James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Minister for Youth and Sport, Senator Colbeck. What initiatives has the Morrison government put in place to support young Australians impacted by COVID-19 crisis to get back to work?

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

I thank Senator Paterson for his question. The Morrison government has invested billions of dollars in economic support measures to get Australians through the COVID-19 crisis and beyond, including the JobKeeper payment, the expansion of jobseeker, early access to superannuation and direct financial support to families.

As a percentage of GDP, Australia's investment is at the top of the leaderboard globally, showing we are the best prepared compared with any other country. However, there is clearly a long road in front of us and there will no doubt be further challenges on the road to recovery. As we enter the other side of this crisis, young Australians will benefit from our commitment to return the Australian budget and economy back to the strong and stable financial position that it was in prior to the crisis to ensure future generations do not unduly suffer from the economic impacts of this crisis.

Our focus will be on practical solutions that will benefit Australians, including young Australians, to get back into or remain in work, now and into the future, including reskilling and upskilling the workforce, maintaining our $100 billion ten-year infrastructure pipeline, and cutting red tape to reduce the cost burden on businesses, the economy and tax. This is on top of our existing initiatives, such as our Youth Jobs PaTH, which will deliver real results for Australians right across the country, including for the more than 93,000 young people who have participated, with over 58,900 getting a job as at March 2020. Young Australians can have confidence in the coalition government. We have repaired the budget before, and we will do it again—and let's not forget about the 1.5 million jobs that we've created since the 2013 election.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Paterson, a supplementary question?

James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What additional assistance and training is the government providing for young Australians to develop their skills?

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

I thank Senator Paterson for his supplementary question. The Prime Minister, in his address to the National Press Club, identified the need for our skills and training system to further develop and improve. We've embarked on a series of skills organisation pilots that are designed to give industry the opportunity to shape the training system to be more responsive to their future skills needs and to take responsibility for qualification development, which will also benefit young Australians. Three pilots have already been established: in human services, in digital technologies and in mining. They have already begun to show the benefits of this system. On top of this, the government is better linking funding to actual, forward-looking, skills needs, based on what businesses need, simplifying the system and achieving greater consistency between jurisdictions and between VET and universities and increasing funding transparency and performance monitoring.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Paterson, a final supplementary question?

James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What measures has the government put in place to help ensure that young Australians facing increased mental health challenges have access to the support and assistance they need at this time and into the future?

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

Access to mental health services for all Australians is one of the hallmark achievements of the Morrison government, and we continue in that vein. Yesterday, along with Minister Hunt and Assistant Minister Landry, I was very proud to announce that the Morrison government will invest an additional $24.2 million to reduce wait times and fast-track access to mental health services for younger people aged 12 to 25 seeking headspace appointments. This funding includes $3.9 million to provide 12 primary health networks with capital improvements at 16 headspace services; $17.6 million which will be provided to 17 PHNs to implement wait-time reduction strategies at 28 headspace services; and $2.6 million which will be provided to headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation to support this work. This builds on our $74 million package to support mental health and wellbeing for all Australians impacted by the coronavirus.