Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about a number of issues that arise out of the Abbott government's harsh and cruel budget. It is quite interesting that the government does not seem to think that we are asking enough questions during question time and that we are not talking enough about the budget. What Labor senators and MPs have been doing is going out into the community and talking to those many hundreds and thousands of groups that are directly affected by this harsh, cruel budget. When you look across the youth area, there is not one organisation working with youth that has not been badly affected by this harsh, cruel budget, a budget that the Abbott government keeps trying to describe as fair—but they do not seem to have many takers on that front.

I will start with a program called Youth Connections. It seems that the government—and perhaps Senator Ryan in particular—does not really understand what Youth Connections does. It is a program with a huge success rate, not just in engaging with young people but in keeping young people in employment and education. Youth Connections works with and supports young people who are disaffected, young people who are not in education or employment.

I want to talk about two Youth Connections programs in particular, both in Western Australia—one out in Midland and one in the northern suburbs of Perth. Midland is quite a built-up community, but large parts of the Swan Valley would best be described as rural. Within that catchment area of the Swan Valley, there are places which are remote simply because they lack adequate public transport and so on. This Youth Connections service, which is run and sponsored out of the Rise network—another amazing organisation in Western Australia—has a fabulous success rate. I would urge Senator Ryan in particular, and perhaps other Western Australian senators, to have a look at the Youth Connections program at Midland and see for themselves exactly what they are chopping off, what access they are denying to the young people currently being assisted in the Midland area.

This program works with children as young as 11. Imagine a child of 11 who has already been so turned off by school that they are not in school and are roaming the streets. By chopping the Youth Connections program, the Abbott government is leaving those children with nothing. The schools they attend, the primary schools in the Swan Valley and Midland area, certainly do not have the resources to engage with those children and get them back into school. Even if those areas had truancy officers, that is not going to cut the mustard. Truancy officers can force children to school—there is no doubt about that—but whether the children stay at school and engaged in learning is a whole different question and one the Abbott government seems to be completely denying.

Youth Connections in that area has re-engaged those very young children with school. All of us know that, in order for children and young adults to be successful, they have to have a basic education. So being able to engage with those young people at such a young age, get them back into school and keep them in school is a very worthy project. It is not a project which should—by any stretch of the imagination—be chopped.

The other area where Youth Connections has been very successful is in engaging teenagers who have fallen out of education, become disillusioned with the school system or have not been able to get into a job. It has been really successfully in engaging with these young people—and let us be clear that these young people are not lazy. Let us get away from this image that we have to force students to go out and earn or learn. Some of the problems of the young people in that program were simply the result of dysfunctional families. I met an amazing young woman, part of Youth Connections at Midland, who had really significant mental health issues, so she had not been able to engage with employment. But it was through no fault of her own—she had been raised in very difficult family circumstances. Youth Connections had successfully been able to engage her, very early on, with some mental health programs.

Let us be very clear: when we chop Youth Connections, we are simply denying young people that opportunity to engage in an appropriate way. Forcing that young woman into employment, or forcing her into a situation where she had no money, would not have assisted her in any way. But Youth Connections, who were able to work with her, to support her and to get her help where she needed it, have enabled that young woman—who is a shining star, a true example of how successful these programs can be—to go on and be successfully employed. She is a very articulate young woman. But she herself says that, without that support from Youth Connections, she has no idea where she would have been by now.

And this is not an expensive program. As value for money, it is right there. It ticks all of those boxes. With someone like the young woman I met out at Midland, the Abbott government's earn-or-learn approach is not going to work

She was not able to be successfully employed, because she had a whole lot of issues. The opposite of that would be that she would be punished and left with no income, whereas Youth Connections has been able to work with her over a short time period to get her the help and support that she needed, and she is now a successful young woman.

Whilst I am giving you random examples, the runs are on the board for Youth Connections program. It has something like an 80 per cent success rate across the country. We have not seen that anywhere else. And it is not just the one approach that works with young people, or indeed with anyone. We need to have a variety of approaches. What the Abbott government is doing with this harsh and cruel budget is chopping off those chances.

The young woman I spoke to was despairing about what would happen to other young people whom she knows are in difficult circumstances. Indeed, she talked about her own brother, who needed additional support. She was very worried about what would happen to him come the end of the Youth Connections program.

