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

Again I thank Senator Chandler for her question. The Australian government is focused on getting more young Australians off welfare and into work. We recognise that the best way to do that is to build a strong economy that enables employers to be more productive, more competitive and more innovative, and to create more job opportunities. As Senator Birmingham has just said, the bringing into force of the Peru free trade agreement overnight is just one of those initiatives.

We funded the Youth Jobs PaTH program, which Labor fought tooth and nail. They opposed it. More than 88½ thousand young people have participated, with 56,000 of them getting a job. Five hundred and eighty million dollars through the Transition to Work program helped disadvantaged young people to transition from education— (Time expired)