Page 271 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 12 May 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
system or establish their own businesses for ongoing employment; secondly, the program provides grants of up to $10,000 to incorporated community organisations to provide skill or personal development programs with and for young unemployed people; and, thirdly, VADA provides grants, again to incorporated community organisations, which allow them to establish new businesses and ongoing employment opportunities for young people. The second and third sections have already been advertised, and many organisations have expressed interest.
This Government has also taken steps to expand the support services that are available to long-term unemployed and young people at risk, by extending the services available through Streetlink. Two new workers have been provided under this program, allowing two teams of four workers to cover both north and south Canberra. Figures from Streetlink indicate that most young people presenting to workers from this program are facing unemployment-related issues. The Streetlink staff provide support to these young people and pay particular attention to their overall needs, including income support, accommodation and personal support. In line with the Government's expansion of this program, Streetlink will, in the near future, be collocated with the Commonwealth's Youth Access Centre in Belconnen, providing Streetlink staff with the opportunity to directly access CES services on behalf of young people.
These initiatives were funded as a response to the Government's concern about the effects of unemployment on the young people in our community and the long-term effect of that on the economy. It was recognised that young people have experienced consistently high levels of unemployment, and there are some indications that many of those young people who failed to gain employment during the 1982 recession are still unemployed. The funded programs are designed to help prevent a recurrence of this problem for those young people who are currently unemployed, as well as to reduce the currently high levels of youth unemployment in the ACT. In particular, the Government is committed to breaking the "no job, no experience; no experience, no job" cycle.
MRS CARNELL (8.16): I would like to address this question, possibly with a more pragmatic approach. Ms Szuty's proposal was to establish a committee to deal with youth unemployment. I do not believe that this is the answer. I believe very strongly that we have had enough talk already. I believe that the young people out there who do not have jobs are by the minute, as Ms Ellis rightly says, becoming our long-term unemployed. I do not believe that putting the whole issue off for a couple of months, waiting for a committee to come down with some more words, will solve the problem for the young people who are out there today without jobs.
We already know what we have to do to address the problems of unemployment. Unfortunately, there has been no real action to date by this Government. Ms Follett previously talked about committees and programs such as Jobsearch, Jobskills and others, none of which actually have produced one real job. Ms Ellis also made the comment that skills produce jobs, that we must educate our young people better and that creates more jobs. That is not necessarily the case; in fact, it is categorically not the case. What actually happens very regularly is that we just end up with older unemployed young people. Older unemployed young people are more expensive to employ and therefore are more likely to become part of the very long-term unemployed.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .