Clive Palmer seems to have come to the rescue of young unemployed Australians, vowing to scuttle the Government’s plan to deny under-30s access to unemployment benefits for six months. From The Australian:
CLIVE Palmer may have given the kiss of death to the Abbott government’s apparent compromise on tough new dole rules for young unemployed people…
“If we support those things, we have got to say are we in favour of increased youth suicide or are we in favour of increased crime,” Mr Palmer told reporters.
Nor does the government have the backing of another key crossbencher.
“I wouldn’t support allowing a genuine jobseeker to have to wait for (even) one day,” Family First senator Bob Day said…
The welfare sector hopes Mr Palmer will stay true to his word in what it says is a “high stakes” game on young peoples’ lives.
This is great news that will hopefully bury, once and for all, the Coalition’s egregious plan to punish those afflicted by the scourge of youth unemployment.
As noted by the Brotherhood of St Laurence on Monday, youth unemployment and underemployment in Australia is at its worst level since records began in 1978, with more than 580,000 Australians aged 15 to 24 either under-employed or unemployed (see next chart).
Moreover, my own analysis shows that the employment situation for Australia’s youth has deteriorated markedly since the GFC, with employment for 15-24 year olds declining by 118,600 (-6.2%) since September 2008, whilst the rest of the labour market has experienced growth of 920,500 jobs (+10.4%). There has also been a dramatic shift towards part-time employment (see below table).
The place tighter restrictions on the dole when the labour market for young people is already precarious, and likely to weaken further as mining investment declines and the local car industry shutters, is downright cruel and risks a sharp increase in homelessness, crime, and mental illness.
Stick to your guns Palmer, and please don’t flip-flop like you did on the Future of Financial Advice repeal and other policy decisions.
