Mr HUSIC (Chifley) (15:17): If anyone should apologise to young Australians for the position they have been put in, it is that side of the House. That side of the House owes a massive apology to young Australians who have been denied the opportunity to get work in this country right now. Let's have a look at what the government has done in terms of youth unemployment. There were a lot of lofty promises and a lot of indications that youth unemployment would be recognised as an issue and that those opposite would deal with it. We had, for example, the Minister for Employment, Senator Cash, saying: Youth unemployment, both globally and in Australia, is unacceptably high. We know that early intervention is fundamental, particularly for those who need additional support … And in the budget speech this year, the Treasurer said: It is worth trying new ways to get young people into real jobs. The government has said all along that it recognises that it is a problem and that it was going to fix it. But what is the reality? The reality is that youth unemployment is almost double the national average. Youth unemployment is somewhere near 12 and 13 per cent, because of this government's inability to create real jobs. There are a number of people in this place who represent the regions who would be able to tell you that that figure is even worse in their area. It is even worse in the regions. In the Illawarra, for instance, youth unemployment is close to 17 per cent. This is a scandal—17 per cent in the Illawarra. In Moreton Bay, north of Queensland, it is over 16 per cent. In the Barossa, in Adelaide, it is nearly 14 per cent. South-west of Perth, in Fremantle and Rockingham, it is 14 per cent. The youth labour market participation rate is at 65 per cent—a massive drop of over five per cent since last December. This is huge. According to the government itself—this is the government saying to Senate estimates what the reality is about youth unemployment—there are nearly 300,000 unemployed young people between the ages of 15 and 24 in this country right now. On top of this, the department acknowledged that there are another 170,000 who have been unemployed for more than a year and who are so disillusioned by that fact that they do not even bother to look for jobs—jobs that are simply not there. Ms Chesters: They give up. Mr HUSIC: They just give up, as the shadow assistant minister says. So there are 170,000 on top of the 300,000, all admitted to by the department—all admitted to and acknowledged by that government over there. And then we look at entry level jobs. A recent report from Anglicare shows that there are very few entry level jobs advertisements compared to the number of people actually looking for work—that is, the kind of work that young Australians would be targeting to get their start. That report shows that there is only one job advertised for every six low-skilled jobseekers in Australia—only one. That is the bleak picture that young Australians face under this government. Thirty-eight thousand competed for 22,000 entry level jobs advertised across Australia in May alone. In South Australia and Tasmania, that situation is even worse. In South Australia there are nine jobseekers for every job vacancy and in Tasmania there are over 10 jobseekers for every job vacancy. If we look at the overall picture in terms of jobs in this country, the figures for this year show that, in the 10 months to October, 90,000 full-time jobs were lost as a result of the failures of those opposite. The bulk of the jobs created in this country this year, as acknowledged by the Reserve Bank, are part-time. Who has part-time bills? No-one has part-time bills. No-one has a part-time mortgage. There is massive underemployment in this country. We have record underemployment, record low wages growth and we can see what is happening in terms of jobs. Those opposite say that they are here to help, but this is how they have helped young people. Remember when they brought in the idea that they would stop young people from getting Newstart for six months? Mr Bowen interjecting— Mr HUSIC: Then their answer was, shadow Treasurer, that they would bring it down to five weeks—because you do not have to eat for five weeks. That is the ridiculous situation that we have. What else happened? They cut $1 billion out of support for apprentices; apprentice numbers plummeted by roughly 130,000. We urged the government, for instance, to fix VET FEE-HELP so that young people could get access to vocational education and not be ripped off for it. They dragged the chain on that and did not help at all. Then, for young people who want to get a job, skill themselves up or go to university, what do they do next? They tried to bring in uni deregulation to price young people out of university. In their heart of hearts, they still believe that there should be $100,000 uni degrees—that is it. In their heart of hearts, that is their answer. Further, the government savagely cut programs that would have made a difference for young people to get into work, programs like Youth Connections. Youth Connections was a tragic victim of their first budget, in 2014. Only when the damage was done did they slink back in here and re-fund it, but they did not call it Youth Connections; their big move was to call it Youth Connect. That was their big move. Mr Fitzgibbon: Very innovative. Mr HUSIC: Absolutely—very agile, Member for Hunter. The government's other signature program, Work for the Dole, is failing badly. This program is absolutely tanking. Three months after being in that program, only 11 per cent of the people who go through the program get a job. That means nearly 90 per cent of the people who go through Work for the Dole do not get a job three months after they have done it. What is the point of the program? Let's go to the Secretary of the Department of Employment. When asked, 'What do you think about Work for the Dole?' she said: The purpose of Work for the Dole is not necessarily to lead directly to a full-time job. That is the Secretary of the Department of Employment saying Work for the Dole is not about getting a job. This is why youth unemployment is a problem. Right throughout the government, they have no answer as to where they will actually deliver on youth unemployment. Talking about Work for the Dole, we learnt of the terrible, tragic fatality of a young person on a Work for the Dole site earlier this year. The government have undertaken an internal review and they still have not released the findings of that review. When are they going to step forward and say what changes have been made to give assurances to the rest of the country that anywhere this program is operating people will be safe? We have had no answer, but what we do know is that they are getting ready to move to a new program, called PaTH, which is designed to be an interns program, where they are basically going to pump 120,000 interns into the job market. And do not think they will be interns in the normal sense of the word; these will be intern waiters, intern baristas and intern construction workers. Mr Fitzgibbon: They will just keep churning them over. Mr HUSIC: They will just churn them over. The interns will be paid less than the national minimum wage. They will get equivalent to $14 an hour, where the national minimum wage is $17. You will have subsidised interns going into a labour market where there is record underemployment and record low wages, and there will be no protection for those interns. That is why there was a Senate report this week that condemned the government for it. We have no assurances, for example, that those young people will get adequate workers compensation coverage or any other protections on the way through. This is where we are at. The government are failing on everything they touch. They have no idea. It has been a long year for those opposite. This has effectively been a wasted year. You can tell it has been a long year because, as the year goes on, they shrink further in their seats. There is only one person on that side of this place who is smiling. It is not that person; it is not that person; it is not the member for Bowman; it is not the member for Berowra; is the member for Warringah. He is the only one who smiles these days. Why wouldn't he? He does not have to be Prime Minister anymore. I know those opposite love outsourcing; I never thought they outsourced amongst themselves. Basically, the member for Warringah has outsourced his entire policy framework to the Prime Minister. I never thought I would say this about the Prime Minister, but he has actually become a poor man's version of Tony Abbott. There he is, doing everything that Tony Abbott would. He has not got a clue. The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Chifley will refer to members by their titles, thank you. Mr HUSIC: I absolutely will. The problem is that the Prime Minister has spent all this time chasing a version of the member for Warringah by trying to bring the ABCC in but not looking at the things that matter to people. Families want to see their young get a job, get trained and find a way to get ahead. All that has been neglected in pursuit of an ideological obsession by those opposite. Young people are paying a price, and that is why I am saying: those opposite owe an apology to young Australians for failing them in their efforts to find work. The government simply have no answers and we will hear none from that side today. (Time expired)