Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I want to reflect on the outrageous slurs on young people across this country that we heard from Senator Hanson, the leader of the One Nation party, in her contribution to the committee stage of this bill. What a disgrace! What an absolute disgrace for the leader of One Nation to stand in here and say, 'Young people across this country deserve to be paid less than the minimum wage and used as slave labour, because otherwise they are all going to turn out to be drug addicts or members of gangs.' That is the type of attitude that we have coming from the leader of One Nation.

The One Nation party need to be exposed for the frauds that they are. They do not give two hoots about young people. They do not care about the disadvantaged and the unemployed. They have supported this government's cuts to education over and over again. In the beginning they championed the cuts to penalty rates—because, of course, 'young people do not deserve to be paid a decent wage on a Sunday'. We also know that they supported corporations and big companies getting tax cuts above and beyond support needed for young people and struggling families across this country.

We see their sheer hypocrisy here with this bill. This bill is all about allowing a loophole and setting up a rort for big multinational companies to exploit dirty, cheap labour off the back of young Australians. That is what is going on here. Big multinational companies are going to squeeze everything they can get out of young people for nothing—for absolutely nothing. The leader of One Nation apparently goes around the country talking about the need to crack down on multinationals, and here we have the bill that is going to hand them the labour that they need for free. It is an absolute disgrace—a protection racket for the multinationals and a well-orchestrated rort.

Young people are going to be screwed over and over again under this piece of legislation. There are no safeguards, and the review is a sham. It does not matter what you have heard from the Nick Xenophon political party—the review that has been negotiated by the Nick Xenophon political party in order to get support for this bill and to flick it through is an absolute sham. And now we have the leader of One Nation kicking young people when in fact they need our help. They need a helping hand. They need to be given the opportunity to get up on their feet; not punished and told, 'Unless you go and work for $7.60 an hour, you are going to end up being a drug addict.' That is not a responsible attitude from a leader of a political party.

One Nation need to be exposed for being a bunch of frauds. This bill establishes a protection racket for multinationals to rort the system and allows young people in this country to be exploited on the taxpayer dime. It is a sham. It is absolute hypocrisy for the leader of One Nation to come in here and cuddle up to the government and say, 'This is a wonderful bill.' She was obviously reading the notes given to her by the minister. That is the independent thought that is coming from her wedge of the crossbench here today. What an absolute sham!

One Nation do not give a damn about young people in this country. When they are doing it tough and they are down on their knees, Pauline Hanson is standing right on top of their heads, squashing them down further and further just for her own political gain. It is absolutely appalling that rather than offering young people assistance, rather than giving them a genuine pathway to education, to training, we are setting up a system that is going to allow big multinational companies—7-Eleven, Subway, Hungry Jack's, McDonald's—to rip off young people on a daily basis. And what do we hear from Pauline Hanson, the leader of One Nation? We hear, 'Oh well, young people deserve it because they are too lazy to go and get another job.' Youth unemployment in this country is rising every day. Rather than creating jobs we are turning young people into a category of slave-labour workers. It is absolutely appalling.

I have a question for the minister, very directly, and I want a yes or no answer. Is the government going to prohibit 7-Eleven from being able to use these internships? Yes or no?