Ms HALL (10:34 AM) —This government has waged a concerted attack on young Australians and their families. This attack has been directed at every level of their lives, with cuts to education and training, moves to reduce youth wages and the introduction of this youth allowance, an action that has caused great hurt and distress for a number of families and one that continues to cause hurt. I continually wonder how members on the other side of this parliament can live with themselves, knowing that their decisions and their actions have caused so much hurt for young Australians and their families.

While this legislation, the Youth Allowance Consolidation Bill 1999 , does marginally improve or tidy up some aspects of the operational components of the youth allowance, it is more of the same bad medicine. It is legislation designed to entrench measures that are causing hurt to young Australians and their families, whilst at the same time the government is abrogating its responsibility to these same young Australians, putting cost cutting ahead of their welfare and their future.

Young people have been targeted by this government continually. I think this is because they are seen as a less powerful group within the community: they are still coming to terms with their own self-identity and they find it harder to get out there and form those formal structures that are needed to lobby governments in the way that other groups in our community can. Because they are a less powerful group within the community, I think this government has singled them out and decided that they will target them. I do not think this is good enough. Young people are old enough to vote. Young people are old enough to defend our country. Young people, once they are 18, if they commit a crime, have the same responsibility for their actions as a person who is 21, 31, 41, 65; they receive the same penalties and they have the same obligations.

Where you have the same obligations and the same responsibilities, surely you deserve to be treated in the same way as other people. But, unfortunately, that is not the way of this government. This government does not feel that young people, people of 18, 19, 20, are real people. They are not considered adults; they are not considered people who are contributing to our country in the same way as people who have reached the age of 21, 22, 31, 32. This youth allowance is hurting. It hurts young people. It is hurting their families and it is causing great problems within our community and our society. It is forcing young people to be dependent on their families.

When this legislation was initially introduced there were many young people who had made life decisions, decisions that they would move away from their homes as they were now 18. Maybe sometimes situations existed within those homes that made it very hard for young people to continue to live there. There can often be conflict within families. It can also be that moving from the family home to another area improves their opportunities for studying, for obtaining work and developing their own self-identity. Unfortunately, this government does not think that is important. It does not think that young people who are 18, 19, 20 deserve to be able to do this. The government feels that mummy and daddy should still look after them, that they need to be looked after by their families, that it is their family's responsibility. So, whilst on the one hand they are responsible for their acts if they commit a crime, on the other hand they are their parents' responsibility because they are not old enough—not mature enough—to make decisions about their future, about their studies, about where they live. I find this really abhorrent.

As I mentioned, a number of people have financial commitments. The government makes the assumption, too, that parents have spare money, that they have got money sitting around that they can direct towards their children. Children! That is an inappropriate word because they are not children, they are young adults, so it is giving young adults money to survive.

At the time this legislation was introduced a couple of people got in touch with the previous federal member, the Hon. Peter Morris. A case was detailed in our local newspapers of a young person who was put into a situation where the relationships within the home was so dreadful that he could not go back there. If he did not get the youth allowance, he did not eat. He was told by Centrelink, `Sorry, you no longer qualify. It is bad luck but you have got to go and find some other way that you can survive.' This government was abrogating its responsibility, putting that person in an untenable situation. And this is more of that sort of legislation entrenching this stigmatising of young people.

They find it very demoralising indeed. They feel that the government are saying, `We do not think that you are an important person. We feel that you are unemployed because you choose to be.' And on the other hand, they say, `We do not think that we should assist your move from a situation of unemployment to work.' As well as the attack on the income support, there has been an overall attack on young people and on the training available for those young people to access the work force. At the same time as they are increasing the requirements that are necessary for a person to obtain youth allowance, they are cutting Centrelink, and Centrelink is less able to process the applications. There are more mistakes being made. There are more young people being disadvantaged. People are being denied youth allowance when they are actually eligible for youth allowance. It all comes back to this cutting, slashing, cost saving, economic rationalist approach whereby the person is not important but what is important is that you just cut and then you blame those people that are in the least powerful position within our community. I am sorry. I do not think that is good enough. I know that the members on this side of the House feel the same way.

The Work for the Dole program has been touted as the solution to all the problems. I have some real problems with the Work for the Dole program. First of all, look at the word `dole'. For years income assistance was called `unemployment benefit' and there was a definite decision that you should never refer to it as `dole' because the word `dole' carries stigma. By having a program that says `work for the dole' you are stigmatising the people who are receiving that right from the very beginning.

From unemployment benefits we went to Newstart, giving the idea that people were on this allowance or benefit that was setting them up for a new start, getting them ready to go out there and conquer the world. But, no, we are back to Work for the Dole. Here they are being given a handout now and their mutual obligation is to work for that handout.

I put it to the government that they have also got a mutual obligation to young people. They have got a mutual obligation to offer them a future. They have got a mutual obligation to offer them training. They have got a mutual obligation to ensure that there are going to be real jobs for the future.

The previous Labor government introduced LEAP which offered young unemployed people the chance to get on-the-job experience working three days a week while at the same time being able to obtain formal qualifications. So they were equipped with not only experience but also some tangible skills that could be translated into other areas of work, skills that were recognised and which quite often worked as a springboard into more formal education.

