Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise with pleasure, following the member for Braddon, to speak today in this adjournment debate on a very serious issue affecting my electorate, my state of South Australia and our country—the impact of the Rudd recession on young people and their opportunities at work. We are 17 or 18 months into the Rudd government’s first term and people are starting to say, ‘They’ve had a fair go—it’s time that they can be judged on their policies and their approach to government, and to jobs in particular.’ It is my contention that the impacts of the government’s policies—in particular on young people—are significant, and that they will damage our country’s future for some time to come, especially this generation of young people who are finishing school and entering, or attempting to enter, the labour market.

The government will be judged on—their benchmark will be—their record on jobs. Of course, on this side of the House, we have recognised that. We have outlined several policies which talk about jobs, jobs, jobs. The Leader of the Opposition has been very clear that the main priority of the opposition is jobs. Unfortunately, on the other side of the House, they are moving a series of policies which are impacting on the ability of young people to get a chance at a job. In particular, and I refer to some examples of these policies, the award modernisation—the modern award, the system which was moved by this government last year on an instruction from the Deputy Prime Minister to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission—is going to have a real and genuine impact on the ability of young people to get a job. We have seen, in recent days, several industries which are major employers of young people in this country—the hospitality sector and the retail sector, and in particular the newsagents—outline just how damaging the award modernisation process has been for their industries and for their ability to create and support jobs.

It is very dangerous, I think, for young people in Australia at the moment, where the government is implementing policies which damage their opportunities to get a job. On this side of the House, we want to see policies which help young people get jobs, not damage their opportunities. That is why the amendment moved by the shadow minister for employment and workplace relations is a good one—that we amend the current Fair Work Bill in order that, to use the Deputy Prime Minister’s own words from last year, the award modernisation does not increase costs to businesses or disadvantage employees. It is a suggestion that came from Senator Fisher and it is a suggestion that it would be well worth while for the government to take up, because the policies they are implementing are making it harder for young people—particularly those studying—to get an opportunity at a job. In the hospitality sector, which we know is a major employer of young people, part-time work helps them get through university. It makes it harder on these young people if they are at university and they cannot find the part-time work that would enable them to sustain their study in a reasonable fashion, and this impacts on their ability to do well at university for their future.

This is a bad development. Eighteen months in, the government are now judged on their record and on their policy implementation. In addition to moving policies which are damaging the opportunities for jobs, what we are seeing is a new tax on students. It is quite extraordinary that you would put a new tax on students at the same time as you are reducing their opportunities to get a job.

So what we are seeing now, after 18 months, is a series of policies—the award modernisation being one, the Fair Work Bill before the Senate being another and the new tax on students being another—indebting these young people for their future and making it more difficult for my generation and younger to get an opportunity to work, which we know is the key to their future success and to their future opportunities. I think this is a very negative reflection on the policies of the Rudd government. We know that this is the risk of the Rudd recession. The policies implemented by this government are reducing the opportunities for young people to get a job and they are damaging the future of our country, because long-term unemployment makes it harder to get back into the labour market in the future. I think that this is an issue that the government needs to consider in the break. I urge the government to do so, and to focus on jobs.