Back in August, it was revealed that the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) had lined up to tap 10,000 internships over the next four years under the Turnbull Government’s controversial $750 million Youth-Jobs PaTH program.
At the time, I noted that the scheme represented little more than an industry subsidy from taxpayers:
Consider PaTH from an employers perspective. They will get a free kick as the Government is not only the one paying the intern, but the employer also receives $1,000 up front for employing the intern without the need to worry about sick days, annual leave or penalty rates. Then if the intern is offered a job, the employer receives another payment of $6500 or $10,000 from taxpayers!
Why would an employer hire a young worker on a casual basis when they can effectively get paid to take on an intern?
Osman Faruqi made similar observations in BuzzFeed, noting that “the government will be paying young people as little $4 an hour to pull beers… [and]… will also give every pub that signs up $1,000 for every intern they take on”,.. basically handing over 10,000 free workers to the hospitality industry”.
As did Greg Jericho in The Guardian:
This is the program that involves unemployed people under the age of 25 getting an extra $200 a fortnight for doing an internship for four to 12 weeks of between 15-25 hours a week. The employer of this intern gets $1,000, and does not actually pay the intern. If, after the internship they do then employ them, they get a wage subsidy of up to $10,000 (depending on certain conditions).
It’s a sweet deal.
But common sense tells you it is not an employment policy, but an industry subsidy…
The accommodation and food industry into which these 10,000 internships will go employs young workers. Under-25s account for 15% of all people employed in Australia, but they account for 45% of all workers in the accommodation and food services industry. More than one-fifth of all workers under the age of 25 work in that industry (21%) compared with 5% of workers over the age of 25.
It is also the lowest-paying industry. The average earnings for workers in the industry is just $524 a week compared to the national average of $1,163. It also has the highest level of underemployment of any industry. In May, 20% of workers in the industry were underemployed compared to the national average of 9.1%.
Common sense tells you that when you have an industry that pays less than others, employs more young people than others, and has a much higher level of underemployment than others, it is not really in need of policy that will have 10,000 young people working for less than the minimum wage and for which the employer will not only not have to pay them, but will be given $1,000 from the government…
Now it has been revealed that the former media adviser to employment minister Michaelia Cash, David De Garis, has taken a job with the AHA. From BuzzFeed:
De Garis has now resurfaced as the media and communications officer for the AHA in Perth.
In August, while De Garis was working as the employment minister’s chief media strategist, Cash announced a deal to create up to 10,000 internships with the AHA.
AHA (WA) CEO Bradley Woods, who gave De Garis his new job at the AHA, said at the time: “By providing incentives and support to both the job seeker and employer, this program can help Australia overcome some of the skills shortages we are experiencing, including chef and waiter occupations.”
This is yet another example of giving political favours to private industry and receiving favours in return.