I also met with Mission Australia, who also work with youth who have a raft of significant issues. I met three young people there. One young women, an incredibly bright and articulate woman, had been a drug user, and at that point she had been free of drugs for one week. She had been part of a Mission Australia project before, but had fallen back into using drugs, so this was her second try. Mission Australia told us that it is quite common for young people not to succeed in giving up alcohol or drugs on the first attempt, but then succeed on the second or third attempt. Mission Australia takes a nonjudgmental approach and the young people are welcomed back in. I had every confidence that this young woman was going to be able to succeed the second time around.

But, again, Mission Australia were telling us that some of their programs are at risk. These are programs in which they support young people in whatever way they need support to enable them either to go back into education or to find jobs or accommodation. Of the three young people we met, one had just been successful in picking up employment. This was a young man who had previously been unemployed, and under the Abbott government's harsh, cruel budget regime would just be left without any income. He had picked up employment and was very proud of himself. As part of that employment he was being given an opportunity to study at TAFE and pick up a certificate.

The third young person I met was a man who, like the young woman, had had issues in his life to do with substance abuse. He had turned himself around, again with the very strong support of Mission Australia, and was looking forward to studying at TAFE. He was going to be taking up a place at Foyer, a youth accommodation service, on Oxford St in Leederville. It was made possible in part by the funds available under the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness. So, again we have a young man who has been given an opportunity and was going to pick up accommodation at Foyer, where he would not just be given a room but also given the support he needed. All of that is now at risk because of the government's dogged approach. To them there is one way for youth—it is earn or learn or you will be without any income. Of the seven young people I saw a couple of weeks ago who do not particularly fit any of the government's criteria, all of them would have been much worse off under the government's new earn and learn program, because they needed that support, and that support is now being ripped away from them.

The other service we looked at on the morning I met with these people is one called Youth Futures, which operates in the northern suburbs of Perth. It has had amazing success with young people, again through Youth Connections funding. Almost 700 young people have gone through their service, and they have had a very high success rate—it is something up around 80 per cent. All of that will be chopped come the end of this year, because the Abbott government, with its harsh and cruel budget, has seen fit not to give the Youth Connections program any more funding. It is not an expensive program, it is certainly not layered with red tape, and it is a very successful program.

Seemingly the hallmark of the Abbott government is not to look at facts and figures; it is pure ideology—that was a Labor program and irrespective of whether it was successful we have to chop it down because it was Labor's idea and therefore it is not anything we could agree to. That is the kind of summation I have come to when I look at programs like Youth Connections, which has a solid track record and is doing amazing work with young people in our community who are falling through the cracks, and will continue to fall through the cracks. But, nevertheless, it is being chopped, cut up and discarded, and nothing is being put in its place. Job Services Australia cannot take the place of Youth Connections. It simply does not have the staff, the reach or the connections.

One of the things the Midland Youth Connections service does is go into shopping centres and talk to young people who congregate there. We have all seen these youths when we go into shopping centres—young people who are disconnected and are hanging around in there. Would they have been able to go in and successfully engage with those young people and create that connection? There is no way Job Services Australia can do that. It just cannot. It is one size fits all. The Abbott government's chopping of Youth Connections is again an example of one size fits all.

I do not know if Senator Ryan was really suggesting that somehow the trade tools allowance was replacing Youth Connections. If he was he is sadly mistaken. The two programs are completely unrelated. The tools program means that you are in work and you need some support. Whether I agree with it or not, that seems to me to be the essence of the program, whereas Youth Connections is engaging with disengaged young people—young people who have fallen out of school, who have fallen out of work and who need that additional support in whatever form. Sometimes it is accommodation. Sometimes it is health issues. It can be a range of issues. That is what Youth Connections does. It is successful.

I would urge the government to relook at Youth Connections and not simply just say, 'We are going to cut it because that was a Labor program and we are ideologically opposed to that.' This is about the future of the young Australians who the Abbott government is simply throwing on the scrap heap. They are throwing them on the scrap heap. Those young people I spoke to are very concerned about their own futures post 31 December, when Youth Connections will disappear.