Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Back for his question. Those of us on this side of the chamber believe that the best form of welfare is a job, and that is why we are investing $840.3 million over four years in a youth employment package. This youth employment package is going to give young people employability skills and real work experience to get them a job.

Encouragingly, as we know, the youth unemployment rate has decreased to 12 per cent, but this is still unacceptably high and we recognise that more needs to be done. What our youth employment package will do is help young people to become more competitive in the labour market by giving them the employability skills that employers want; opportunities for work experience, which, based on feedback, are often lacking; and of course the ultimate aim of the youth employment package is to ensure that our youth move from welfare into work.

The package is going to deliver a new Youth Jobs PaTH to prepare our youth, to give them the opportunity to have a trial and then of course we hope to move into employment to be hired. The employability skills training is going to be co-designed with a range of employers and it will help young job seekers, who often do not even have basic skills or understand the behaviours expected by employers of them, in the recruitment process and in the workplace. Then they can undertake an internship. This is so important because, based on evidence, it has shown that internships actually assist our young people in getting into a job. Then of course we are going to work with employers so they can access a wage subsidy in the event that they hire the employee. This is all about getting our young Australians ready, giving them a go and getting them a job.