Mr HARDGRAVE (10:52 AM) —I rise to support the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Youth Employment) Bill 1998 [No. 2], as I have done consistently since my election to this place in 1996. It has been a matter of faith to me that young people in this country should be afforded the certainty which this legislation provides. It has been a matter of great concern to me that the Australian Labor Party has been hell-bent for ideological reasons since 1993 on destroying the job prospects of young Australians. There are so many young Australians in the gallery here today at Parliament House who have been listening in on this debate. I think it has been a historic day for them to know that they have been able to witness first-hand the parliament ensuring that they will continue to have the prospect of accessing the sorts of jobs that, no doubt, you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and I accessed as we were growing older.

I have said before on the record, and I will say it again, that I worked as a packer at Woolworths at Garden City when I was 15. I was a grillman at McDonald's. I think they call them `grillpersons' now, but nevertheless I cooked hamburgers at McDonald's and bought my first car when I was 17. I did not expect or believe that at 15, 16 and 17 I had the same skills as a 24- or 25-year-old person—the same life skills, outlook and abilities or, for that matter, even the same motivation or application to the job that someone, as they get older, certainly does have. I did not expect for a moment that I would be paid the same wage as somebody who was five, six, seven, eight, nine or 10 years older than me. So I find it extraordinary that the Australian Labor Party believes that, if you are 15, you should be paid as if you were 25.

There is another thing that I can look back on, as far as my own life experiences are concerned. I am not very old but, from the life experiences that I have had, I can remember clearly that, as you turned 16 you got a wage rise, as you turned 17 you got a wage rise, and as you turned 18 you got a wage rise. And so it was that the age that you were did impact directly on the amount of money you received in your job. I have to tell you, Mr Deputy Speaker, that that in itself was an incentive to stick at the job, whether it was cracking open the discarded boxes or sweeping out the refuse in the fruit and veg section at Woolies at Garden City—and I ruined more than a few pairs of pants while doing that.

I can tell you that there was nothing super-appealing in those tasks. But the fact that you knew that you were being paid for your time on the floor and that you were learning the social interaction skills and application and that there were reward for effort incentives that came with the job—not simply the pay, but the range of other benefits that come from work—meant that you wanted to keep at it. The fact that you actually gained a pay rise when you turned a bit older, as a reward for sticking with it, was in itself a beaut thing.

Three generations of Australians have been through those sorts of circumstances as they worked their way through some of the menial tasks in our society, some of the junior jobs that each and every one of us in this place has experienced—or that I would hope we have experienced—as we were growing older. To turn your back on three generations of the downright Australian way of growing up and gaining experiences—as the Australian Labor Party has been proposing and in fact had enacted in legislation in 1993—is downright un-Australian. So I am delighted to be part of a government that is putting the Australian stamp back on youth wages.

It has nothing to do with lower wages. The member for Sydney is hidden away on about the third floor of a building in her inner-city electorate office—her sign is out there—and so she probably does not come across too many real people, although if she checks around the ideologically correct left-wing branches in her electorate I suppose she probably picks up a few ideas. But I have to submit to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, that I do not think they are the right ideas. By comparison, apart from harping on the real experiences of life that I have had, from talking with a lot of people—not talking `at' them but listening to what they have to say—and from checking with contemporary youth through my Moreton Youth Advisory Group, I know that people do want a continuation of the job certainty for young people that the maintenance of youth wages brings.

Yes, it is important to be able to look at things case by case. Yes, it is important to accept that not one size fits all. It is great to think that those opposite have actually real ised that it is a kind of bland oneness that all people—regardless of their age, ability, experiences and skills—should still be paid the same. It is remarkable to think that those opposite have actually added the line that `not one size should fit all' to the rhetoric and the speeches they have brought to this place today.

It is this side of the chamber, the Liberal and National parties, which believes firmly in the role of the individual and in treating people as individuals, and understands that each individual has a range of skills and abilities which they sell—as is the basis of economic activity in this country and throughout most of the world—as a means of generating income for themselves. We sell our labour to gain access to capital, from which we do things to build our lives and to build a future for ourselves and our families. It is basic economics; it is basic society.

This government recognises that each of us has different skills and experiences and that we should be able to be remunerated accordingly. The measures contained in the amendments confirm the government's continuous commitment to youth wages. First, when we were in opposition and the Labor Party put their proposals through, we opposed them. We have, since coming to office in 1996 and being reconfirmed by the Australian electorate in 1998, been taking to the people a simple policy of maintenance of youth wages, and the majority has said, `Yes, we agree.'

