Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Services Legislation Amendment (Seasonal Worker Incentives for Jobseekers) Bill 2017. The trial that is covered by this bill will give jobseekers an opportunity to gain short-term seasonal work without the risk of losing their Newstart payment or other social security benefits. It is a trial that Labor will support but, for the reasons which I shall outline, Labor will be casting a very critical eye over both the implementation and the outcomes of this trial.

Trial participants will be able to earn up to $5,000 in eligible seasonal employment, such as fruit or nut picking, in regional or remote Australia, without it impacting their Centrelink payment. Currently, single Newstart recipients without children can earn up to $104 per fortnight and young jobseekers receiving youth allowance can earn $143 per fortnight before their payment is reduced. Newstart recipients can earn $1,036 a fortnight before their payment reduces to zero. Youth allowance recipients can earn $648.50 a fortnight before their payment reduces to zero.

The trial would allow Newstart and youth allowance recipients to participate in specified seasonal horticultural work, such as fruit picking, and earn up to $5,000 dollars in a 12-month period before their payments begin to be reduced. The existing income test will begin to apply to trial participants once they have exceeded the $5,000 limit. The trial will be capped at 7,600 participants. It is due to commence on 1 July and last for a period of two years.

The bill also includes a seasonal work living away and travel allowance, which is an additional incentive for jobseekers to travel in order to participate in the trial. The allowance will be administered by the employment service provider and is valued at $300.

Labor has always believed in the importance of supporting jobseekers to find work, so we will support this trial. We also believe that appropriate safeguards must be in place. Employers and employment service providers must not be able to misuse the program. The government must ensure that the program upholds labour standards so that employers cannot rip off participants or undercut their competitors.

There have been a number of high-profile investigations of exploitation in the horticultural sector—many involving the seasonal work program—and they have exposed the rotten truth behind the fruit and vegetables on supermarket shelves. An extensive and detailed Fairfax Media report by Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker exposed the underworld of illegal labour and exploitation in Australia's horticultural sector in 2015. In addition, the Fair Work Ombudsman regularly receives complaints of rip-offs and exploitation in horticultural work.

Complaints to the Fair Work Ombudsman from seasonal workers and backpackers working on the harvest trail have included being ripped off on transport and accommodation costs. This is usually encountered through new arrivals agreeing to enter into arrangements with someone, normally an unscrupulous labour hire provider, who meets them at a regional airport or a bus stop and promises work, accommodation and transport for a certain sum of money. They are then driven to the accommodation, stopping at an ATM along the way, and required to provide money in advance for bond, transport and accommodation costs.

They are also promised work, normally at a farm that has some sort of arrangement with the so-called labour hire provider. The work is normally at a piece rate so low that it is not possible to pick enough fruit to make at least the minimum hourly rate required. When they complain or raise the issue with the provider, they are often bullied or told that they will not get their bond back nor have their visa extension signed off. Often the complaints relate to a dodgy provider who has advertised on a local or foreign website, or on social media, and simply provides an offer of work picking fruit or vegetables and a mobile number to call. The Fair Work Ombudsman receives complaints regarding substandard accommodation or accommodation that is crowded and unliveable. Seasonal workers have been found living in dilapidated houses, sheds and caravans controlled by criminal syndicates who operate the labour hire firms that employ them.

Other issues include labour hire operators gouging and inflating expenses such as transport both in and out of the country and to and from work. In some cases, the Fair Work Ombudsman has encountered situations where a person is virtually bonded to a particular provider on the basis that they have been told that they will not have their visa extension signed unless they 'see out the season with them'. The government must take action to end the rip-offs and exploitation in this industry and ensure that participants in the trial are not exposed to the systematic exploitation and abuse that is all too common.

Unemployment in May was 5.7 per cent. The rate of unemployment is higher today in Australia than the United States, the UK and New Zealand. The youth unemployment rate is now 13.3 per cent. Youth unemployment is unacceptably high, particularly in regional and remote parts of Australia. In total, more than 650,000 young people are unemployed or underemployed—defined as having some work but wanting more hours. That was in February 2017.

