Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] I thank Senator Hanson-Young for the question. As far as I'm aware, Senator Hanson-Young was not in the coalition party room yesterday and did not hear the type of comments that were being made. I can tell her—through you, Mr President—that she is completely misguided in the way in which she is characterising those remarks.

It is certainly true that coalition members and senators have expressed their strong support for a program that provides assistance to young people in terms of navigating the many challenges of life, but particularly at these times when we see enormous additional stresses as a result of COVID-19 being placed on many young people in the environments in which they're studying and seeking to move ahead. So many young Australians have missed out on the traditional rites of passage on normal activities they'd go through in their schooling lives. This has created enormous additional stresses and pressures. The work of teachers, educators, schools chaplains, psychologists, and all of those supporting young Australians through these challenging and difficult times is to be commended and, indeed, supported in terms of the assistance they're providing.

Young Australians know that there are many different challenges they face in the world, but, of course, for them to individually get ahead, what's most important for them is to receive the opportunities of education and employment. As a government, our focus very clearly is on delivering those opportunities. When it comes to tackling climate change, as you raised, Senator, it's about making sure that we tackle it in ways that don't hurt the opportunities for young Australians to get a job. A 'technology not taxes' approach to tackling climate change is about ensuring Australia's economy transitions in ways that give young Australians the best possible opportunity to still get a job, to still live in a country with one of the best living standards in the world, but to do so while we drive ourselves towards the ambition of net zero emissions. That's the best pathway forward to give hope and opportunity to young Australians—to give them a job and to give them the support that can give them the confidence to succeed. We're proud of the government to have created so many jobs— (Time expired)