Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises that young Australians have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and are being left behind in our recovery;

(2) notes that young people:

(a) are facing an extraordinary jobs crisis, further noting that:

(i) during the peak of the pandemic 15 per cent of all jobs were filled by young people yet 40 per cent of all jobs lost since March 2020 were held by a young person;

(ii) the youth unemployment rate soared four times the national average to 13.1 per cent in October 2021 and is now higher than pre-pandemic levels; and

(iii) 50 per cent of young Australians have said that getting more reliable work is of most importance to them when it comes to employment;

(b) are struggling with their mental health, with:

(i) more than 50 per cent of young Australians saying their biggest concern with COVID-19 was mental health;

(ii) one in two young Australians reported to not being able to carry out their daily activities during the pandemic due to a decline in wellbeing;

(iii) one third of young Australians reporting high or very high levels of psychological distress; and

(iv) 75 per cent of Australia's young people describing their mental health as worse during the COVID-19 pandemic;

(c) are suffering severe social disruption, as:

(i) many have missed out on once in a lifetime milestones and rites of passage; and

(ii) more feel isolated due to lockdowns with distributions to school attendance, campus life extinguished, and social gatherings restricted or prohibited;

(d) are grappling with disruptions to education and training, and:

(i) many feel their motivation and career plans have been dented; and

(ii) nearly 50 per cent of young Australians reported being worried about their education being disrupted or held back as a result of the changes to schooling; and

(e) feel they do not have a voice in politics, with:

(i) almost 60 per cent of young Australians feeling the biggest barrier to getting involved in politics was 'feeling like they won't be listened to'; and

(ii) 52 per cent of young people feeling they had a say 'none of the time' in public affairs; and

(3) calls on the Government to work with young people and urgently design a comprehensive COVID-19 Youth Recovery Strategy that puts young Australians at the centre of our economic and social recovery and builds our future generations.

We know that COVID has impacted people right across this country. However, I would say that young Australians have been impacted particularly by COVID-19 in a way that has led to severe disruption to their lives. We know that report after report talks about this pandemic really exacerbating many of the generational challenges that young people already face. Measures such as income, superannuation, housing and the environment, and even things such as jobs and insecure work, have been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. Of course, there have been other things that have been quite unique to the COVID pandemic which have affected young people—whether the social disruption that has come along with it or mental health issues around loneliness, so many things have impacted young people. Disruption to study in particular has been something that many young people have spoken to me about.

It is therefore been incredibly disappointing that the federal government 's response has been so lacklustre—and that would be putting it mildly. They announced the Youth Policy Framework, which was handed down a year late. A lot of us had anticipation about this. When we opened it up—two years in the making; one year late—we thought it might actually have some future focused ideas and future focused policies. Instead, it was a shopping list of failed policies that are not even working for young people. Some of them included one-off grants that were no longer available for young people. This was a government with no imagination and no ideas. Importantly, this government had not even bothered to listen to the issues affecting young Australians.

Let's look at a couple of the programs that were lauded in this report. There was the Youth Jobs PaTH program—$250 million of funding—the trial internship work placement. That has consistently failed to meet its targets of 120,000 internship placements over four years. Only 14,000 young people commenced an internship over the three years and only 30 per cent of the participants were even offered a job. This is a failed program. We also have the big $4 billion JobMaker program, which was listed in this youth framework. It was meant to deliver 450,000 jobs. Of course, it failed spectacularly, meeting just one per cent of the target. There are so many examples where the government had the opportunity during this COVID crisis to look at a proper recovery strategy, to meet all the challenges that young people are facing, to talk with young people and engage, but they failed to do it. Instead, they put out glossy brochures—we know they like to do that.

What we need is a proper youth recovery strategy that outlines what these challenges are and how we're going to provide a holistic response from government. It needs to outline how federal and state governments can work together with measurable outcomes, because that is what young people deserve and that is what they are calling for. Many of us came to this place as part of the Raise Our Voice campaign to talk about the concerns that young people have for the future. Reading through those, what was very clear was that they are worried about their future and they want a government to listen and respond.

We do not have this from this government but you will under a Labor government. A Labor government has committed, if elected, to properly put in consultation with young people. We will have a proper engagement strategy with young people and we will ensure that there is an office for youth to respond to the needs of young people and to put proper policies in place to respond to young people. This is what young people are demanding and this is what they need. We must see them as such an important resource if we are going to continue to have economic growth. To continue to succeed as a country, we must invest in our young people and respond to their needs. This coalition government is not doing that, but Labor will. Therefore, I commend this motion to the House.

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