Underemployment at 18 per cent of the youth labour force in February 2017 is the highest in the 40 years since the survey began. Underemployment now affects more young people than unemployment. As the latest Brotherhood of St Laurence report Generation stalled notes:

In the past 15 years the average gap has widened between the actual working hours of young underemployed people and the hours they would like to work.

The report makes clear that:

The growing number of young people combining study with work does not explain the rise in underemployment—

On the contrary:

… the rise in the percentage of casual and part-time jobs has mostly been among young workers who are not studying.

Clearly, as policymakers, we do need to consider new approaches that address the problems of unemployment and underemployment, because not only do these high rates of youth unemployment and underemployment create significant risks for those young people affected; Australia's economic future is also put at risk not to mention the social problems arising from poverty and exclusion.

As our population ages, youth unemployment risks more than just the livelihoods of those young people who cannot find work. It also undermines the income tax base we will need as a nation to support our ageing population. Labor believes that Australia needs a renewed focus on supporting young people to find work and reach their full potential so that our country can reach its full potential.

It is very important for all of us to remember that we are talking about young people, real people—real people like 19-year-old casual worker James Bowen. In a BuzzFeed article in March this year, James said that he had been paying about two-thirds of his weekly income on rent. It says:

He currently works 10-20 hours a week in retail on the Gold Coast but is desperately trying to find a full time job. James says he applies for 30 jobs per month, and that it's not unusual for him to fill out a dozen applications in a morning.

James says he rarely gets called back from employers after applying for jobs. He says he receives $23 a fortnight from Centrelink, which covers the cost of a few meals. He is considering moving to Brisbane to look for work but has been put off by the cost of housing. The Liberal Party needs to stop blaming young Australians like James Bowen for not working in jobs that simply do not exist. James's story is becoming increasingly common.

The issue of youth unemployment—and, in particular, how we can help young people to make the transition from school into study or work—was a huge issue. I am sad to say that on this issue the Turnbull government has been an abject failure. In the 2014 budget, the Liberals axed funding for Youth Connections, a program that was highly successful in assisting vulnerable young people to transition through education and into work. It provided intensive case-managed support that helped vulnerable young people become job ready. And the Liberals axed it! They just got rid of it.

In the same 2014 budget they tried to introduce a six-month wait for Newstart for young jobseekers under the age of 30, one of the most reviled measures from the 2014 budget. And they spent the better part of two years trying to introduce a five-week wait for young people under the age of 25. They also spent years trying to cut support for young people between the ages of 22 and 24 by pushing them off Newstart onto the lower youth allowance, a cut of around $48 a week or almost $2,500 a year. And who could forget the government's attempts to deregulate Australian universities and $100,000 degrees, making it harder for people to go to university?

Then we have this Prime Minister's refusal to do anything about protecting weekend penalty rates. We have a Prime Minister who is happy to see a pay cut of up to $77 a week for retail and hospitality workers and workers in pharmacies. Many of the people facing a cut to their penalty rates are young Australians. Earlier this year, the Liberal government rammed legislation through the Senate freezing the income-free areas for jobseekers. They did a deal with the Independent senators to push through cuts to jobseekers, meaning that with each year they can earn less and less in real terms before no longer qualifying to receive their payment. That is a cut to the same income-free area that this trial would temporarily relax for participants.

This is a really important point: the Turnbull government recently passed legislation through the Senate, with the support of the Nick Xenophon Team, that will freeze the income-free areas for jobseekers, a change that will make life harder for people on Newstart who have a small amount of work. It is a change that will adversely affect around 264,500 Australians on the lowest incomes. These are people living on very low incomes, and the thresholds being frozen are incredibly low. For parenting payment, the threshold after which the payment is reduced is around $188 a fortnight.

So Labor takes the view that given the track record of this government and given its track record of cuts and attacks on young people, we need to be extremely careful about how this Social Services Legislation Amendment (Seasonal Worker Incentives for Jobseekers) Bill 2017 will be implemented. We will ensure that we monitor this legislation, if it goes through the parliament. We will look at the practical implications for young people. We will ensure that young people are not ripped off, exploited and abused by farmers or by people in that industry. And we will ensure that this is actually assisting young people, not simply throwing them into cheap and exploited labour in horticulture and other areas.

So Labor will support this bill, with those reservations. And we will continue to monitor this bill, if and when it comes into legislated form.