Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I'm not too sure why the Labor Party are complaining that 30 per cent of 8,000 young people have got a job. I'm not sure why they're complaining about this. A program that the Labor Party didn't support is actually, in their own words, 'getting young people into employment'. I'm not sure why the Labor Party would complain about that. Had the Labor Party had their way, this program wouldn't exist and nobody would have got a job. As I said, the unemployment rate when the Labor Party left office was 12.7 per cent. It's now 11.7 per cent. Is it low enough? No, it's not. We continue to work on that. But when the Labor Party oppose programs that are about practically providing opportunities for young people to get into work, I won't be lectured, we won't be lectured, by the Labor Party when we're actually trying to do things that will provide opportunities for young people to get a job.