Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

One Nation supports this legislation being passed by the government, and I believe that it is a good step in the right direction towards addressing youth unemployment. Many areas that I travel to have a youth unemployment rate of about 25 per cent, or even more. Youth feel that they are forgotten, they are not being listened to and policies have not been put in place. What is also lacking are incentives to give them reasons why they should go and get a job or want to work. I think this legislation is a great incentive. Yes, they are getting the Newstart allowance, but it is also going to allow them $200 extra a fortnight to help them manage to get clothes and to present themselves well. Someone has to do something about it. Not only are kids finding it hard to get jobs; let's be honest about it, a lot of them are unemployable. If some of these young people had walked into my shop looking the way that they do when I had a business, they would not have got a foot in the door with me in the first place.

Someone has taken the initiative to say: 'Listen, guys, get your act together. Clean yourselves up. Presentation means everything to an employer.' I have to acknowledge this and give credit to the government for doing something about it. I have seen photos where kids have been transformed from an appearance of looking unemployable to where they have taken pride in themselves—and now they have a job.

Senator Cameron makes the comment, 'A business is going to rip off the system.' That may be the case, but the biggest rip-off in the system under the Labor Party was the pink batts. Where was their accountability when businesses took on doing the jobs and ripping off the taxpayers for how many billions of dollars?

Senator Cameron interjecting—