That brings me to education. This government has cut funds for education. It has attacked universities. We have only got to see that today is a national day of action at all the universities throughout this country to see the esteem the government is held in by students.

All the time there have been changes to HECS that make it harder for people that come from lower and middle income families to access education. Education is moving back towards being something that is available only to those people who have the money and the ability to access those funds you need to attend university. There have been cuts to TAFE funding, the very basic area, where people can get the most basic of training that often acts as a springboard into other areas of education. This government have constantly and continually cut funding to all areas except for private education. They are putting their money into private education at the expense of those people who really need that funding.

The changes to Austudy have certainly had a detrimental effect and made it harder for young people to be able to attend university and TAFE. There is a constant undermining and eroding of the situation in relation to young people getting education, having income support, having hope for the future, and being able to plan where they would like to be when they are my age or the age of their parents. I do not know how this government can justify the actions that they have taken.

With regard to the initiative about literacy and numeracy and the assessment deeming that young people have poor literacy and numeracy skills and will be forced to do literacy and numeracy programs, I would like to ask the government how they are going to do this. First, how are they going to undertake the assessments? As somebody who has actually conducted literacy assessments, I know that it needs to be done in a controlled environment. It needs to be done in the situation where you can compare the results that one person achieves against another.

Once you have assessed the person's literacy levels, then you have to find a place where they can go to improve those literacy skills. In addition, you need to be able to determine why they have poor literacy or numeracy skills. Why did the education system fail them? Do they have a specific learning disability? If so, is the government going to fund some sort of remediation for those people?

I put it to the government that what they are planning to do there is just another cost-cutting exercise. It is not about improving opportunities for young people with literacy and numeracy problems. It is about cutting; it is about slashing; it is about stigmatising them. It is about making it harder for those young people.

Just touching also on the changes that they have made in the area of young people with disabilities, the opportunities these young people had in the past have been reduced. All the time the government are looking at cutting the funding to that area. They have entrenched a situation whereby young people with disabilities will get the lowest possible income support available. It is all a move away from creating opportunity: opportunity for people with disabilities; opportunity for people with learning disabilities and poor literacy skills, and opportunity for people who are looking at finding employment in different areas. This government have absolutely no commitment to young people.

The government's initiative this week is the decision to cut benefits or make them really difficult to obtain for people who move from an area of low unemployment to one of high unemployment. For example, if they leave Sydney, having been told they have a job in Newcastle, an area of higher unemployment, and they get there and that job falls through, then they will not be granted any sort of financial assistance. It is called the Byron Bay initiative—the surf and sun initiative—and, once again, it is targeting young people. It is saying young people are not working because young people do not want to work. Young people move from one area to another just to be able to get away from their obligation to work. All they are about is taking hand-outs from the government and, because of that, we are going to punish them.

When will the government learn that young people want a future? When will the government actually make a commitment to young people? Instead of constantly attacking young people, this government needs to become relevant to them because at the moment it lacks relevance with its backward looking, regressive policies that are always attacking and removing opportunity from young people. It is about time that it came into the 1990s and learnt about the things that are important to young people.

I wonder how many people on the other side of this House even know the names of the bands out there that young people listen to—good Australian bands. I am sure some of them may have heard of silverchair or the Whitlams, but there are also the Screaming Jets, Regurgitator and Jebediah—all great Australian bands. They are all bands that young Australians hold very dear to their hearts, and bands that are very relevant to young people in our community.

Mr Andrews —There are newer ones now; you're showing your age.

Ms Ellis —I don't know any of them!

Ms HALL —I suspect very few members actually know who these bands are. And just as members of the government do not take the time to know these fine Australian bands, they do not know the issues that are important to young people. One issue is jobs. They should be helping young people move from a situation of being reliant on youth allowance to employment. They should be helping young people obtain the education and training that will facilitate that move.

The government is not aware of the issues that relate to the problems that young people face in our community. This government is not about coming to terms with issues of youth suicide and drugs. Its answer to drugs is, `Hit them and hit them hard,' rather than looking at why young people are turning to drugs; why young people are taking their own lives. It is not looking at the social impact of its decisions. It is not looking at the fact that young people in our community are grappling and searching for a future.

Young people want to have the support of government. They want a government that is there to offer them opportunity and hope for the future. This government is taking away that hope. This government is not only attacking their financial support through youth allowance; it is seeking to reduce youth wages and make young people dependent on their parents in every possible way.

This government is not about equality of opportunity for young people; this government is about looking after those people that it perceives can benefit it. This attack on young Australians is an attack on every Australian family, on average Australian families, on families that are battling and struggling, on families that are just everyday Australians, and on workers out there who are looking for a future for their children.

The government really stands condemned for what it has done to young people in our community, how it has removed their hope for the future, and how it has failed to offer young people opportunity and a future. This legislation really should be condemned because, while it aims to tidy up some of the mistakes made in the first legislation, it does not cure the problem. It is all about making it harder for young people to have a future, to get training, to get education and to find a job.