate of 6.8 per cent. These are not encouraging figures for young unemployed people, and the unemployment of young people has always been higher, sadly, than the main rate. When I speak to businesses in my electorate, such as in Myponga, Goolwa or Lobethal, their stories are deeply saddening. Some of these have made heartbreaking decisions to let their staff go and close their doors after pouring years of their lives as well as their life savings into their own businesses. Others are struggling just to hang on.

But, lately, there has been a little optimism coming back into our community. As the border closures have eased and the Victorian case load has fallen, people have felt like we might get through the worst of this awful year—that things might finally get better. You can see it in the retail stores, which are getting more customers through the doors, in the cafes that are getting busier and in the faces of small business owners who are looking a little less tense and a little more hopeful. It will take a long time for the economy of Mayo to get back to where it was a year ago. Trade increasing, even a little, is welcome news, but it will be a long time before businesses have the demand or the confidence to invest in hiring more staff or expanding their businesses. So I welcome the support of the government in offering to help businesses to take a chance to commit to hiring.

While this bill is about JobMaker, I often talk to businesses in my electorate about other supports available to small businesses to take on a new employee, including Restart. This program is not widely promoted, but it does offer subsidies of up to $10,000 for businesses who hire a mature-age worker. I know several small businesses in my electorate that have used this program, which combats unemployment among older workers, who sometimes face discrimination in their job search. NEIS, the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme, is another program that I believe should be promoted more. So many newly unemployed people dream of starting there own business but lack the courage or confidence to make the move to start a new business. The NEIS program could be the confidence boost that they need to take themselves from unemployed to self-employed with training, mentoring and financial support, including rent relief, to get a new venture off the ground. The government has recently relaxed the rules around NEIS so that part-time employees, people who perhaps have lost hours due to COVID and are keen to start their own business, also can access this program.

The JobMaker program is designed to support the cohort that most likely lost their job during the pandemic, and that is young people. It is a huge commitment for a small business to take on a person who needs training and experience. The program will give young people the chance to build their skills, develop experience and provide an employer with a wage subsidy. Treasury estimates that JobMaker will assist approximately 450,000 people over the next two years. That is indeed an extraordinary number. If just one in four of the small businesses in my electorate were to hire one new person under the JobMaker scheme it would equate to over 3,000 new jobs, and that would make a huge difference to the local economy of Mayo and to our local unemployment rate.

There is an age group where there are not a lot of incentives to employ people, and that is the age 35 to 50 group. Should this program get underway, I urge the government to consider extending the $100 wage subsidy to the age that Restart begins, which is 50. We need to look at greater training opportunities for older people to reskill. We have areas of critical need—aged care and the NDIS, to name a couple—yet getting into a certificate III to be qualified in aged care or NDIS is difficult. We should make that easier. This program is designed with flexibility and safeguards. The employer can utilise the scheme for either part-time, full-time or casual positions, but protections are in place to ensure new positions gained are not at the cost of others. For instance, in order to employ a new worker under the scheme, an employer must be able to show an increased staff headcount and an increased payroll, and the increase in the payroll must be greater than the JobMaker credit.

I understand that some members of the House have concerns. I'm sure that we can address those concerns in the Senate. It's important that we don't stop this bill from getting passed in this place, and I look forward to my small businesses in Mayo being able to access JobMaker and to young people receiving employment, possibly their first job.

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