Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Perhaps if the government were not handing down such bad budgets we would not need to be trying to bring this issue on for immediate debate so that we can have a strong focus immediately after the government put down these budgets that hurt vulnerable people, that hurt young people, who are some of the most vulnerable members of our community and becoming more vulnerable because of the government's consistent attack on young people. The PaTH bill is actually a result of past poor budget measures that we are debating now that further do over young people. I made a contribution in the second reading debate on PaTH, where I clearly articulated the deep concerns the Greens have about the PaTH bill. And what does the government do now through the budget? They layer on more bad measures that impact on, in particular, vulnerable people. They continue the attack. They just cannot help themselves. And now we are sinking to new lows with the measures that are in this budget, which will significantly further impact on young people. Why are we so concerned that they are being screwed over? Because they are; they are being left behind.

My colleague Senator Hanson-Young articulated the number of young people who are unemployed in her home state of South Australia and also in my home state of Western Australia. There is an increasingly high number of unemployed young people, particularly in some key areas around Western Australia. And the minister says, 'You've got question time.' Well, question time might be useful if they actually answered the questions. But they do not answer the questions. So stop saying, 'You'll get plenty of time in question time.' If you genuinely answered the questions, I would be right with you guys. If you bring in a new process of answering the questions fairly, honestly and correctly—

Senator Duniam interjecting—

No they don't. I will take that interjection by Senator Duniam. He said they do. Sorry, no you don't. Sometimes they cannot answer the questions—they honestly say that—but most of the time they do not even answer the question that you ask; they answer the question that they wished you had asked or dorothy dixers by a member of their own side. Sorry, it just does not cut it that we can use question time for that. I will take the minister up on his offer this question time and I will expect proper, fulsome and correct answers to the questions that are asked.

Senator Brandis interjecting—

You just want to reignite that again, Senator Brandis.

Senator Brandis interjecting—

Come on!