Page 309 - Week 01 - Thursday, 15 February 2018
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system, undermine genuine employment opportunities and add unnecessary barriers between young people and income support.
Some might say we should be grateful that young people receive any support after the proposals that were put forward for the 2014 budget which, fortunately, were seen off before they saw the light of day but which would have seen young people removed from all forms of income support, in fact, people under the age of 30. As Ms Candice Burch said, it depends on your definition of “young”.
The PaTH program I will draw on as the first example. It pairs young welfare recipients with employers through unpaid, so-called internships. These interns receive $200 a week from the government for between 15 and 25 hours of work. This amounts to as little as $4 per hour paid by the government for young people who are working to generate profits for commercial businesses, including cafes and fast food franchises. Meanwhile the government gives a $1,000 cheque to the business on top of the free labour.
Likewise, the Liberal’s Y4Y youth force is a $1.4 million trial program that aims to “connect unemployed former students with short-term employment opportunities in the task-based, or gig, economy”. At a cost of $17,500 per participant, the program aims to connect young people with short-term gigs like “gardening, driving and delivery, catering, and child minding” Madam Assistant Speaker, as you know, these are valuable services that can be delivered by businesses that employ permanent staff who have full access to the pay and conditions and protections that other Australian workers receive and enjoy.
But it does not stop there. The Liberals’ my maintenance crew program will create a “social enterprise” that provides event clean-up and maintenance services. This enterprise will hire young people as independent contractors, not as true employees. This initiative will cost $18,700 per participant, or roughly $7,000 more than a year’s worth of youth allowance, which might be okay if it provided any real training or skill development. But the fact is that it does not increase opportunity or skills for young people, it just uses them as an excuse to give taxpayer money to private businesses.
Company profits are soaring while wages stagnate. Insecure employment is preventing the next generation of workers establishing a stable position from which to negotiate better compensation from employers. Insecure employment is leaving workers exposed to greater exploitation. The most vulnerable workers in our society are being robbed of their hard-won rights and protections for the benefit of higher and higher company profits.
Meanwhile the Liberals are throwing money at rebranded work for the dole programs that are more focused on reinforcing bad employment practices than actually supporting unemployed young people to secure stable employment. Of course the Liberals shirking their responsibility in this regard is nothing new. Young people are not in the workforce for pocket money; they are there to support themselves through study, support their young families, support their parents or other relatives or try to build a stable life either as full-time employees or while they participate in education. The Liberals may think young people who want a fair go from their employer are job
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