Mr JULL —My question is addressed to the Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs. I refer the minister to the government's provision of transitional school to work programs for young Australians. What developments are under way to further enhance these opportunities?

Dr KEMP (Education, Training and Youth Affairs; Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) —I thank the member for Fadden for his question, and I acknowledge his great interest in assisting young people to get the skills they need to get real jobs. One of the reasons why the number of teenagers in Australia looking for full-time work is the lowest since 1978 is that the government has put in place a comprehensive strategy to address the needs of young people who have found it very difficult to get employment. Amongst those policies is a comprehensive set of policies that give young people the skills they need to convince employers to take them on and give them a job. Amongst those is the establishment for the first time of national literacy standards—standards which were fought all the way by the Labor Party. The Labor Party has never committed itself to the national literacy standards. The government has put in place apprenticeship reforms for the 70 per cent of young people who are not going straight from school to university. The Labor Party is setting out to attack those reforms again and again.

The Labor Party have a disgraceful record in relation to youth employment. We have seen today a major backflip on the part of the Labor Party in relation to junior wage rates which they have fought and fought again for six years. The major backflip we have seen is reminiscent of the backflip they finally came to on Work for the Dole. After saying they would amend it to billyo, there was finally a major backflip over there on the other side of the table. They did a triple somersault with pike and changed the Labor Party's position, and that is what we have again today. In the end it shows that, with the government's leadership, the Labor Party can finally come around to commonsense in the area of youth employment.

We still need to see that commitment in relation to literacy standards. We still need to see that commitment in relation to the apprenticeship system. We still need to see that commitment in relation to Work for the Dole. We still need to see that commitment in relation to the Jobs Pathway program which this government has put in place to help school leavers get jobs. In the end, the leadership of this government can even have an impact on the policyless, directionless opposition. They know the basis of their policies is collapsing. They do not have anywhere to go, and perhaps in the end they will agree that we were right all the time.