Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Jobs and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable senator for his question. The policies of those of us on this side of the chamber, the Turnbull government, are getting people off welfare and into work. The labour force figures for July released last week show that the number of Australians in full-time work is at a record high. The economy has created, over the last 12 months, in excess of 300,000 jobs, two-thirds of which—that is, 200,000—are actually full-time jobs. The unemployment rate is now at 5.3 per cent, and that is the lowest since November 2012. And this of course is because of the policies that the Turnbull government has put in place that businesses—in particular, small and medium businesses—have been able to leverage off so they can prosper, grow and create more jobs.

But the policies of the Turnbull government are also getting our youth off welfare and into work, and we know that the best form of welfare is a job. The youth unemployment rate is now at 11.2 per cent. That is actually the lowest since April 2012, and it compares to 12.7 per cent when Labor left office—11.2 per cent now, 12.7 per cent when Labor left office. Whilst this is encouraging, we have always said that we need to put in place the right policies to create the jobs and give our youth the experience they need so that they can get a head start in life, get off welfare and get into work. That is why we heavily invested in excess of $800 million into our Youth Jobs PaTH program. This program is all about creating opportunities for young Australians to improve their work readiness, gain work experience, and move from a lifetime of welfare into work. (Time expired)