Mr LATHAM(5.02 p.m.) —The opposition is not inclined to oppose any of the three amendments. I will make some brief observations about them. The first is that if Minister Kemp wishes to take away from the Secretary to the Department of Social Security the approval for courses of education for the purposes of the youth allowance, the opposition will not stand in his way, although I do suggest that the minister will be creating somewhat of a rod for his back. We will be following with great interest the sort of approval and disapproval that he brings to these particular matters.

I can only join with his Victorian Liberal colleagues in suggesting that, contrary to 20 or 30 years of public rhetoric, he is in fact one of the great centralists of federal government and the federal parliament. I am told that, in the Victorian Liberal Party, to call him a centralist is the greatest insult that can be levelled. I am sure to be called a centrist or a centralist is an insult in the terms and conditions of the Victorian Liberal Party.

The third provision concerns the maximum age requirements for youth allowance. The amendment provides that a person simply has to be undertaking full-time study and have turned 25 to reach the maximum age. It is poor indeed for the government to be moving amendments at this late stage which deal with fundamental questions like the maximum age for qualifying for the youth allowance. This is sloppy drafting which in fact is typical of the whole bill, and the opposition expects there will need to be a raft of government amendments in the Senate to correct similar problems in other parts of the legislation. We will be watching those amendments with interest. But, as I mentioned, we are not inclined to oppose any of these three government amendments to the youth allowance bill.

Amendments agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.