Senator CAROL BROWN (Tasmania) (15:32): What we heard in response to the questions by the opposition from Senator Abetz today was a minister who is completely out of touch in his position on jobs. About an answer to my question in particular: I was hoping that Senator Abetz had been listening and had realised that his policy requiring job seekers to apply for 40 jobs a month was not achievable and not able to be implemented realistically. Senator Abetz: I am sitting here to listen to you. Senator CAROL BROWN: I thought he might have been listening to the unemployed people and community organisations that have said from the very outset that this is a completely meaningless way to help unemployed people into jobs. I thought he might have been listening because last week, I think it was, on 2GB Drive Minister Abetz said that he was not about people applying for jobs in meaningless ways. Of course, he acknowledged that that would be a burden to small businesses. So I had a little ray of hope that this minister, who has put this policy out there—this policy that will not work and which does nothing to help unemployed people into jobs—was finally listening, even to the small business community. But it appears today, from his answers in the Senate, that that hope has gone. He was not listening. He is not prepared actually to look at his ideologically-driven policy and to put it aside because everyone knows, including the minister's own party, that this is a policy that will not work. I also asked Senator Abetz about Tasmania, where we have 7.6 per cent unemployment and where we also have, unfortunately, the highest youth unemployment rate in the country. Up in Braddon on the north-west coast, Mr Whiteley's seat—the member for Braddon—we have 21 per cent youth unemployment. Senator Abetz: A very good member! Senator CAROL BROWN: Senator Abetz suggests that Mr Whiteley is a very good member. If he were a very good member he would be going out to see Senator Abetz and saying, 'This is not going to help young unemployed people in my area. It's not doing anything for them.' On the one hand they have been told to get out there and apply for these jobs in this way and then training pathways have been taken away—all the training that was available to them. So everyone knows that this is a harsh policy and it does nothing to assist job seekers. But it is not designed to assist job seekers; it is designed to punish them. This is what it is designed to do. Of course, the Newstart under-30s measures that the government is also seeking to implement are designed to punish the job seekers as well. They are designed to punish people because they are unemployed. This is what this government is doing. As I was saying, on the north-west coast youth unemployment is over 21 per cent and this is a policy that is going to have devastating effects in Braddon when people start to lose all support for a minimum of six months. We know that it can be much longer. In Tasmania, youth unemployment is 17.4 per cent compared to the national average of just over 12 per cent. Senator Abetz: A legacy of state Labor. Senator CAROL BROWN: And Senator Abetz interjects again. We have just seen this unemployment rate rise and Premier Hodgman has just announced in his budget that he will sack 700 public servants. That is not going to help the job market at all. Senator Abetz interjecting— Senator CAROL BROWN: Senator Abetz indicates that people should somehow find another way of finding a job— (Time expired)