Mr MORRISON (Cook—Prime Minister and Minister for the Public Service) (14:27): So: We must not make the mistakes of the past and allow the young people who lose their job today to become the long-term unemployed of tomorrow. In a global recession young people always feature heavily in the ranks of retrenched and laid off workers. This Compact is to ensure that young Australians who lose their job in this recession are trained to be the tradespeople and professionals of the recovery. That was Julia Gillard in April 2009. Back in the early nineties there was a program called Jobstart that was introduced following the Keating recession, not a recession produced by a global pandemic today. This recession has been produced by a global pandemic. Australians know that. The Leader of the Opposition seems to be the only person in the country who doesn't know there has been a global pandemic. Back during that time, the former Prime Minister said that that program was about supporting young people. Now, I don't know what the Leader of the Opposition has got against getting young people back into jobs, in opposing the programs that we're putting forward and characterising them in the way he does, but he might want to listen to this. From March to August there has been a 6.2 per cent decrease— The SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition on a point of order? Mr Albanese: The question wasn't about young people, so my point of order goes to relevance. I support young people; I just don't see why you have to do that at the expense of older workers. The SPEAKER: I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his point of order. I was obviously very tolerant to the point he's trying to make. The problem, as I suspect he knows, is that the question mentioned JobKeeper, over-35s, JobSeeker, child care, debt and recession. I can't think of what else you could have included in it—it was within 30 seconds—but it does make the answer fairly broad. Mr MORRISON: Between March and August, there was a 6.2 per cent decrease in the number of jobs for those aged 15 to 34; in contrast, over the same time, the decline in jobs for those aged over 35 was 1.7 per cent—that is, there has been more than three times the impact on those younger workers under 35. The effect is even more stark when you look at the hours worked. Over that same time, the number of hours worked by those aged 15 to 34 declined by 8.5 per cent, while, for those aged over 35, the decline was 2.3 per cent. That means the effect has been four times greater. The Liberals and Nationals believe that, when people are at the age for starting their working life, they shouldn't be starting it in unemployment and on welfare. Our plan is to ensure that young people get into jobs and that they experience the benefit of jobs for their full lifetime. Having policies that would see them stay unemployed and commence their working lives on welfare—that's not the way I want to see an Australian start their working life in this country. Our budget is designed to address that during one of the worst crises, economically, this country has seen, and certainly the worst crisis since the Great Depression. We make no apology for wanting to see young people in work. Our budget looks to get those young people back into work and to back them each and every day. That was a principle understood by Julia Gillard. It was a principle understood by Paul Keating. It's understood by this government. (Time expired)