So I would invite those opposite to get out of their cloistered existence and to talk to more people to find out exactly what people believe on these issues. We are about maintaining jobs and, I have to say, hand in hand with that, about creating jobs—because it is really is a statement of fact to know that Australia's high youth unemployment rate of 24 per cent, which is down from the rate of over 30 per cent when the Labor Party was in office, is still far too high. As the member for Longman, Mr Brough, said in his contribution—and quite rightly—we are all about trying to get people used to the concept of working for a living and about introducing them over time to the range of skills and experiences they need so that they can go on realising a reward for their effort and realising their aspirations as individuals and their ambitions for their families and the community—all by making it possible for them to get the start which the concept of youth wages brings.

Essentially, it is this: no youth wages, no youth jobs. It is as simple as that, because what will happen over time is that employers will start to look at the money that they pay out to those who are offering their labour for an exchange of capital. Employers will look at the quality of the employee that they have and, if a 16-year-old rolls on in with their range of abilities and experiences, they will probably look more closely at a 26-year-old or a 46-year-old or a 56-year- old, but certainly not at a 16-year-old. So, if we want to kill off the basis of our system, something that has worked well for three generations, if we want to kill off what is all about giving young people the kind of incentive and experience they need, then flick youth wages. It is extraordinary to think that the Australian Labor Party have had this ideological binge for six years, constantly opposed by the Liberal and National parties. It is extraordinary to think that a supposedly in-touch political group in our community could actually have this view.

Youth wages are very simple to understand. There is an easy system to follow. It rewards maintenance of effort and people sticking with jobs. As they get older, they get a higher wage. Young people want it. I talked with members of my Moreton Youth Advisory Group about this matter when we introduced it in this place after the 1998 election. When the Senate rejected it and put in jeopardy the jobs of tens of thousands of young people, the Moreton Youth Advisory Group said to me they feared for their own prospects. Members of this group, which is made up of student delegates—often student leaders—from various high schools in my electorate, said they wanted youth wages because that meant youth jobs. Labor have to listen to young people in our community. Labor have to understand that young people need positive signals. And, if there is a declining faith in the suitability of some who pretend to offer a policy to run this country, if there is a declining faith in the institution of parliament and if there is a declining faith in the other key institutions, like the media, in this nation, it is certainly hard felt by the young people of this country.

Young people in my electorate have said very clearly to me—and they have agreed with employers on this issue—that they cannot understand how out of touch the Australian Labor Party have been on the issue of youth wages. They are disappointed to believe that an alternate government would run around with this great oppositionist's approach to legislation presented by this government on a day in, day out policy vacuum style basis without having considered the impact of their ideology on the debate. It is extraordinary to think that, in a circumstance where suicide amongst our young is at a far too high level, the Australian Labor Party want to give them another kick in the shins.

Young people in this country are under a lot of pressure. They feel that they are being told, `You can't make mistakes,' and that there are no second chances. Young people in my electorate have reported to me that they are told, `If you don't get your study right, if you don't get your school results right'—to use the vernacular—`if you stuff up between the ages of 15 and 16, you have wrecked your life.' What a dreadful thing to tell young people in those formative years; that, if they do not achieve all of the results they should achieve before they turn 17, their life is ruined and they have got nothing to look forward to. They are the sorts of reasons why young people in this country take their lives, and Labor's approach to youth wages is another kick in the shins.

The way the Labor Party have been running this debate is another kick in the shins to young people in this country. Young people need to know that what their parents and their grandparents did—because youth wages have been around for three generations—is something that they could do. They want that stability. They want that certainty. They know they do not want to do as I did—sweep out the fruit and vegetable section at Woolies at the age of 15, getting mud and muck all over your pants—for the rest of their lives. They know they do not want to do that, but they do not mind doing it as a starting point because there is a certain dignity that comes with growing in stature as far as life experiences are concerned. It is that sort of dignity that a lot of young people are looking for. They are under pressure from the media and, as I said, even within their own schools in too many cases, to be ideal, to be perfect, to get A grades, to be the best sports star, to wear the best clothes and to have the best prospects and the best jobs in the future. Young people in this country need to know that they are allowed to grow into their lives, to gain experience. They need to know that along the way they will get a reward for the effort of putting time into gaining that experience.

At the heart of the youth wages issue is the message we are sending young people in our country. They are not simply just a commodity that should be treated as another commodity—as I suspect those opposite would have. They need to be nurtured; they need to grow. Youth wages are all about nurturing young people and allowing them to grow. Youth wages have worked. Those opposite are out of touch if they believe that that is not the case.

I welcome the amendments that have been brought to this place today. I think they finetune the right legislation that this government has introduced. They are consistent with the principles of the coalition since 1993, when those opposite legislated to destroy youth jobs by June the next year. They are in keeping with the undertaking we now have made at two election campaigns. This is a government which is about promising before an election and delivering on those promises afterwards. This legislation should be supported by all in this place. I look forward to it being passed because young people in my electorate need a return to the certainty they had before Labor got their hands on youth wages in 1993. I am very excited about this day, and I am pleased that so many young people have been in the gallery to listen to so much of this debate today. I commend the bill and the amendments to the House.